RENAISSANCE - Circe

RENAISSANCE – RENewAble Integration and SuStainAbility iN energy CommunitiEs

Dates: May 2019 – April 2022
Project web: https://www.renaissance-h2020.eu/
Leader: VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL (VUB)
Grant agreement number: 824342
Entidad financiadora

DESCRIPTION

Currently, 83% of energy consumed is derived from non-renewables, and the lion’s share is generated outside the community where it is consumed. This is a consequence of an energy grid that historically is built for centralized production of ´stable´ energy sources like nuclear and coal. This approach has come under pressure as both contributing significantly to GHG emissions, as well as being inherently inefficient and costly in energy transmission and distribution.

Europe’s ambition is to convert its energy system to become more consumer-centered and clean. Supporting the Climate-Energy objectives, 271% of energy consumption should derive from renewables (RES) by 2030, and 40% reduction of GHG when compared to 1990 levels.

A main approach for that is developing integrated local energy systems (LES), driven by local energy communities (LEC) or other organisational forms. LES could take advantage of local renewable sources and be tailored to specific demand for heating and cooling, electricity and transport.

OBJECTIVES

RENAISSANCE aims to demonstrate an easily replicable approach to design and operate local integrated energy systems that have a high and stable level of social acceptability. The project will demonstrate local energy systems that meet or exceed the EU target of 27% of RES across energy sources, at equal or lower cost of energy in comparison with current solutions, and reach a critical mass of

participation of 15-20% of citizens and businesses.

The project will support Industry leaders ABB (analytical and design tools) and ATOS (energy management platform) deliver services with clear market focus, that are widely replicable across Europe.

The suite of tools will be demonstrated in real-life pilots in some countries (BE, GR, ES, NL). The methodology and each of the pilots will cover key energy vectors (electricity, heat, transport), involve different actors (households, SMEs, institutions), and valorises flexibility services within and between communities, and with DSOs. In total, over 1.000 households and 50 companies will be connected in a system which capacity sums more than 30.000 Mw.

Main innovations include:

Multi-actor multi-criteria of technical design
Geolocations
Interoperable management platform

To demonstrate replicability and open the role to market, the approach

will be applied to 10 more locations across the globe – including in India, the US, the UK and Poland.

CIRCE´s ROLE

CIRCE collaborates by working in the benchmarking of the business case, development of smartcontracts and the validation of energy agreements and business cases.

Besides, within the infrastructure implementation and integration working package, led by CERTH, CIRCE contributes in all tasks, with a special focus on the RENAISSANCE security access control network and the integration and interconnection phase.

Other minor contributions are related to the support in data collection, benchmarking, validation, and C2C trading.