{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,25]],"date-time":"2026-04-25T15:09:13Z","timestamp":1777129753862,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"23","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,24]],"date-time":"2022-11-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1669248000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Funds"},{"name":"FCT\/MCTES (Funda\u00e7\u00e3o para a Ci\u00eancia e Tecnologia)"},{"name":"Portugal2020"},{"name":"European Fund for Reginal Development (FEDER)"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Energies"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are emerging as an effective concept and model to empower the active participation of citizens in the energy transition, not only as energy consumers but also as promoters of environmentally friendly energy generation solutions, particularly through the use of photovoltaic panels. This paper aims to contribute to the management and optimization of individual and community Distributed Energy Resources (DER). The solution follows a price and source-based REC management program, in which consumers\u2019 day-ahead flexible loads (Flex Offers) are shifted according to electricity generation availability, prices, and personal preferences, to balance the grid and incentivize user participation. The heuristic approach used in the proposed algorithms allows for the optimization of energy resources in a distributed edge-and-fog approach with a low computational overhead. The simulations performed using real-world energy consumption and flexibility data of a REC with 50 dwellings show an average cost reduction, taking into consideration all the seasons of the year, of 6.5%, with a peak of 12.2% reduction in the summer, and an average increase of 32.6% in individual self-consumption. In addition, the case study demonstrates promising results regarding grid load balancing and the introduction of intra-community energy trading.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/en15238875","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,24]],"date-time":"2022-11-24T05:09:08Z","timestamp":1669266548000},"page":"8875","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Flexible Loads Scheduling Algorithms for Renewable Energy Communities"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5592-3107","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tiago","family":"Fonseca","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, Polytechnical Institute of Porto, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5976-8853","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Luis Lino","family":"Ferreira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, Polytechnical Institute of Porto, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4666-9722","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jorge","family":"Landeck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LIBPhys, Department of Physics, University of Coimbra, 3004-516 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0435-192X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lurian","family":"Klein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cleanwatts, 3040-574 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Paulo","family":"Sousa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Engineering, Polytechnical Institute of Porto, 4249-015 Porto, Portugal"}]},{"given":"Fayaz","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cleanwatts, 3040-574 Coimbra, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,11,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"660","DOI":"10.1038\/s41558-019-0544-3","article-title":"The climate mitigation opportunity behind global power transmission and distribution","volume":"9","author":"Surana","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nat. 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