14 Future directions and conclusion

To address the limitations of this study, several improvements are proposed. Firstly, the decision to consider the current electricity retail and feed-in tariffs leads to a situation where these are the only changing prices. Updating the other prices, especially unit prices, would provide a more realistic scenario for evaluation. This would allow for a comparison of optimisation scales within a new framework, with the underlying objective of generating results that support the utilisation of energy communities and pooling of energy balance. Additionally, data cleaning procedures could be implemented to investigate whether the issues with some units are related to data quality. Some corrections could be done. Finally, adopting a lognormal distribution instead of a Gaussian distribution for the amplitude factor would prevent the generation of negative intensity.

New analysis perspectives can be explored, particularly regarding the simulation period employed in this study. Currently, the simulation period spans 24 hours. One potential further perspective involves incorporating interperiod units into the assessment of renewable energy penetration. By considering these units, the examination of storage could be approached differently, eliminating the need to deplete batteries at the end of each period. Another potential opening concerns the length of the simulation period itself. An exploratory analysis could be conducted to assess the impact of varying the period size. Additionally, longer-term analyses could be undertaken from an investment standpoint. This would involve determining the minimum investment required and identifying the optimal optimization strategy to achieve objectives such as carbon neutrality or other intermediate targets.

This work has not produced all the expected results, but it has paved the way for new research opportunities. It is crucial to recognize that addressing the challenges of balancing energy production and consumption, as well as effectively storing renewable energy, is essential for achieving wider penetration of renewable energy sources. While solar energy is abundant, its availability is limited to specific times of the day and to a certain period of the year, which limits its utilisation. This intermittency between production and consumption could be improved by pooling of energy balances in energy communities. Furthermore, the discrepancy between energy production and consumption becomes more pronounced due to the influence of weather conditions on PV. Therefore, in addition to exploring the potential of pooling of energy balance pooling, it is essential to investigate advancements in energy storage solutions.