Archive for category: News

UBITECH ENERGY attended this year’s European Sustainable Energy Week that was held in Brussels, Belgium from June 11 to 13, representing the ENFLATE project. The EUSEW Policy conference is the biggest conference dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe. This year, the conference focused on Net-zero energy solutions for a competitive Europe.

Within EUSEW 2024, UBITECH ENERGY in collaboration with partners from BeFlexible and STREAM projects participated in a session titled “Unlocking local energy flexibility potential: are customers ready to embrace innovation?” that attracted over 60 attendees sparking discussions on customer engagement. Within this session and across two panels, participants explored how adopting customer-centric approaches can greatly enhance Europe’s energy flexibility and support its broader transition efforts, while also discussing the potential and challenges of integrating this customer-driven flexibility.

The first panel discussion was moderated by Ms. Tzeni Varfi (E.DSO) and featured as speakers:

• Katerina Drivakou, UBITECH ENERGY and ENFLATE project.
• Fernando David Martin Utrilla, i-DE (Iberdrola) and BeFlexible project.
• Tomi Medved, University of Ljubljana and STREAM project.
• Veli-Pekka Saajo, Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER).
• Josh Roberts, REScoop.eu.
• Rose Matthews, Smart Innovation Norway.

The panel delved into the readiness of customers to adopt innovative solutions for local flexibility. It was emphasized that the energy transition requires putting customers at the center of flexibility efforts. Developing platforms that facilitate data exchange across the value chain to activate various flexibility mechanisms is essential. However, reaching and engaging the final customer remains a significant challenge.

Another key point was the need to design flexibility markets that integrate energy-related services. Engaging local authorities is crucial for connecting with customers and bringing them closer to these initiatives. The panel also highlighted the necessity to revisit the basics of how flexibility can be promoted, indicating that issues like competition and pricing need fundamental reevaluation.

The second panel discussion was moderated by Ms. Marion Malafosse (SmartEn) and featured as speakers:

• Thomas Bobinger, Federation of German Consumer Organisations, VZBV.
• Sebastien Condom, Voltalis.
• Lindsay Sugden, NIBE.
• Charles Verhaeghe, Compass Lexecon.
• Olivia Sicurani, Sympower.

The second panel focused on scaling demand response across Europe by learning from existing solutions. It was noted that while Europe has a strong framework for demand response, there are still technical barriers to overcome. Demand response is not a future concept but a present reality, and it is advocated to start with non-core processes in industries to build familiarity and confidence before scaling up.

The importance of avoiding past mistakes in new markets, such as billing issues and data protection concerns, was underscored. Raising consumer awareness and ensuring regulatory policies protect consumers are essential. Business models need to be developed to turn energy flexibility markets into profitable ventures, offering consumers a range of choices.

Watch the full video of the session:

D-HYDROFLEX partners met for the second plenary meeting in Valladolid, Spain, on April 17th and 18th to discuss the progress of the project and exchange more ideas on different topics related to hydropower flexibility and digitalization. The meeting was hosted by the CARTIF and resulted in two days of fruitful discussions between experts of different fields.
UBITECH ENERGY, as the technical coordinator of the project, presented the progress of the project for the first 6months and the way forward. Also, UBITECH ENERGY presented the results of the analysis carried out regarding the regulatory barriers and existing incentives in flexibility provision in D-HYDROFLEX demonstration countries, the assessment of flexibility potential within D-HYDROFLEX demonstration HPPs, as well as the initial list of technoeconomic, environmental and sustainability requirements analysis that will form the base for the D-HYDROFLEX Hydropower 4.0 toolkit conceptualization.
Moreover, UBITECH ENERGY organised in the context of the meeting a workshop aiming to identify the challenges and new technological opportunities related to the activties of the project.

UBITECH ENERGY participated in the 3rd General Assembly of THUMBS UP project in Messina hosted by CNR ITAE, on 20th and 21st of February 2024,  with representatives from all 20 partners.

THUMBS UP aims to develop and demonstrate thermal energy storage (TES) at daily (based on environmental friendly PCM) and weekly level (based on TCM sorption technology) solutions to be easily integrated in EU buildings (both connected and not-connected to DHN) to increase their energy efficiency as well as to exploit Power-to-Heat (PtH) approaches also to make EU Buildings as grid flexibility actors. THUMBS UP wants to overcome all the limits of stateof-the-art building-integrated PCM and TCM TES technologies, increasing TES energy density and reducing CAPEX. THUMBS UP innovates at different levels, from modelling to materials and enhance heat exchanger solutions, targeting demonstration at TRL 7.

Within THUMBS UP UBITECH ENERGY leads the exploitation strategy of the project and agreements between the partners and coordinates the BRIDGE activities.

In January 2024, the Horizon Europe project ODEON started its mission to revolutionise the Green and Digital Energy transition through the creation of an inclusive ecosystem of stakeholders characterized by the integration of a mesh of Data, Intelligence, Service, and Market flows. ODEON enables the resilient operation of the energy system considering the increased integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and the effective orchestration of flexibility from assets residing at the edges of the system. With a budget of 22,56 M€ allocated over four years, the project represents a significant stride toward a sustainable, secure, and competitive energy supply. Coordinated by ETRA, ODEON is set to make an impact with a consortium of 34 partners from thirteen European countries.

ODEON aims to promote connectivity, interoperability, and seamless data exchange between different stakeholders in the energy sector, prioritising privacy, and data protection. It advocates for increased investment in electricity grids to facilitate a smarter and more resilient energy system, alongside accelerated deployment of digital solutions. Additionally, it focuses on empowering consumers, especially those vulnerable or with low digital skills, to participate in the energy transition while protecting them against high energy prices online as they are currently off-line. ODEON underscores the importance of enhancing cybersecurity, addressing the energy consumption of digital technologies, and promoting greater efficiency and circularity. Ultimately, it seeks to establish a coordinated EU-wide approach to drive green and digital energy transition.

To achieve these goals, ODEON provides a set of five innovations for transforming the energy sector. It introduces a reference Federated Energy Data Spaces implementation that facilitates the integration of the value chain around energy, employs Artificial Intelligence (AI) for efficiency, and ensures network resilience for DSOs. But also, it supports cost reduction and autonomy for Local Energy Communities (LECs)/Aggregators and enables transparent energy transactions for prosumers through tailored marketplaces.

ODEON showcases its innovation through five large-scale demonstrators in Greece, Spain, Denmark, Ireland, and France. The demonstrators involve a diverse range of energy sources, networks, IoT infrastructure, systems, and assets, which are implemented across heterogeneous, climatic, geographic, and socio-economic conditions and sizes. This diversity facilitates replicability, scale-up, and eventual market launch after the project ends.

Thanks to these efforts, ODEON could help revolutionise the energy system through its Cloud-Edge Data and Intelligence technology, fostering inclusivity and collective intelligence to drive decarbonisation and resilience of the energy system. By empowering citizens, prosumers, and LECs, ODEON promotes effective engagement while leveraging data from diverse energy actors to enhance grid management and facilitate the integration of RES, ultimately reducing CO2 emissions. Finally, through increased data availability and transparency, ODEON establishes a new economy around energy data exchange, ensuring interoperability and trust across the energy value chain.

 

For media inquiries and further information, please contact:

Moisés Antón (ETRA)

Project Coordinator

[email protected]