Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CREATORS (CREATing cOmmunity eneRgy Systems)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-09-01 bis 2022-10-31
The CREATORS project will deliver the ICT and process tools to support the initiators and local service providers to Community Energy Systems (CES) in the outlining, design, and operation of professional and viable CES.
Europe’s policy foresees its energy system to become decentral, and decarbonized, and community led. Up to 45% of consumption is to be generated and managed locally. That energy market transition is in its infancy. In 2020, energy communities serve 0,1% of retail markets, across hundreds of small-scale projects. Perhaps a few dozen are 'advanced', with multiple user types, involving a mix of energy generation assets, actually transacting energy between users, and deploying professional governance and financing solutions. The ambition is to build upon these advanced projects lead by technology innovators, and enable CREATORS; the community initiators and specialist service providers that can bring an local idea and ambition to viable community investment project.
The principal objectives are:
* Demonstrate professional services for the whole life-cycle of CES development in 10 operational sites across the EU, safely integrating all existing energy vectors and enabling high consumer participation
* Enhance “commercial readiness” of CES by designing viable business models accepted and recognised by all stakeholder groups (investors, citizens, DSOs, community initiators)
* Unlock local RES generation (>60% consumed locally) and flexibility by empowering consumers & prosumers to contribute to local grid balancing and actively participate in the energy market
* Accelerate and increase the number of energy communities’ by creating a market pull effect
Europe’s policy foresees its energy system to become decentral, and decarbonized, and community led. Up to 45% of consumption is to be generated and managed locally. That energy market transition is in its infancy. In 2020, energy communities serve 0,1% of retail markets, across hundreds of small-scale projects. Perhaps a few dozen are 'advanced', with multiple user types, involving a mix of energy generation assets, actually transacting energy between users, and deploying professional governance and financing solutions. The ambition is to build upon these advanced projects lead by technology innovators, and enable CREATORS; the community initiators and specialist service providers that can bring an local idea and ambition to viable community investment project.
The principal objectives are:
* Demonstrate professional services for the whole life-cycle of CES development in 10 operational sites across the EU, safely integrating all existing energy vectors and enabling high consumer participation
* Enhance “commercial readiness” of CES by designing viable business models accepted and recognised by all stakeholder groups (investors, citizens, DSOs, community initiators)
* Unlock local RES generation (>60% consumed locally) and flexibility by empowering consumers & prosumers to contribute to local grid balancing and actively participate in the energy market
* Accelerate and increase the number of energy communities’ by creating a market pull effect
In the first year of the CREATORS project, important progress has been made on the demonstration and validation of local energy communities at the various tier 1 and tier 2 pilot sites involved. All pilots have been initiated, starting from a detailed implementation plan, developed throughout the first months of the project, for each pilot. At the end of the first year, the consortium is proud to report that the use cases have been defined for each tier 1 and tier 2 pilot site, alongside important developments in the field. Amongst others, all tier 1 pilot sites have been integrated with the CREATORS community energy systems platform to collect and organize key data on energy consumption and generation, required for the assessment of the flexibility potential and to analyze "what if" scenarios for future investment and business models. To support these analyses, the consortium has developed a simulation and emulation engine that enables to simulate the economic performance and make sound investment decisions. The emulation engine in addition enables to simulate the system in real-time or ahead of time to predict any anomalies beforehand. The first year focused on defining standardized models, libraries and specifications for this engine. Its use has been demonstrated for the different tier 1 pilot sites, for instance to make recommendations towards installing battery energy storage systems. These results, alongside the implementation plans of the pilots, have been disseminated at a variety of workshops and webinars.
CREATORS will deliver the professional digital service solutions for the creation, development and operation of integrated energy communities. The solutions will be demonstrated in 10 operational sites across Europe.
CREATORS aim is to aim is to increase the viability of CES per main phase of its lifecycle; preparation, implementation, operation. As a CES viability assessments will depend on the business case per phase, indicator should focus on the costs/benefits per each of those phases. CREATORS will reduce overall costs for 10-year operation of RECs by 35%, and increase earnings from by 30%. This means that CREATORS will reduce a per-user deficit into a per-user net gain. Close to break-even, these system costs could be reduced by local initiator in-kind contributions, or by local technical assistance funding. Altogether, with minimum external support, RECs become a financially viable activity. Further reductions – and positive cost-benefit are expected when consumer groups are aware of, and trust LEC models, which would significantly reduce the reaming cost groups: client on-boarding and client operational support.
While working towards this objective, significant social impact on the community is anticipated by:
* Increasing competitiveness of the local industry by reducing 1) the dependency on the grid and energy imports 2) the exposure to volatile energy prices which might impact the business case
* Improving security of the energy supply: power outages costs for the industry and the local economy,
* Making green energy affordable and accessible to all consumer groups, including those that do not have the financial capacity to directly invest in renewable energy
* The solution of congestion issues and optimised balancing at local level unlock opportunities for the creation/expansion of new activities that otherwise could not be connected to the existing network
CREATORS aim is to aim is to increase the viability of CES per main phase of its lifecycle; preparation, implementation, operation. As a CES viability assessments will depend on the business case per phase, indicator should focus on the costs/benefits per each of those phases. CREATORS will reduce overall costs for 10-year operation of RECs by 35%, and increase earnings from by 30%. This means that CREATORS will reduce a per-user deficit into a per-user net gain. Close to break-even, these system costs could be reduced by local initiator in-kind contributions, or by local technical assistance funding. Altogether, with minimum external support, RECs become a financially viable activity. Further reductions – and positive cost-benefit are expected when consumer groups are aware of, and trust LEC models, which would significantly reduce the reaming cost groups: client on-boarding and client operational support.
While working towards this objective, significant social impact on the community is anticipated by:
* Increasing competitiveness of the local industry by reducing 1) the dependency on the grid and energy imports 2) the exposure to volatile energy prices which might impact the business case
* Improving security of the energy supply: power outages costs for the industry and the local economy,
* Making green energy affordable and accessible to all consumer groups, including those that do not have the financial capacity to directly invest in renewable energy
* The solution of congestion issues and optimised balancing at local level unlock opportunities for the creation/expansion of new activities that otherwise could not be connected to the existing network