Exploiting Data Centres and Local Energy Communities Synergies for Market Participation

TL;DR

This paper develops a mixed integer linear programming model to evaluate synergies between data centres and energy communities, demonstrating significant cost savings and waste heat reduction for enhanced market participation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optimization framework to assess the combined capabilities of data centres and energy communities for cost efficiency and waste heat utilization.

Findings

38% reduction in operating costs

87% decrease in heat demand

Enhanced market participation potential

Abstract

The evolving energy landscape has propelled energy communities to the forefront of modern energy management. However, existing research has yet to explore the potential synergies between data centres and energy communities, necessitating an assessment on their collective capabilities for cost efficiency, waste heat optimisation, and market participation. This paper presents a mixed integer linear programming model to assess the collaborative performance of energy communities, data centres and energy markets. The evaluation focuses on the efficient use of waste heat and the flexibility of job scheduling while minimising system energy costs and maintaining quality of service requirements for data centres. Our results, based on realistic profiles of an energy community and a data centre, showcase significant benefits of these synergies, with a 38% reduction in operating costs and an 87% decrease in heat demand.