Energy researchers, policymakers, and local communities are increasingly exploring ways to optimise energy usage and reduce carbon footprint. The EU-co-funded InterPED project, and its pilot demonstration site Ecovillage Findhorn are at the forefront of this initiative. This article presents key findings from a comprehensive analysis of Findhorn’s market-based assessment of renewable energy resources (RES) and excess waste heat (E/WH) harvesting potential, conducted using the Grid Singularity (GSY) Local Energy Market (LEM) simulation tool (also referred to as the Singularity Map) and based on a partial data set of a total of 53 assets (selection made upon available measurements at the time). By simulating four distinct scenarios with and without active peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading, across seasonal variations (winter, with data from 1-7 January 2024, and spring, with data from 1-7 April 2024), the study quantifies the economic, environmental, and technical benefits of P2P energy trading, sector coupling, and RES expansion.
The study affirmed substantial environmental and economic potential of integrating E/WH with RES and P2P energy trading, even in a location with lower-than-average solar radiation like northern Scotland. The findings underscore the significant role local energy markets can play in advancing transition and growth of Europe’s communities into Positive Energy Districts, leveraging technology and market innovations for energy autonomy and resilience:
Peer-to-peer energy trading brings about significant economic and environmental benefits but requires higher granularity of measurements.
P2P energy trading yields high-cost savings, amounting to 23.8% in the spring period when there is higher PV production, accompanied by an astounding 97.2% increase in community self-sufficiency (from 25.2% to 49.7%), with higher gains expected for the summer period which will be included in future studies. The winter savings are smaller (3.5%) due to a higher demand and lower PV production. Since P2P benefits multiply as market scales, even stronger economic and environmental results are expected if P2P trading were enabled for all the Findhorn participants, which commands a higher availability of asset-level generation and consumption data measurements. Likewise, benefits increase with higher availability of renewable and flexible energy resources as it is elaborated below.
- The expansion of renewable and flexible capacity yields substantial financial savings when combined with E/WH integration and P2P energy trading.
Increasing the PV capacity, the total battery storage, and the maximum power consumption of heat pumps, along with their storage capacity would generate weekly savings of £132 in absolute terms without active P2P trading, and £221.4 with P2P trading for the community in the simulated week in the spring, In brief, combining P2P with expanded RES and E/WH shifts community finances from a net cost to a net gain in warmer periods (weekly bill changes from -£197.6 to +£23.8). Winter performance also improves, with costs reduced by 13.1% (weekly from -£588.6 to -£511.4). The expansion of renewable and flexible capacity also provided notable environmental benefits, particularly during the winter period when heating demand is higher, making heat pump efficiency more impactful: self-sufficiency rate increased by 88.6% in the winter (from 4.4% to 8.3%) and by 54.8% in the spring (from 49.8% to 77.1%) when compared to a scenario where all other conditions except capacity were the same.
- Leveraging E/WH enhances heat pump efficiency, reducing consumption costs and increasing self-sufficiency.
The most prominent use of the E/WH is to leverage heat pumps, using the excess waste heat as source temperature for the heat pump. That way, the efficiency of the heat pump increases compared to traditional sources of temperature (ambient air, water source, ground source), and consequently the community takes advantage of the financial and environmental benefits that stem from the more optimal use of the heat pump. This is confirmed in this study, with a higher average COP (17.1% COP increase for a ground source heat pump) and more stable and elevated water tank temperature for all the community heat pumps. Consequently, the pumps consumed 15-19% less energy and reduced operating hours. These efficiency gains delivered substantial financial benefits for the Findhorn community, with a 6.8% reduction in net electricity costs in the winter and an even higher, 28.2% savings in the spring period when the energy demand is lower and the benefits more pronounced. There is also a positive environmental impact (self-sufficiency increased by 7.7% in the simulated week of January and by 13.5% in April).
This study serves to inform the next phase of the InterPED Project, which will focus on development of additional innovative software features and test deployment of P2P energy trading. For more detailed information on key findings and related policy recommendations, please read a full version of this article in the Grid Singularity Medium Channel.
The article is based on a larger INTERPED study co-authored by Spyridon Tzavikas, Hannes Diedrich, Tiago Tavares and Ana Trbovich from Grid Singularity.