COMMUNITAS project
Cultivating energy communities for sustainable progress
| Business | Period | Project Coordinator | Funding Scheme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | January 2023 - June 2026 | EDP |
Horizon Europe |
Challenge
COMMUNITAS project's objective (Grant Agreement n. 10196508) is to overcome barriers hindering the diffusion of Energy Communities (ECs) in Europe.
ECs represent a pivotal step towards carbon neutrality, and this project aims to promote their adoption by involving citizens in the design and management phases. The focus is on positioning citizens as central players, fostering energy citizenship.
Our role in the project
COMMUNITAS will offer a state-of-the-art toolkit for citizens' active participation in energy markets and communities. These tools will be integrated into a comprehensive digital "one-stop-shop" platform called the COMMUNITAS Core Platform (CCP). Leveraging technologies like IoT, Blockchain, and Cloud Computing, these tools will enable EC members to collectively engage in energy markets and explore ancillary services using a range of energy assets or load profiles.
In particular, RINA will be co-responsible for the implementation of CCP and the EC planning tool, one of the services available on the platform. Moreover, we will coordinate the replications, business models and exploitation plans, providing a comprehensive pathway for commercial and operational success beyond the project duration.
Conclusions
The project's key outcomes encompass:
- Demonstrating real-life interactive communication and support tools to engage citizens in the energy transition, aiding them throughout the process of establishing and developing an energy community. These tools will be refined based on field tests.
- Engaging a broad spectrum of distributed active consumers and energy communities, including through innovative incentive mechanisms.
- Establishing new market roles and participants.
- Enabling automated participation.
- Introducing Residential and SME-related Demand Response, contributing to enhanced flexibility and the creation of new flexibility products.
- Identifying drivers and regulations beyond marginal pricing that can guide transactions within energy communities.
- Developing mechanisms to foster the creation, growth, and capacity-building of energy communities.
