Section outline

  • Energy Sharing Mechanisms and Grid Interconnections – Digital Tools and Platforms for the Management of RECs

    Collapse all Expand all

    The interconnection of Energy Communities is not only technical but also social: every plant, every battery, every user becomes part of a living network. Through intelligent digital tools, energy stops being individual and becomes a collective resource.

      • Introduction

        A Renewable Energy Community (REC) is not just a legal entity, but a true local energy ecosystem capable of producing, consuming, storing, and sharing energy. Its existence relies on two essential elements: well-structured sharing mechanisms and an intelligent interconnection with the electricity grid.

        For example, imagine having solar panels installed on the roof of your home. On a sunny day, production may exceed household consumption: in a traditional model, the excess energy would simply be fed into the grid, often with limited economic and social value. Within an REC, however, that surplus becomes a shared resource: it can be used in real time by neighbors, stored in a neighborhood battery, or allocated to common services such as public lighting. All of this happens automatically, transparently, and optimally, generating collective economic and environmental benefits.

        This module aims to provide a clear and practical view of how regulations, technology, and digital tools integrate to make an REC operational. We will analyze:

        • how European legislation has laid the foundation for energy sharing, transforming it into a “virtual” exchange model;
        • the technical challenges involved in integrating numerous distributed generation systems and how Smart Grids represent the indispensable solution;
        • the digital tools that make all of this possible.

        Management platforms are, in fact, the “brain” of the community: they monitor flows, forecast production and consumption, optimize exchanges, and coordinate members. An REC can be seen as a large energy orchestra, where each plant, battery, or electric vehicle represents an instrument. The conductor, ensuring harmony and efficiency, is the digital platform.

        By the end of this module, participants will have acquired the conceptual tools to understand how every citizen can become an active player within an energy community, contributing to the construction of a more sustainable, resilient, and beneficial energy system for all.

         

         

  • 1. Energy Sharing Mechanisms in the European Context

      • The Regulatory Framework: Enabling Sharing

        The possibility for citizens to share energy is a right established by European legislation. The Clean Energy for all Europeans Package has laid the foundations to transform consumers from passive actors into active "prosumers."

        The two main regulatory pillars are:

        • Renewable Energy Directive (RED II – Directive (EU) 2018/2001): Formally introduces and defines "Renewable Energy Communities" (RECs). It establishes that REC members have the right to produce, consume, store, and sell renewable energy, including through the sharing of energy generated by the community’s installations.
        • Internal Electricity Market Directive (Directive (EU) 2019/944): Defines "Citizen Energy Communities" (CECs), a broader concept not limited to renewable sources. It guarantees the right of communities to participate in all energy markets, either directly or via aggregators, without discrimination.

        These directives have required Member States to create an "enabling framework" that removes unjustified barriers and actively promotes the development of energy communities (Lowitzsch et al., 2020). The most revolutionary aspect introduced is the concept of virtual energy sharing.

      • Virtual Sharing Model: How It Works

        Since REC members are connected to the public distribution network, the energy produced by a community installation (e.g., a photovoltaic system on a condominium or private roof) does not flow physically and directly to another member’s home. The energy is injected into the public grid and "drawn" by the members like any other consumer.

        The sharing mechanism is therefore "virtual" and relies on hourly measurement and accounting of energy flows via smart meters. At a given hour, the shared energy is calculated as the minimum between:

        • The total energy injected into the grid by all REC installations.
        • The total energy drawn from the grid by all REC consuming members.

        On this “virtually shared energy”, the State provides economic incentives and reductions in network charges, which constitute the main economic benefit for the community. This model has been adopted, with minor variations, by many European countries (Di Fazio et al., 2022).

      • Strategies for Participating in the Energy Market

        Beyond sharing for self-consumption, RECs can adopt various strategies to valorize the energy produced, interacting directly with the electricity market. Cruz-De-Jesús et al. (2024) highlight several successful operational approaches in Europe:

        • Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Market Platforms: In some pilot projects, such as in Eemnes, Netherlands, RECs use platforms (often blockchain-based) to trade energy directly between members at an agreed price. Although still experimental in many countries, this model maximizes the local value of energy.
        • Sale to Suppliers and Energy Cooperatives: Many RECs, especially in countries with a strong cooperative tradition like France and Germany, sell their surplus energy to larger suppliers, often second-level cooperatives such as Enercoop in France. This cooperative buys energy from hundreds of citizen projects and resells it to its members, creating a sustainable and solidaristic energy ecosystem (Boulanger et al., 2021).
        • Provision of Flexibility Services: RECs, by aggregating their members’ resources (batteries, electric vehicles, flexible loads), can offer services to the grid (e.g., balancing, peak load reduction). This is an evolving frontier that requires advanced digital platforms for the management and aggregation of these resources (Rodrigues et al., 2025).

