Preface

Abstract

Keywords : Local energy community; Renewable energy; Energy optimization; Clustering; Energy hub; District;

In a context of climate change, energy saving becomes a priority. The residential sector accounts for 20% of the final global energy use, which underlines the imperative to decarbonize city energy systems. This trend is anticipated to be driven by increased electrification, the development of distributed renewable energy and the emergence of prosumers who both consume and supply electricity to the grid. Maximizing self-consumption and self-sufficiency at the building level can help manage the issue of renewable energy penetration in the energy mix but may not fully address it. Implementing local energy communities (CEL), offers perspectives by sharing energy among nearby stakeholders inside a neighborhood. However, CEL implementation would require changes in business models of power utilities and distribution system operators (DSO) as they are expected to sell less energy. Besides, it also implies having a proper delineation of a neighborhood which is for the moment unclear. This work aims to answer those two problems at the level of the canton of Geneva.

First, the GIREC subdivision of the canton was found to be the most appropriate after comparing different zonings. Clustering with Gaussian mixture model (GMM) allowed to found 4 neighborhood archetypes that give energetic characteristics for each GIREC neighborhood. Second, the financial analysis of a CEL implementation in a residential neighborhood (Les Vergers) allowed to estimate the changes in business models that would be required for the different stakeholders of the grouping. The DSO is the only stakeholder who faces revenue losses: it looses at least 10% compared to a simple RCP (Regroupement de Consommation Propre) scenario but the local distribution charge allows to mitigate its losses. The DSO captures at least 33 kCHF in the case study compared to a RCP microgrid scenario. Increasing the power component of the DSO pricing with a cheaper electricity price for PV panel production than in a RCP could transfer revenue from PV panels owners to the DSO while ensuring fairness among stakeholders.

Acknowledgements

This work has been conducted within a 6 month internship at SIG (Services Industriels de Genève), the utility company of Geneva. It was undertaken thanks to a collaboration between the EPFL laboratory of IPESE (Industrial Processes and Energy System Engineering) and SIG. As such, I would like to thanks Yannick Gaudy, Maxime Vignon as well as Andreea Zara and Patricia Guilbot who have welcomed me at SIG with a lot of warmth and who have trusted and supported me in me work.

This master thesis has been done under the supervision of Mr. Dorsan Lepour, who I would like to thanks for his help and his for supporting me during this work. I also want to thank Pr. François Maréchal, who has been an inspiring professor for me during my years at EPFL and who, as a matter of fact, has given me his willingness to tackle energy issues in one of my first class at EPFL.

Glossary

AIC

Akaike Information Criterion

BIC

Bayesian Information Criterion

CA

Communauté d’Autoconsommation

CAPEX

Capital Expenditure

CEL

Communauté d’Énergie Locale

CET

Concept Énergétique Territorial

COP

Coefficient Of Performance

DHW

District Hot water

DSO

Distribution System Operator

EMS

Energy Management System

EV

Electric Vehicle

GMM

Gaussian Mixture Model

GIREC

Groupe Interdépartemental de Représentation Cartographique

GIS

Geographic Information System

HP

Heat Pump

IEA

International Energy Agency

IPESE

Industrial Processes and Energy System Engineering

LApEl

Loi sur l’Approvisonnement en Électricité

LV

Low Voltage

MV

Medium Voltage

OCEN

Office Cantonal de l’Énergie

OPEX

Operational Expenditure

OPH

Off-Peak Hours

PH

Peak Hours

PLQ

Plan Localisé de Quartier

PV

Photovoltaic

RCP

Regroupement de Consommation Propre

REHO

Renewable Energy Hub Optimizer

RTS

Réseau thermique Structurant

SC

Self-Consumption

SH

Space Heating

SIA

Société Suisse des Ingénieurs et des Architectes

SIG

Sérvices Industriels de Genève

SITG

Système d’Information du Territoire de Genève

SS

Self-Sufficiency

TOTEX

Total expenditure

Notes for the reader

  • This report is built to be an interactive format. The reader is welcome to manipulate Figures and Tables to its convenience. For the format to be fully functional, an internet connection is required, otherwise some features would not be able to display properly. If no internet connection is at your disposition, you may read the report on its pdf version, even though it is not the format in which it is meant to be read.

  • In this work, the term Neighborhood was chosen instead of the term district. This choice was made on the basis of the following definitions : Neighborhoods are urbanized areas with a balanced mix of human activity; districts are areas dominated by a single activity;. This is a choice of the author who hopes it won’t disturb readers and would like to appologize in advance if its the case.

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