The European Union has set ambitious targets to move towards a society with high penetration of renewable energy sources. In the forthcoming energy transition, Energy Communities (EC), i.e., legal entities where different actors, including citizens, cooperate in energy generation, storage and management, will play a crucial role. The present work simulates the energy flows and assesses the potential economic benefits of a cluster of buildings acting collectively as an energy community – a specific case study is set in northern Italy by comparing the EC performance with a configuration where customers act as Single Self-Consumers (SSCs). Pending the transposition of EU Directives to binding national laws, due by 2021, different supporting tariffs (economic scenarios) have been simulated in order to determine which scheme will support more effectively the integration of Energy Communities in the national energy market. Results show that ECs (i.e., customers acting collectively as energy prosumers) are able to accelerate the diffusion of building-integrated renewable energy sources (RES), resulting in higher overall self-consumption rates than SSCs. Self-consumed electricity generates savings on the energy bill of EC, and we calculated positive economic performance indicators for all the analysed economic scenarios. The sensitivity analysis carried out on system and transport charges of the electricity bill shows their remarkable impact on the economics making the EC less attractive for investors and citizens without proper supporting schemes.

欧盟已设定了雄心勃勃的目标，以向可再生能源普及率高的社会迈进。在即将到来的能源转型中，能源社区（EC），即法人实体，其中包括公民在内的不同参与者在能源生产，存储和管理方面将发挥关键作用。当前的工作模拟了能源流，并评估了作为能源共同体的建筑物群的潜在经济利益–通过将EC的性能与客户充当单一自用消费者的配置进行比较，在意大利北部进行了具体案例研究（SSC）。在将欧盟指令转换为具有约束力的国家法律之前，到2021年，将模拟不同的支持关税（经济情景），以确定哪种方案将更有效地支持能源社区在国家能源市场中的整合。结果表明，EC（即 集体作为能源生产者的客户）能够加速建筑一体化可再生能源（RES）的扩散，从而导致总体自耗率高于SSC。自用电力可节省EC的能源费用，并且我们为所有分析的经济情景计算了正的经济绩效指标。对电费单的系统费和运输费进行的敏感性分析表明，它们对经济产生了显着影响，使得EC在没有适当支持方案的情况下对投资者和公民的吸引力下降。我们为所有分析的经济情景计算了积极的经济绩效指标。对电费单的系统费和运输费进行的敏感性分析表明，它们对经济产生了显着影响，使得EC在没有适当支持方案的情况下对投资者和公民的吸引力下降。我们为所有分析的经济情景计算了积极的经济绩效指标。对电费单的系统费和运输费进行的敏感性分析表明，它们对经济产生了显着影响，使得EC在没有适当支持方案的情况下对投资者和公民的吸引力下降。