energies Article On Distributional Effects in Local Electricity Market Designs—Evidence from a German Case Study Alexandra Lüth 1 , Jens Weibezahn 2,* and Jan Martin Zepter 3 1 Copenhagen School of Energy Infrastructure (CSEI), Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Porcelænshaven 16 A, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark;
[email protected] 2 Workgroup for Infrastructure Policy (WIP), Technische Universität Berlin, Sekr. H 33, Straße des 17. Juni 135, 10623 Berlin, Germany 3 Center for Electric Power and Energy (CEE), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +49-30-314-27500 Received: 28 February 2020; Accepted: 10 April 2020; Published: 17 April 2020 Abstract: The European Commission’s call for energy communities has motivated academia to focus research on design and trading concepts of local electricity markets. The literature provides a wide range of conceptual ideas and analyses on the technical and economic framework of single market features such as peer-to-peer trading. The feasible, system-wide integration of energy communities into existing market structures requires, however, a set of legal adjustments to national regulation. In this paper, we test the implications of recently proposed market designs under the current rules in the context of the German market. The analysis is facilitated by a simplistic equilibrium model representing heterogeneous market participants in an energy community with their respective objectives. We find that, on the one hand, these proposed designs are financially unattractive to prosumers and consumers under the current regulatory framework. On the other hand, they even cause distributional effects within the community when local trade and self-consumption are exempt from taxes.