Investment planning and institution design for community microgrids as a socio-technical energy system

The pressure for better integration and better utilization of the growing distributed energy resources, as well as the demand for more efficient energy services from consumers and communities, have prompted the development of innovative community-based energy structures and models, such as Virtual Power Plants, Peer-to-Peer Trading, Community Microgrids, and Integrated Community Energy Systems. Still at the very beginning of their development curve, major challenges in institution and organisation structure, investment adequacy, resource allocation efficiency, fair distribution of benefits and community participation, must be satisfactorily resolved before these structures and models can be marketed and successfully introduced into the electric power industry worldwide.
Drawing on insights from energy economics, engineering, and social sciences, this thesis has developed a number of frameworks and tools, to facilitate the investment planning and institutional development of these community-based energy structures and models, particularly community microgrids. At the transaction level, this thesis provides an assessment of the possible coordination strategies and options in the investment planning of community microgrids, including monopolistic model, customer cooperation model and prosumer competition model, to achieve resource allocation efficiency. Further, a minimum reliability subscription mechanism that incorporates individual consumer preferences, is designed to create an inherent market so to ensure revenue adequacy as well as encourage long-term demand response behavior in renewable energy microgrids. At the …