Technical evaluation of European and North American sustainable benchmark scenarios based on renewable Local energy Communities penetration

The growing electrification and renewable energies integration, driven by global sustainability and efficiency objectives, foster future scenarios providing actors such as distributed energy resources, storage, and active consumers with a crucial role in the energy transition. The aim of this work is to assess the impact on distribution networks of the emergence and proliferation of sustainable Local Energy Communities. The methodology employed in this study uses quasi-dynamic simulations based on scenarios involving varying levels of electric demand and low voltage networks under both business-as-usual and Local Energy Communities-based conditions. This approach enables quantification of key indicators and provides insight into the technical impact of Local Energy Communities integration in distribution networks considering European and North American benchmark cases as reference systems. The results obtained allow concluding that reference systems with meshed topologies can withstand electric demand growth with less severe impacts compared to radial systems. Furthermore, the integration of sustainable Local Energy Communities provides improvements, of different level for each scenario, in voltage profiles (kept within operation limits), overloads (up to 50% reduction) and technical losses (up to 37% reduction).