        Main source for this section: Cruz-De-Jesús, E.; Marano-Marcolini, A.; Martínez-Ramos, J.L. (2024). Participation of Energy Communities in Electricity Markets and Ancillary Services: An Overview of Successful Strategies. Energies.

         

         

  • 2. Grid Interconnections and Technical Challenges

    The integration of thousands of small distributed generation sources, such as those of RECs, represents a significant challenge for the traditional electricity grid, designed for a unidirectional flow of energy from large power plants to passive consumers.

      • The Evolution of the Grid: From Unidirectional to Bidirectional

        The historical electricity grid is a centralized system. The energy transition is imposing a paradigm shift toward a distributed model, which Lowitzsch et al. (2020) define as the emergence of "renewable energy clusters" (RE clusters). These clusters are the technical-engineering representation of what RECs represent from a socio-economic perspective.

        The main technical challenges include:

        • Bidirectional Energy Flows: Energy produced by RECs is injected into the grid, reversing the traditional flow. This can cause voltage management issues and overloads on low- and medium-voltage networks.
        • Intermittency of Renewable Sources: Solar and wind production is variable and non-programmable, creating potential imbalances between supply and demand at the local level.
        • Congestion Management: During periods of high production (e.g., at noon on a sunny day) and low local consumption, the grid can become congested, requiring plant curtailment or the implementation of storage systems.

        To address these challenges, the grid must evolve and become "smart."

      • The Importance of Smart Grids

        Smart Grids are electrical networks equipped with advanced sensors, smart meters, communication systems, and automation, enabling bidirectional and real-time management of both energy and information. They are the technological backbone that enables the efficient operation of RECs.

        Key functionalities of Smart Grids for RECs include:

        • Real-Time Monitoring: Smart meters provide detailed, near real-time data on production and consumption, which is essential for virtual sharing mechanisms.
        • Active Grid Control: Distribution System Operators (DSOs) can more effectively manage voltage fluctuations and loads, for example by using storage systems or actively managing demand.
        • Enabling Demand Response: Smart Grids allow sending price or load signals to consumers, who can (automatically or manually) adjust their consumption to benefit from lower tariffs or help stabilize the grid.

        The paper "Energy Communities: How Tools Can Facilitate Their Enhancement" (Cuneo et al., 2021), based on results from European H2020 projects such as IELECTRIX, highlights how innovative solutions (e.g., the creation of "digital twins" of the low-voltage grid) are crucial to optimizing renewable integration and facilitating grid interaction without costly physical infrastructure upgrades.

        The European Union itself has recognized the criticality of this aspect with the EU Action Plan for Grids (November 2023), emphasizing the need for massive investments to modernize grids and make them suitable for a decentralized and digitalized energy system.

         

         

  • 3. Digital Tools and Platforms for the Management of RECs

    If Smart Grids are the physical infrastructure, digital platforms are the software that allows them to be managed intelligently. These tools are essential to transform a group of prosumers into a fully coordinated and optimized energy community.

      • The Flexibility-Centric Value Chain (FCVC)

        To understand the role of digital platforms, it is useful to use the Flexibility-Centric Value Chain (FCVC) framework, proposed by Rodrigues et al. (2025). This model breaks down the process of providing flexibility (and, by extension, managing shared energy) into several phases, each supported by digital tools.

        The main phases are:

        1. Flexibility Enablement: The phase in which a consumer equips themselves with the necessary technology (e.g., photovoltaic panels, batteries, heat pumps). Platforms can support this phase with simulators and feasibility assessment tools.
        2. Integration/Enablement: Installation of meters and configuration of energy management systems (HEMS/EMS) that allow monitoring and controlling devices.
        3. Aggregation: Platforms aggregate data and flexibility potential from multiple members to create a single manageable virtual entity.
        4. Negotiation Preparation: Tools analyze network needs and prepare offers to be submitted to local flexibility markets.
        5. Market Operation: Platforms facilitate market participation, submission of offers, and receipt of results.
        6. Activation & Settlement: Tools send activation commands to devices (e.g., “charge the battery now”) and manage accounting and revenue distribution.

