Addressing social vulnerability in community microgrids: an equity-centered peer-to-peer electricity trading model.

Demand-side distributed energy resources (DERs) are enabling transformations in electricity. Yet, questions remain on how these transformations will address disparities in clean energy access and affordability. This paper explores the efficacy designing community microgrids around dimensions of social and energy equity. It integrates a social vulnerability index (SoVI) into a mixed-integer linear program to optimize electricity operations across a 50-household Peer-to-Peer (P2P) community microgrid. The results show notable cost savings and revenue generation for socially vulnerable households relative to the status quo; this motivates additional research into designing electricity markets that more broadly account for social and energy equity.