Demand side management optimization of heat pumps in energy community: financial benefits

The increasing adoption of heat pumps (HPs) and photovoltaic (PV) systems in residential buildings enables new opportunities for energy efficiency and cost savings. However, the effective exploitation of these technologies depends on both control strategies and system architecture, particularly within emerging collective self-consumption frameworks. This study investigates how different HVAC configurations, namely autonomous heat pumps at the dwelling level and a centralized system at the building level, interact with control strategies and regulatory mechanisms in a Group of Renewable Energy Self-Consumers Acting Collectively (CSC). A simulation model is developed to evaluate energy and economic performance under both rule-based control (RBC) and model predictive control (MPC), implemented through a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) framework. The analysis is conducted on a representative residential building equipped with a photovoltaic system, explicitly accounting for electricity tariffs, shared energy incentives, and regulatory constraints. Results show that, under current electricity price conditions, MPC provides limited benefits compared to RBC, as thermal flexibility is not economically exploited. However, sensitivity analyses reveal that lower electricity prices significantly enhance the effectiveness of MPC, enabling heat pump operation shifting through the exploitation of building thermal inertia. Furthermore, the comparison between system architecture highlights that autonomous configuration maximizes shared energy and incentive revenues, while centralized configuration primarily increases direct self-consumption. These findings demonstrate that the economic value of advanced control strategies strongly depends on both regulatory conditions and system design.