The energy community and the grid

Energy communities involve various agents who decide to invest in
renewable production units. This paper examines how these communities
interact with the energy system and can decrease its overall cost. First, we
show that an energy community can contribute positively to welfare
if the electricity produced by the investment is consumed close to its place
of production, i.e. if the community has a high degree of collective self-consumption.
Second, our analysis identifies the condition on prices and grid tariffs to
align the community's interest with welfare maximization. We also show that
some of these grid tariffs do not have a negative impact on non-members of
the community and could therefore limit potential distributional issues.
Third, various internal organizations of the energy communities
are feasible. We show that the internal organization impacts the distribution of benefits
among members but not the investment and the global efficiency of the community.