DESCRIPTION
Energy efficiency becomes crucial for rational consumption of the available resources and reduction of the CO2 production. But the reduction of energy consumption as the only remedy is only a partial solution. Similar, applying more environment-neutral or renewable energy sources without smart energy management systems may even cause failures in the energy grid or at least cause the energy to be wasted. Introducing intelligent solutions that combine the control of energy production and consumption helps to achieve the best efficiency.
However a successful application of such solutions faces problems due to human factors. The problem space is multidimensional, but can be abstracted as a combination of social, economic and technical aspects. The e-balance project will investigate their interdependencies and propose a solution that satisfies the defined requirements.
The following areas will be investigated in order to achieve a mature and holistic solution:
Social:
- Socio-technical development (user requirements and concerns),
- Different levels of user participation (involvement) and means to increase it,
- Barriers to conduct an effective solution,
Economic:
- Development of new business opportunities,
- Economic means to increase involvement,
- Legislation reinforcements and corrective measures,
Technical:
- Support for all kinds of energy sources and storage,
- Scalable, fine grained and decentralized energy balancing and demand prediction,
- Security and privacy mechanisms,
- Flexible accounting,
- Increased reliability.
The technical solution will be based on available state of the art results and will combine them according to the socio-economical requirements with necessary adaptation.
The proposed energy management platform will be evaluated in realistic scenarios using real world set-ups in Alliander microgrid in Bronsbergen and EDP Smart Grid in Portugal, as well as in emulation. The project will provide a guide book and tools for parties interested in using our solution.