A behavioural model for negawatt sharing management based on the prospect theory in a citizen energy community

Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) have emerged as an attractive solution to reduce carbon emissions and enhance sustainability. One of the principal features of CECs is Peer-to-Peer (P2P) resource sharing, which is divided into two types: kilowatt P2P sharing and Negawatt P2P sharing. While kilowatt P2P sharing is extensively addressed in the literature, the role of Negawatt P2P sharing in prosumer-centric structures like CECs is not adequately explored. To address such a crucial challenge, this paper presents an optimal prosumer-centric energy management framework for CECs, taking into account human behaviours. Prospect theory is utilized to model prosumers' emotions and preferences in energy-related decisions within the CEC. The proposed model is evaluated using two case studies with different time frames: a one-day scheme and a one-year scheme. The results indicate that the Negawatt P2P sharing can enable prosumers to achieve significant electricity cost savings. By incorporating the prosumer's behavioural attitudes associated with Negawatt P2P sharing within a CEC for one-day scheduling, it is shown that electricity costs can be reduced by approximately 5.4 %. It is worth emphasizing that the overall value is enhanced by about 14 %. Moreover, in a one-year scheme, the integration of Negawatt P2P sharing led to a reduction in total operational costs by approximately 3.6 %, demonstrating the effectiveness of optimizing energy management while enhancing the economic performance of CECs throughout different horizons.