TwinERGY Pilot Series: An overview on the Bristol, Athens, Steinheim and Benetutti demo-sites
We’re in an autumn full of activities and releases, and to mark the official launch of the four demo-sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Greece, we want to launch the TwinERGY pilot series articles on how the project is being implemented in each of them.
This first piece summarises the main plans of the pilots to get a further understanding on what’s going on and getting ready for the next six months of activity, technology testing and better energy management. Keep reading!
Addressing energy flexibility for a more sustainable and inclusive society: Bristol pilot
Bristol has long been known for its progressive stance on climate change. In 2015, Bristol became the UK’s first European Green Capital- a program introduced by the European Commision to reward local efforts aimed at improving the environment. As further evidence of the city’s strong commitment towards environmental protection, Bristol boasts a healthy mix of different energy communities. Bristol Energy Network, an organisation for community groups interested in energy, provides numerous educational and political services aimed at advising the general public on energy consumption and clean energy. Similarly, the Bristol One City Approach, created by the Bristol City Office in 2019, establishes a collaborative platform between public, private, and third party organisations to improve the overall welfare of citizens in Bristol.
In this context the Twinergy pilot project was developed. Inspired by the Bristol One City Approach, Twinergy plans to help the city meet this goal through innovative tools that ensure more affordable energy. Home energy management smart devices have been installed in up to 12 households to work with energy flexibility services and a connection to an established energy platform. This technology will work to switch off appliances at peak times on the grid whilst rewarding participants with points that can be exchanged for vouchers for doing so. This provides citizens with the resources to take on a more active, conscious role in the energy market.
And, what about the pilot participants? They were able to attend online workshops coordinated by KWMC to discuss the experiment and the collection/usage of their data which worked as a great opportunity for them to ask questions about the project. It is also worth mentioning that some of these participants were chosen due to the special attention the project wanted to give those of unrepresented, lower socioeconomic status (younger people, minority groups, etc). The Bristol pilot stands out in this respect, as it seeks to improve inclusion and integration of these communities by empowering them with an affordable, accessible opportunity to become energy efficient.
Energy Communities on the spotlight: Athens pilot
As analysed above, the European Union’s 2050 plan to be completely carbon neutral has inspired many new forms of climate action among member states. The Greek National Energy and Climate Plan, introduced in 2019, is a governmental strategic plan that seeks to tackle energy and climate related issues. Included in this plan are provisions that seek the betterment of local energy communities through greater involvement and participation. Specifically, the plan is interested in how energy communities can support the use of waste to produce electricity or biomethane to be used in the transport sector. However, local energy communities have criticized this plan for the undue burden it places on these communities.
Twinergy’s pilot project aims to address these concerns by handing control back to the citizens. The plan is to create a human-centric demand response programme, whereby participant data is collected and analyzed in order to design a personalized energy consumer experience.
This is achieved by the installation of smart home devices in 20 residential buildings, which allow these consumers to monitor their energy usage and make informed decisions that suit their needs. The hope is that with this information and resources, citizens will be able to alter their energy consumption patterns and provide flexibility to the electricity retailer. Regular site visits and workshops are also conducted by the pilot partners to ensure participant engagement and proper usage of the smart device equipment. Additionally, a hotline was established so that participants could easily contact the program with related questions as to the project or the equipment.
A unique feature of the Athens pilot is the special attention it gives to EV chargers. Twinergy plans to take advantage of the subsidies provided by the Greek government as part of their climate strategy, that allow for the acquisition of EV charges. The pilot purposefully recruited participants who are already EV owners and willing to install a home charger wall box in their homes. Furthermore, the program can offer a wider network of public chargers across the City of Athens to its participants.
Fostering a completely renewable energy village: Steinheim pilot
There exists a small village inside the region of Steinheim, Germany called Hagedorn, with only 38 houses and 103 inhabitants. While this town may not be quite the size of Bristol or Athens, the effect it can have in the renewable energy market is just as important. In 2014, Germany passed the Renewable Energy Act, which seeks to construct a platform for the expansion of renewables to make them more competitive in the market. Among the revisions in this plan are included actions to reduce costs by concentrating on cheaper technologies such as wind and solar power, which in 2019 accounted for a third of Germany’s clean electricity mix.
With the framework for community engagement and commitment to renewable energy already in the works, Twinergy deploys his approach to the region in a positive environment. The Steinheim pilot will oversee the implementation of a community battery storage system that will enable sufficient use of renewable energy sources, primarily solar. This will increase the share of self-produced solar power and allow for electric vehicles to be provided to pilot participants for ride-sharing in daily use, something uniquely designed and available to this pilot project. Moreover, different measuring and switching devices will be installed in the households so that smart meters, plugs and light bulbs are capable of measuring energy usage. This enables participants to become knowledgeable of their consumption and will contribute to peak load reductions, thus reducing the strain on the grid. All of these objectives aim to increase citizens’ and communities’ active participation in energy programmes, empowering them with resources to become more energy efficient.
How citizens become prosumers to monitor their energy consumption: Benetutti pilot
Despite the geographical separation of Sardinia from the rest of Italy’s energy infrastructure, Benetutti and other municipalities on the island have a long history with renewable energy. Today, over a third of the island’s electricity comes from renewable energy. Additionally, the town of Benetutti ranks first among all Italian towns for installed solar capacity per capita, with a council-run company (one of the only two towns in Sardinia that has its own electricity company) controlling 104 solar power plants. Sardinia will soon also be home to the first “smart grid” in Italy which will use solely renewable energy. This smart grid technology offers a promising future for an intelligent, efficient system for energy storage and transference.
This is where Twinergy comes in. TwinERGY plans to implement a demo-site smart grid in 20 facilities with a total of 80 occupants, with the goal of solving power fluctuations problems and promoting citizen participation. The project has commenced with the implementation of a community Digital Twin with the capability of monitoring energy transactions through a system based on smart contracts and blockchain technology. Blockchain is a revolutionary new technological process that ensures security and efficiency when exchanging money and assets.
Through this security feature comes the emergence of smart contracts, a computer program that documents and executes various actions and interchanges without human intervention. With this technology, Twinergy can offer participants a pricing mechanism to lower their energy usage that can adapt to their specific needs and comfort. This new system speaks to the uniqueness of the Benetutti pilot, and they’re ability to adapt and respond to the changing world despite their geographical insularity.
A big amount of effort has been spent on citizen involvement and engagement. Often participant engagement was conducted through online platforms and mobile calls. In order to monitor the system installations, more bilateral face-to-face discussions with the participants were held. This allowed them to ask questions and increase their engagement in the Twinergy project, with participants often wanting to see and interact with the Twinergy platform. Should the project prove successful, it is believed this model could apply to other municipalities in Sardinia as well, not just Benetutti.
All in, TwinERGY is going to impact the next generation of the energy system, putting at the centre the role of prosumers and contributing to a fairer and more sustainable consumption managed by citizens.
