Planning distributed energy resources and power-to-hydrogen systems in renewable energy communities

Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are a promising driver for energy system decarbonization, engaging end consumers in energy markets, promoting local renewable generation and affordability, and enhancing community resilience. This paper presents a methodology for planning REC by optimally sizing distributed energy resources (DERs), including conventional resources such as photovoltaic (PV) systems and battery energy storage systems (BESSs), but also power-to-hydrogen (P2H) systems composed of an electrolyzer (EC), hydrogen tank, and fuel cell (FC). A mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is used to minimize DER investments and REC operational costs, using a reduced input data set based on clustering techniques to decrease complexity and improve computational efficiency. Then, a detailed MILP operation model is used to assess the REC performance with the newly sized DERs under different scenarios using conventional indicators such as the net present value (NPV) and the payback period. A sensitivity analysis is also conducted on electricity costs, EC costs and the hydrogen selling price for an external combined heat and power (CHP) client. Results show that integrating P2H systems increases NPV and provides new revenue opportunities, thereby reinforcing their role as a complementary technology to PV and BESS within RECs.