         The Flexibility-Centric Value Chain (FCVC) shows the phases, activities, and roles needed to transform consumers’ flexibility potential into services for the grid. Source: Rodrigues et al. (2025).

      • Types of Platforms and Key Features

        The guide Digital Tools for Energy Communities, published by the European Commission’s Energy Communities Repository (2023), provides an excellent overview of available tools, classifying them by function.

        The main types of platforms include:

        A) Platforms for Internal Management and Communication

        A REC is first and foremost an organization of people. It needs tools for administrative management and member engagement.

        • Features: Member registry management, accounting, voting, internal communications, document sharing.
        • Practical Example: Som Comunitats (Spain). This is an online platform co-developed by several Spanish energy communities. It offers a “back-office” for administrative management (billing, accounting) and a “virtual office” area for members, where they can view their data, payments, and community activities. The platform is owned by the communities themselves, ensuring data sovereignty.

        Structure of the Som Comunitats platform, integrating a public website, a reserved member area (Virtual Office), and an administration area (Back-Office Management). Source: Energy Communities Repository (2023).

        B) Platforms for Energy Operations

        These platforms constitute the technical “engine” of the REC. They focus on optimizing energy flows.

        • Features:
          • Monitoring: Real-time visualization of production, consumption, and storage charge status. EnergyID (Belgium and other EU countries) is an excellent example of a tool that allows individuals and communities to collect, analyze, and compare their energy data.
          • Forecasting: Use of algorithms (often based on AI and machine learning) to predict photovoltaic production (based on weather) and members’ consumption profiles. The ComER project (Di Fazio et al., 2022) develops forecasting algorithms based on autoregressive methods (ARIMA) for aggregated community loads. The Magliano Alpi city project (Italy), in collaboration with the JRC, developed its own forecasting tool for this purpose.
          • Optimization and Control: Development of control logics to decide when to charge or discharge batteries, when to activate flexible loads, etc. The goal is to maximize shared self-consumption and, consequently, economic benefits. Capillo et al. (2024) propose a Hierarchical Energy Management System (HEMS) using a combination of Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithms to optimize CEC costs, outperforming simple local self-consumption approaches by 20%.
          • Peer-to-Peer Trading: Enabling direct energy exchange. ENTRNCE Trader (Netherlands), developed by an affiliate of Alliander, allows producers and consumers to trade electricity directly.
          • Flexibility Management: Interface with the grid to provide demand response services. PowerShaper (UK), managed by Carbon-Coop, is a service that allows remote control of user devices (electric vehicles, batteries) to provide grid flexibility in exchange for compensation.

        Main source for this section: Energy Communities Repository, European Commission (2023). Digital Tools for Energy Communities – A Short Guide.

         

         

  • 4. Case Studies of European Projects

    Research and innovation projects funded by the EU, such as those under the Horizon 2020 program, have been a crucial laboratory for the development and testing of digital tools for RECs. The paper "Energy Communities: How Tools Can Facilitate Their Enhancement" (Cuneo et al., 2021) presents the results of four major projects, showing different but complementary approaches.

     

    Table 1: Summary of digital tools developed in H2020 projects

    Project Name

    Main Function of the Tool/Platform

    Key and Innovative Aspects

    MUSE GRIDS

    Development of a "multi-objective smart controller" for managing multi-energy systems (electricity, heat, water).

    Integration of multiple energy vectors to maximize synergies (e.g., using PV surplus to pump water). Use of data visualization tools to increase user engagement.

    COMPILE

    Creation of a set of technical and non-technical "toolsets" for creating and managing energy communities, especially in remote or weakly connected areas ("energy islands").

    Enabled the installation of PV capacity 10 times higher than initially planned by the DSO thanks to smart controllers (HomeRule) and curtailment algorithms. First trial in Slovenia of "island mode" operation with a community battery.

    MERLON

    Development of an Integrated Local Energy Management System (ILESEM) combining IoT solutions at the prosumer level with back-end systems for optimization.

    Multi-level approach (prosumer, aggregator, DSO). Allows the REC to provide balancing services and participate in wholesale markets while preserving user comfort.

    IELECTRIX

    Development of innovative technical solutions to accelerate renewable integration in grids that need reinforcement ("energy islands").

