WEMO24-Compiled Report-Interactive compressed (002) 4154-7882-8116 v.1 - Flipbook - Page 94
Cross industry collaborations
Energy Sharing Communities Europe
Energy reduction has been an increasing part of our domestic
and industrial mindset for some time – the clearest
manifestation of this arguably being the 2021 forced rescale
of the European energy labels because of the rapid evolution
of more energy efficient products. The efficiency classes
above A (A+, A++ etc.) were saturated with, for example, over
90% of refrigerators sold being class A or above.
The European Commission first set up the rules for energy
sharing communities in 2019. Initial progress was
disappointingly slow, but there is now a building momentum
in these groups which bring together DSO, house builders,
storage companies (including mobility) and technology
companies. We are approaching a tipping point driven by
constrained capital investment budgets, demand increase
through house building and public pressure for secure supply.
Whilst clearer labelling and better understanding helps
reduce usage, reductions have been partly countered with an
increase in the number of devices – from home technology to
EVs. This ‘stagnation’ is driving an increasing interest and
demand in cross-industry collaboration, not only to reduce
consumption at source, but also to reduce demand through
the energy networks and generators.
As an example, the UK has successfully trialed demandreduction techniques, using retailer incentives (loyalty points)
to drive down consumption when supply is constrained. This
brings together the Electricity System Operator (ESO) with
the retailer(s) and consumers, but the key players are all in the
energy industry. The more interesting area, though, is the
growing recognition that demand can be managed more
effectively locally to reduce overall draw through substations.
Being beyond-the-substation, this is, by definition, local and
what we are seeing is that the time of the intelligent selfbalancing energy communities is here
These are more than peer-to-peer energy saving arrangements.
These are evolving to be intelligent networks, optimising local
production and consumption, import and export, based on
predictive analytics in the home, neighborhood, district,
environment and on the networks. The home builders are
incentivised to invest in the opportunity of being part of the
long-term energy community operating company, as well as
gaining extra revenues from building houses with storage and
generation capacity. There is a further benefit for the builder
and the DNO in that the substation demand is lower –
shortening supply cycles and lowering the capital costs.
Portugal seems to be leading the way, already having rolled
out enabling legislation, but other nations are rapidly gaining
momentum. As an example, The Cleanwatts Living Lab aims
to bring together capabilities including peer-to-peer energy
trading, using EVs and battery storage to help balance local
and national grids, thus driving grid flexibility. The Cleanwatts
approach has, importantly, engaged the consumer (with an
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Many other examples exist – for example, in the Netherlands,
110,000 properties are part of local energy communities –
nearly 1.5% of the entire residential estate. In the UK, the new
government has announced plans to drive thousands of local
energy projects through its Great British Energy corporate
vehicle.
Energy communities also encompass the rapidly-evolving
heat networks programmes where lower-temperature
systems are driving greater efficiencies.
In all these cases, momentum is being driven by accessibility
of the technologies to the consumers, enabled normally by
smart metering and the digitisation of the grid. Volatile
energy prices, low cost solar and the growth in EVs in particular
is providing an impetus for consumers to engage and invest,
whilst looking for realising the benefits of having generation
and storage assets in the home or community. Large energy
and mobility enterprises are on the cusp of working out how
to make money from community schemes and this will further
spur on the market.
WEMO 2024
The need for a demand
side energy transition
94
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