Since October 2017, DEXMA’s Research, Development and Innovation team has been involved in a new R&D+i project called RESPOND (Integrated demand REsponse Solution towards energy POsitive NeighbourhooDs).
DEXMA intends to use its wealth of experience in advanced energy analytics to boost demand-side management capacity in 3 residential test pilot sites in 3 different European countries. Through the RESPOND project, these residential communities will take their first steps toward demand response: one of the fastest-growing areas of energy innovation.
Towards Energy-Positive Neighbourhoods with Demand Response
The term demand response (DR) refers to any initiative that offers electricity consumers the opportunity to intentionally shift their energy consumption either in response to price signals caused by peak demand or in exchange for an agreed-upon incentive. DR programmes, when combined with local renewable energy production and storage options, can significantly reduce peak demand, resulting in energy and cost savings for stakeholders throughout the energy supply chain.
While demand response schemes have been widely implemented in the industrial sector where energy demand is typically higher, such solutions in the residential sector are still in their infancy, despite a huge untapped potential for better operational management, behaviour change and savings.
To exploit this hidden potential, the RESPOND project aims to integrate the benefits of flexibility with targeted load control actions, renewable energy sources and energy storage options with the aim of adapting user behaviour to better match energy supply and demand to the satisfaction of both end consumers and energy providers.
The RESPOND Consortium
To achieve these ambitious objectives, the project will be carried out by an interdisciplinary consortium committed to deliver EU-based capabilities, technologies and tools to the benefit of energy providers and consumers under the umbrella of demand response. The consortium led by Fenie Energia, a leading energy retailer created by the Spanish National Federation of Electrical and Telecommunications Installers (FENIE).
The project consortium consists of 11 partners from 5 countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Serbia and Spain. The consortium reflects a healthy balance of energy providers and technology suppliers on one side, with public research and academics on the other.
Project RESPOND will be rolled out over the next three years in three distinct pilot sites covering different climatic and socio-economic regions across Europe: a cooperative community on the Aran Islands in Ireland, a social housing complex in Aarhus, Denmark, and a private residential apartment building in Madrid.
The project kicked off in October 2017 and will run for three years until October 2020 with a budget of €3 million. Project RESPOND has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 768619.
The Role of DEXMA in Project RESPOND
Communicating the results of Project RESPOND is an essential part of project success, especially in the go-to-market planning of the EU energy industry. The ambition of Project RESPOND is to enable a wide range of actors to participate in demand response, thus making their products more competitive and successful in the EU and globally. The outcomes of Project RESPOND will contribute significantly to the achievement of important EU objectives on sustainable energy.
This is where DEXMA comes in, leading the dissemination and communication of the RESPOND project, also known as the 7th work package (WP7). In this WP, DEXMA will be in charge of communicating the results and outcomes of the interoperable platform that will result from this project. As a technology provider, DEXMA will also play an important role in developing the actual demand response solution. DEXMA’s flagship EMS product, DEXCell Energy Manager, is envisaged as adaptable and scalable enough to be applied at the individual household level, as well as to leverage the cooperative approach applied to a building or group of buildings.
In terms of RESPOND task leadership, DEXMA will coordinate the work related to data privacy and protection, interoperability of the platform for energy efficiency and monitoring, and validation of economic impacts and business models.
For more information, visit the project website here. To discover the other R&D projects DEXMA is working on in addition to Project RESPOND, check here.
