Local Energy Community with Biogas CHP

In December 2018, the Austrian Council of Ministers - based on the EU's "Clean Energy Package" (Art. Art. 22 RL 2018/2001 "RED II") - decided to draft the "Renewable Expansion Act 2020". The package of measures also includes, among other things, the expansion of energy communities beyond property boundaries.

Project Objective

Building on the results of the project on the "Dynamic Simulation of a Local Energy Community" (LEC), the integration of biogas CHP plants will be investigated in a next step. Due to the controllability of such plants, an adjustment of the generation profile to the load profile of the LEC participants is possible within a certain range. Thus, the amount of electricity delivered to the LEC can be optimized and a better profitability can be achieved.

Using an example community, different scenarios with real and standardized load profiles are balanced over one year at a resolution of ¼ h and economically analyzed with different tariffs. In each case, the energy generation from LEC and grid import is proportionally allocated to the consumers, and the surplus generation is also proportionally allocated to the grid and LEC. This provides a possible dynamic offsetting option, and the individual revenues and cost savings can be quantified.

The project partner "Energiewenden" also evaluates detour or environmental profitability, such as humus build-up, better carbon sequestration, preservation of biodiversity, or even increased water retention capacity in the soil.

The findings from this project are intended to serve as support for the preservation of biogas CHPs, which are no longer financially viable after the expiration of subsidies through fixed feed-in tariffs.