COMMUNITAS – Bound to accelerate the roll-out of Energy Communities and empower consumers as fully-fledged energy market players.
The COMMUNITAS project aims to encourage a more active role for EU citizens in energy markets, building on the Clean Energy for All Europeans (CEP), a package of measures formally recognized by the European Commission that implements community energy projects and introduces the definition of Energy Communities (EC). In this way, the project seeks to promote energy citizenship, enabling citizens to become an active part of society and take action on their path towards sustainability.
COMMUNITAS offers a knowledge base that provides users with technical, administrative, and legal information about Energy Communities (ECs), facilitating the creation and expansion of these communities.
Through the project, a set of innovative tools is also being developed, including IoT, Blockchain, and Cloud Computing, which encourage citizen participation in energy markets and communities. These tools enable members of Energy Communities (ECs) to explore ancillary services using different energy assets or community load profiles. All of this is achieved through integration into a fully open, digital “one-stop-shop” platform called the COMMUNITAS Core Platform (CCP).
COMMUNITAS places citizens at the center of its approach by involving them in social and policy-related activities throughout the project’s duration. This ensures that the opinions, desires, and needs of users are taken into account in relation to the project’s key developments.
COMMUNITAS has a budget of €7 million (co-financed by the EU under the Horizon Europe program). With a duration of 42 months and a consortium of 18 partners, coordinated by EDP NEW (Portugal), the project is validated through 7 demonstrators divided into: 3 leading pilots (Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands), 3 learner pilots (Greece, Portugal, and Denmark), and 2 observer pilots (Croatia and Denmark).
PROGRAMME: EU Horizon Europe
ABSTRACT:
The COMMUNITAS project aims to promote a more active role of EU citizens in energy markets, based on the CEP (Clean Energy for all Europeans) package, that includes a set of measures formally recognised by the European Commission, which implements EU energy projects and introduces the definition of Energy Communities (EC). In this way, the project aims to promote energy citizenship, enabling citizens to become an active element of society and to take action on its path towards sustainability.
COMMUNITAS offers a knowledge base that provides users with technical, administrative and legal information on ECs, thus facilitating the creation and expansion of these communities.
The project is also developing a set of innovative tools, including IoT, blockchain and cloud computing, that will encourage citizen participation in energy markets and communities, and allow EC members to explore ancillary services using different energy assets or community load profiles. All of this is achieved through integration into a “one-stop-shop” digital platform called COMMUNITAS Core Platform (CCP), which is fully open.
COMMUNITAS puts citizens at the centre of its approach, through their participation in social and policy labs that take place throughout the course of the project, in order to take into account the end users’ opinions, wishes and needs with regard to the main developments of the project.
COMMUNITAS has 7 M € budget (co-financed by the EU under the Horizon Europe program). With a duration of 42 months and a consortium of 18 partners, under the coordination of EDP NEW, the project is validated in 8 demonstrators divided in: 3 leader pilots (Spain, Italy and The Netherlands), 3 listener pilots (Greece, Portugal and Denmark) and 2 learner pilots (Croatia and Denmark).
COORDINATOR: LABELEC ESTUDOS DESENVOLVIMENTO E ACTIVIDADES LABORATORIAIS, S.A. (EDP L) – Portugal
PARTNERS:
- SMART ENERGY LAB (SEL), PT
- UNINOVA-INSTITUTO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DE NOVAS TECNOLOGIAS (UNINOVA), PT
- UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA (UNL), PT
- ETRA INVESTIGACION Y DESARROLLO, S.A. (ETRA), ES
- COOPERATIVA ELECTRICA BENEFICA SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS SOCIEDAD COOPERATIVA VALENCIANA (Enercoop), ES
- RINA CONSULTING SPA (RINA), IT
- AZIENDA CONSORZIALE SERVIZI MUNICIPALIZZATI SPA (ACSM), IT
- FONDAZIONE BRUNO KESSLER (FBK), IT
- ENERGY@WORK SOCIETA’ COOPERATIVA A R.L. (E@W), IT
- ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS (CERTH), EL
- WATT AND VOLT ANONIMI ETAIRIA EKMETALLEYSIS ENALLAKTIKON MORFON ENERGEIAS (WVT), EL
- EUROPEAN GREEN CITIES APS (EGC), DK
- CENTRUM BADAN I ANALIZ RYNKUSPOLKA Z OGRANICZONA ODPOWIEDZIALNOSCIA (ASM), PL
- SVEUCILISTE U ZAGREBU, FAKULTET STROJARSTVA I BRODOGRADNJE (UNIZAG), HR
- NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK (TNO), NL
- COOPERATIEVE VERENIGING GRUNNEGER POWER UA (Grunneger Power), NL
- EMPRESA MUNICIPAL DE AMBIENTEDE CASCAIS EM, S.A. (EMAC), PT
KEY WORDS: One-stop-shop, Energy Communities; Energy Markets; Social and Citizen Engagement; Flexibility; Participatory Laboratory; P2P Energy Markets.
