The project will deepen flexibility for small producers/consumers on a local basis, taking into account the constraints and needs of the distribution network and creating local flexibility markets.
Earlier this month, the initial meeting was held with the consortium formed by eleven companies from different European Union countries, including MIWenergía, which marked the official start of the new De-Risk innovation project.
The project is part of the European program Horizon Europe, and is expected to last three years, where it will address, from a technological, social and market perspective, possible solutions to reduce the barriers that currently prevent any consumer or self-consumer from using the information from the electricity markets, as well as from the grid itself, to be able to adapt their demand efficiently and in real time.
Flexibility or demand response consists of adapting electricity consumption for the benefit of the consumer and the system, allowing the use of cleaner energy sources and desaturating the grid, thus avoiding economic cost overruns and reducing the environmental impact of polluting energies.
The main innovative character of the project compared to other demand response projects is that De-Risk focuses on local demand flexibility, taking into account the constraints and needs of the distribution network and creating local flexibility markets.
The main objective of the project is to boost end-user participation in local flex markets by deeply understanding their needs, deploying a platform to assess and unlock the potential of flex in four case studies in Turkey, France, Ireland and Murcia, locations chosen for the variety of geographical, climatic and regulatory conditions, to serve as examples of possible developments of sustainable business models, ensuring the viability of local flex markets in different European scenarios.
The Spanish pilot led by MIWenergía
In Spain, MIWenergía will lead the pilot test in Murcia, implementing and evaluating the strategies proposed in the project to demonstrate the performance of the platform developed in the current situation of Local Flexibility Markets, for which between 15 and 25 residential consumers will be selected. An innovative crowdfunding campaign will also be created through which a collective self-consumption photovoltaic solar installation will be financed, together with the equipment to monitor consumption in real time inside the homes and validate these technologies that adapt consumption times to the most favorable moments for the user.
First, the necessary pilot data will be collected through questionnaires to analyze the consumption habits of the users, as well as monitoring data. Later, we will study and accompany the changes in consumption habits, developing possible business models based on local flexibility markets, and implementing the platform developed in the project to evaluate the flexibility and demand response capacity.
The aim is to demonstrate the benefits for all stakeholders and to evaluate the social, technical, economic and regulatory outcomes of this pilot and the project as a whole.
