Exploring the role of renewable energy communities in the Italian flexibility markets

The increasing penetration of distributed generation, mainly from variable and scarcely predictable renewable energy sources, requires new forms of system flexibility. Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) can contribute by aggregating demand-side flexibility and participating in ancillary service markets. This paper analyses the participation of an Italian REC in the Ancillary Services Market, focusing on load flexibility and its interaction with the shared energy incentive scheme. Using real consumption and generation data, multiple flexibility scenarios are simulated and evaluated in terms of balancing revenues, shared energy, and overall community cash flows. Results show that flexibility provision is economically attractive even at moderate levels, while the impact on shared energy remains limited and, in some cases, positive. The study confirms the potential of RECs as effective flexibility providers in decentralised electricity systems.