Feasibility Analysis of a Multi-family House Energy Community in Italy

The future energy sustainability largely depends on what will happen in metropolitan cities, therefore the role of the buildings sector and the engagement of citizens in the energy transition will be fundamental. These two dimensions seem to find the perfect match in the so-called energy communities, a group of people that choose to share their energy choices, fluxes and costs, promoting self-consumption configurations. The present paper aims to investigate the energy and economic feasibility of the smallest scale of an energy community: the multi-family house (MFH). Firstly, being these communities an emerging concept, a review of the Italian regulation framework was conducted, to highlight its limits and potentialities. Then, the installation of a community PV plant on the roof of the building was considered for an MFH case study located in the North-West of Italy. The financial convenience of belonging to an energy community was demonstrated through energy and economic evaluation and the definition of specific indicators. Results show that, if the MFH consumers join the community, the economic savings on the energy bill will amount to 40% with respect to the reference case.