Behavioural attributes towards collective energy security in thermal energy communities

Abstract

Community energy systems as decentralized and collective renewable energy systems, where the energy is jointly generated and distributed among a community of households, are gaining momentum. The collective action of individual households as a core characteristic of such energy systems influences the energy availability, energy costs, and eventually, their energy security. This study investigates the influence of individual households' behavioural attributes on the energy security of such collective energy systems. An agent-based model was built based on the following energy security dimensions: availability, affordability, accessibility and acceptability, referred to as the 4A's concept. The research focused on thermal energy communities given the considerable share of thermal energy applications, such as heating, cooling, and hot tap water. The simulation results demonstrated that such communities could cost around 1250 €/year while reducing their CO2 emissions by 50% on average. Environmentally friendly behaviour leads to higher energy security performances. Such behaviours considerably influence the technical configurations while contributing positively to affordability and acceptability dimensions of collective energy security of thermal energy systems. Furthermore, the investment size of individual households was found to be the most influential parameter for energy security performances, while natural gas prices were identified as the least impactful parameter.