EAC

DELTA proposes a DR management platform that distributes parts of the Aggregator’s intelligence into lower layers of a novel architecture, based on VPP principles, in order to establish a more easily manageable & computationally efficient DR solution, ultimately aiming to introduce scalability & adaptiveness into the Aggregator’s DR toolkits; the DELTA engine will be able to adopt & integrate multiple strategies & policies provided from its energy market stakeholders, making it authentically modular & future-proof. DELTA will also deliver a fully autonomous architectural design, enabling end-users to escape the hassle of responding to complex price/incentive-based signals, while facilitating active, aware & engaged prosumers, based on innovative award schemes, a social collaboration platform & enhanced DR visualisation. Provision of full-scale market & grid services will be made possible by delivering explicit & implicit-based DR elasticity services, while pushing current market regulatory limitations so that they can be surpassed, and satisfying potential grid constraints related to flexibility activation through Multi-Factor Forecasting and Deep Reinforcement Learning Profiling. Furthermore, DELTA will propose & implement novel multi-agent based, self-learning energy matchmaking algorithms to enable aggregation, segmentation & coordination of several diverse supply & demand clusters, designed end-to-end using well-known, open protocols (i.e. OpenADR), for increasing interoperability. DELTA will set the milestone for data security in future DR applications by not only implementing novel block-chain methods & authentication mechanisms, but also by making use of Smart Contracts which would further secure & facilitate Aggregators-to-Prosumers transactions. Two pilots in UK & Cyprus will realise the DELTA concept, covering a wide variety of residential/tertiary loads (>11GWh), RES generation (>14GWh) & energy storage systems (>9MWh) (average annual measurements).

The GOFLEX project will innovate, integrate, further develop and demonstrate a group of electricity smart-grid technologies, enabling the cost-effective use of demand response in distribution grids, increasing the grids’ available adaptation capacity and safely supporting an increasing share of renewable electricity generation. The GOFLEX smart grid solution will deliver flexibility that is both general (across different loads and devices) and operational (solving specific local grid problems). GOFLEX enables active use of distributed sources of load flexibility to provide services for grid operators, balance electricity demand and supply, and optimize energy consumption and production at the local level of electricity trading and distribution systems. Building on top of existing, validated technologies for capturing and exploiting distributed energy consumption and production flexibility, GOFLEX enables flexibility in automatic trading of general, localized, device-specific energy as well as flexibility in trading aggregated prosumer energy. Generalized demand-response services are based on transparent aggregation of distributed, heterogeneous resources to offer virtual-power-plant and virtual-storage capabilities. The sources of load flexibility include thermal (heating/cooling) and electric storage (electric vehicles charging/discharging). A backbone data-services platform offers localised estimation and short-term predictions of market and energy demand/generation, and flexibility in order to support effective data-driven decisions for the various stakeholders. Smart-grid technologies, such as increased observability and congestion management, contribute to the platform. Over 36 months, GOFLEX will demonstrate the benefits of the integrated GOFLEX solution in three use-cases, covering a diverse range of structural and operational distribution grid conditions in three European countries.

Buildings constitute a vast, yet currently untapped, source of energy demand flexibility that can provide invaluable services to the energy system. This flexibility currently remains unattainable due to the lack of a technological framework that can connect the multitude of buildings and building systems with the energy system in a cost-effective manner as well as the reluctance of energy consumers to enroll in demand response programs. DRIMPAC offers a comprehensive solution to empower consumer to become active participants in the energy markets. It comprises three main pillars: a) A legacy and Standards-compliant interoperability framework to interconnect building energy loads/appliances and expose their demand flexibility as price-responsive demand to the grid or for market actors to aggregate and bid in ancillary service markets. b) A human-centric, intelligent building energy management system that will lift the burden of demand response from the consumers shoulders and reduce reluctance and fear of participation in DR programs. It will infer user comfort preferences and dynamically control building loads to minimize energy cost and use for the building occupant leveraging dynamic prices, while always preserving comfortable and healthy indoor conditions. c) Innovative business models and service offering for energy retailers in order to facilitate their transformation from commodity suppliers to digital energy service suppliers and kick-start the deployment of the DRIMPAC solution in the market. The DRIMPAC technological framework and business models will be validated by four retailers supplying three energy carriers – electricity, natural gas and district heating – in four different national markets across the EU - France, Cyprus, Germany and Spain. Pilot demonstrations will take place in a range of building types, including residential, office, educational and others, in order to validate the DRIMPAC benefits across most building typologies.