Energy Communities Design and Optimisation: A Decision-Making Tool for the Italian Case

Renewable Energy Communities are expected to play a key role in the decarbonization of power systems, but their design and operation involve multiple, often conflicting objectives and evolving regulatory frameworks. However, prospective REC promoters and members must make early-stage design choices under policy constraints while balancing economic, environmental, and reliability goals, which motivates the need for transparent and reproducible decision-support tools. This paper presents Adapters, a two-level decision-making tool that couples long-term planning with short-term operational adaptation for hybrid renewable energy systems. The core optimisation model is explicitly multi-objective, with three weighted terms (w1, w2, and w3) that represent total cost, CO2 emissions, and unserved energy, respectively, allowing users to explore trade-offs between economic performance, environmental impact, and reliability. The tool integrates detailed component models (such as photovoltaic, wind, and battery storage) with a flexible optimisation layer and architecture compatible with digital-twin approaches. Its capabilities are illustrated through prototype single-household case studies, showing how different stakeholder preferences and regulatory conditions can be reflected in the choice of objective weights and system configurations. The overall aim is to provide a transparent and reproducible environment to support the emergence and operation of RECs in line with EU energy and climate goals.