The Concept of Integrated Local Energy Communities: Key Features and Enabling Technologies

The integrated local energy community (ILEC) is considered one of the most promising approaches for future energy systems. The ILEC development is highly dependent on the availability of local resources and technologies, regulatory framework, market, etc. Based on these considerations, this chapter provides a description of the key features of the ILECs, considering the European policy and regulatory frameworks, organizational structures, involved stakeholders, the motivation for the establishment, the energy carriers, and the technologies involved. This chapter will provide a detailed mapping of the enabling energy technologies and storage technologies, which could be employed in the ILEC for the demand-side flexibility implementation. For these technologies, the barriers to demand-side flexibility implementation will be described together with the potential recommendations to overcome them. Distributed renewable energy technologies will also be discussed, along with the information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their role in the ILECs. They will be grouped considering the different stages they can be involved in, such as decision-making, data acquisition, data transmission, data management, data analytics, and data security.