Binod Koirala

Na Li, Binod Koirala

As energy communities move from policy design to implementation in Switzerland, understanding their performance in practice has become increasingly important. A techno-economic assessment of a regulation-compliant LEC is presented under the new Swiss legal framework in this study. A reference case without local electricity exchange is compared to a LEC scenario with internal electricity sharing. Results show that LEC participation increases local renewable utilization, reduces grid exports, and delivers economic benefits to both consumers and prosumers. A sensitivity analysis further indicates that internal electricity pricing plays a critical role in shaping trade-offs between overall efficiency and fairness in benefit distribution. This exploratory study provides practical insights to support informed decision-making and the future development of LEC in Switzerland.

Na Li, Dong Li, Stavros Orfanoudakis et al.

The institutional separation between local energy communities and public electric vehicle (EV) charging limits the efficient use of locally generated renewable energy. This paper introduces the concept of community-to-vehicle (C2V) as an institutional design mechanism to bridge this gap by enabling EV charging within the community boundary, where locally generated photovoltaic (PV) surplus is preferentially allocated and offered to external users at a community charging price. Building on the recently introduced local electricity community framework in Switzerland, we design scenarios that capture the transition from full separation to coordinated EV charging and evaluate their impacts on EV users and the community. The results show that C2V significantly improves local PV utilization and enhances economic performance, reducing EV charging costs relative to commercial alternatives while generating additional revenue streams for the community. These findings highlight the potential of C2V as a practical, implementable mechanism for integrating EV charging into local energy communities, providing a clear pathway for adopting coordinated community-EV interaction within existing regulatory frameworks.