Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Energy Behaviour Change driven by plug-and-play-and-forget ICT and Business Models focusing on complementary currency for Energy Efficiency for the Wider Population

Project description

Alternative currency and personalised recommendations to reward energy savings

The issue of wasted energy is pressing, but people are often reluctant to change their daily habits at home because they don't see the immediate impact of their efforts. In this context, the EU-funded BENEFFICE project is proposing a strategy to encourage and incentivise long-term energy conservation among various groups of consumers. The project aims to monitor energy usage in users' homes, promote energy savings and provide rewards in the form of an alternative monetary currency which can be used through a neobanking mobile application. To achieve this, an innovative IoT-based ecosystem will be developed, featuring low-cost, user-friendly devices and personalised gamification strategies tailored to the users and adapted to household performance. The associated business system will be tested in three pilot sites in Greece, France, and Austria in 100 homes.

Objective

BENEFFICE’s strategic objective is to reduce wasted energy by incentivising various consumer types in the wide energy consumer market. A novel ecosystem will be developed which enables and incentivises long-term energy consumption savings. BENEFFICE ecosystem leverages novel IoT enabled, low-cost, “plug-and-play-and-forget” devices, energy disaggregation and an innovative empowerment and rewards approach based on an alternative monetary currency so as to change consumers’ energy consumption behaviour. The “plug-and-play-and-forget” devices will accurately capture energy use patterns at the level of each electrical appliance and at the level of each individual user. An energy behaviour model will be used to correlate these patterns with optimal, personalised comfort levels, social profiles and characteristics (including social, economic, geographic and energy use contexts) in order to determine optimal energy use behaviour to reduce wastage of energy and to increase the use of renewable resources in the energy mix. BENEFICE will design personalized, real-time motivational paths to deliver sustained reductions in energy consumption. Customers will be incentivized to follow these paths voluntarily, through the application of novel business models that provide monetary rewards in return for progress along each personalized pathway and help build an online community of like-minded actors. These business models will be based on an innovative digital CO2 currency - CO2 Credits are awarded to actors for proven, sustained reduction in fossil fuel use. Business models that stimulate the supply of, and demand for, CO2 Credits, will be designed, tested and validated. These business models will leverage partnerships with established businesses -third party market catalysts- that recognize the potential offered by CO2 Credits both to promote reduced consumption of fossil fuels and to extend their market share by offering a new service to their clients with clear social added value.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

IA - Innovation action

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-EE-2016-2017

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

EUROPEAN DYNAMICS BELGIUM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 326 110,32
Address
67 RUE DE LA LOI
1000 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgium

See on map

Region
Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/ Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Arr. de Bruxelles-Capitale/Arr. Brussel-Hoofdstad
Activity type
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 866 876,17

Participants (10)

My booklet 0 0