Fairness-Oriented Optimal Energy Management of Hydrogen-Integrated Residential Energy Communities

Renewable energy sources (RESs) play a key role in the global energy transition by reducing carbon emissions, enhancing energy security, and supporting sustainable development. This study presents a fairness-oriented energy management strategy for residential communities integrated with hydrogen-based technologies. The proposed system comprises photovoltaics (PV), a wind turbine (WT), an energy storage system (ESS), an electrolyzer (EL), a hydrogen tank, and bidirectional grid interaction. For the first time, four fairness indices are introduced to ensure the equitable utilization of renewable generation, stored hydrogen, and ESS among households. The problem was formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model to minimize operating costs. A case study conducted for a residential area in Lüleburgaz, Kırklareli assessed system performance in terms of cost, grid consumption, and carbon emissions. The results demonstrate that the proposed framework reduced grid consumption by 32.25% and carbon emissions by 31.82%. Moreover, increasing renewable capacity by 2.5 times reduced costs by 81,253.16 TL and yielded a profit of 70,107.39 TL, while a similar expansion of ESS capacity enabled 100% green energy accessibility for all households.