    Creation of a low-voltage network "digital twin" based solely on smart meter data. This model allows the DSO to analyze the network, estimate its capacity for additional PV, and develop demand response programs.

      • Analysis of Project Results

        Four key conclusions emerge from these projects (Cuneo et al., 2021):

        1. Flexibility is Essential: Future smart energy systems require high flexibility in end-use consumption to manage the uncertainty of non-programmable renewable sources.
        2. How to Achieve Flexibility: Flexibility is mainly obtained in two ways: maximizing cross-sector integration (sector coupling, e.g., power-to-heat) and actively engaging citizens in flexibility programs, also through aggregators.
        3. Citizen Empowerment is Crucial: Even if technical solutions exist, a strong focus on social aspects (engagement, technology acceptance, etc.) is necessary to make citizens active participants.
        4. Need for Design and Planning: Future energy systems must be designed. Energy planners and local policymakers need tools (such as digital platforms) to anticipate how the current system can be decarbonized through new technologies like storage and electric vehicles.

        These results highlight that digital tools are not just a technical "optional," but a central and strategic element for the success, scalability, and impact of Renewable Energy Communities.

         

         

  • 5. Conclusion: Summary and Future Perspectives

    In this submodule, we explored the technical and digital aspects at the heart of a Renewable Energy Community’s operation. We saw how the European regulatory framework has created the conditions for energy sharing, transforming a legal concept into an operational reality through virtual sharing mechanisms.

    We understood that connecting a REC to the grid is not a simple "plug," but a complex interaction requiring the transformation of the network itself into an intelligent, bidirectional, and flexible Smart Grid.

    The core of this transformation lies in digital tools and management platforms. We analyzed how these tools are not simple software, but complex ecosystems covering the entire "value chain," from enabling individual members to interacting with energy markets. From community management platforms like Som Comunitats to advanced AI-based optimization tools developed in projects like COMPILE and MERLON, we saw how digitalization is the real engine of RECs.

      • Key Takeaways from this Module

        1. Sharing is a Data Model: Energy sharing in modern RECs is not a physical flow but a data flow managed by smart meters and software platforms.
        2. No RECs without a Smart Grid: The efficiency, stability, and scalability of a REC directly depend on the local network’s ability to manage complex energy flows.
        3. The Platform is the "Conductor": Choosing the digital platform is one of the most strategic decisions for a REC. It determines operational efficiency, member engagement, and the community’s ability to seize new market opportunities.

        The future of RECs is intrinsically linked to the evolution of these technologies. The increasing integration of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and technologies like blockchain will make energy communities more autonomous, efficient, and capable of providing crucial services for the stability and decarbonization of the entire energy system.

         

         

  • Bibliography and Useful Resources for Further Reading

    • Boulanger, S., Jouvet, P.-A., & Ramos, J. (2021). Cooperative models for renewable energy communities: Lessons from Enercoop and other European experiences. Energy Policy.
    • Capillo, A., Di Fazio, A., & Siano, P. (2024). A Hierarchical Energy Management System for Citizen Energy Communities Using Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithms. Applied Energy.
    • Cruz-De-Jesús, E., Marano-Marcolini, A., & Martínez-Ramos, J.L. (2024). Participation of Energy Communities in Electricity Markets and Ancillary Services: An Overview of Successful Strategies. Energies.
    • Cuneo, A., Peruchena, C., & Tzavellas, P. (2021). Energy Communities: How Tools Can Facilitate Their Enhancement. Results from H2020 Projects (IELECTRIX, COMPILE, MERLON, MUSE GRIDS).
    • Di Fazio, A., Romano, P., & Vaccaro, A. (2022). Forecasting Methods for Energy Communities: ARIMA-based Aggregated Load Models. Energies.
    • Energy Communities Repository, European Commission (2023). Digital Tools for Energy Communities – A Short Guide. European Commission.
    • European Union (2018). Directive (EU) 2018/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (RED II).
    • European Union (2019). Directive (EU) 2019/944 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on common rules for the internal market for electricity (Internal Electricity Market Directive).
    • European Union (2023). EU Action Plan for Grids. November 2023.
    • Lowitzsch, J., Hoicka, C.E., & van Tulder, F.J. (2020). Renewable Energy Communities under the 2018 European Union Clean Energy Package – Governance Model for the Energy Clusters. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.
    • Rodrigues, J., Marcolini, A., & Silva, M. (2025). The Flexibility-Centric Value Chain for Renewable Energy Communities. Energy Reports.