The ERNACT network is delighted to announce that we have secured €1.5 million with the Northern Periphery and Arctic (NPA) Programme recently approved COPOWER - 'Community-based Virtual Power Plant (cVPP)' project. COPOWER will promote energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the NPA area.
Commenting on the announcement, ERNACT International Management Committee Chairperson, Mr. Jorge Muyo, stated that "this new disruptive technology project will provide resources and expertise for the ERNACT network and the COPOWER partnership, together with the regional stakeholders. We are really looking forward to the international cooperation in the Northern Periphery and Arctic Area".
The COPOWER project will create new community-driven opportunities to digitalise, decarbonise and decentralise local energy systems. Explaining the relevance of this new project, Dr. Caitriona Strain, ERNACT Programme Manager, mentions that the partnership will use transnational cooperation to exploit information technologies to link multiple small energy systems and operate them in coordination like a utility-scale power station to balance electricity demand and production. Five communities will be cooperating together to face common challenges such as a lack of affordable, reliable, and efficient energy supply due to their peripherality, low population density, cold climate, accessibility issues, and over-reliance on fossil fuel. The opportunities are the significant renewable resource potential in partner areas and new possibilities in future dynamic energy markets.
With the COPOWER project, the partnership aims to achieve energy independence and local energy trade, create new community roles in the energy system, decrease local consumption of fossil-based energy, and reduce electricity bills. "We will develop a cVPP model for deployment in a typical NPA community with five Distributed Energy Resource (DER) solutions applied and an online demonstration service", she continues. Partners will also integrate the collective power of different DERs and use data analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the community-based Virtual Power Plant, "to intelligently and dynamically manage energy use based on demand, environmental factors and cost."
Community-based Virtual Power Plant in real conditions
COPOWER partners will develop five pilot actions, jointly planned and implemented, using the cVPP model in a real environment:
- Farm-scale using solar energy and agriculture/food side streams (Centria, Finland)
- Small-scale using solar, wind, and battery storage with grid connection (Iceland)
- Large-scale using district heat, solar farm, and biogas (Nivala, North Ostrobothnia, Finland)
- Optimise demand response in public building network (Donegal)
- Household scale using ground heat, wind, and water storage (Faroe Islands)
Transnational approach
The COPOWER partnership includes Centria University of Applied Sciences and the University of Oulu (Finland), the University of Iceland (Iceland), Nolsoy Energy Ltd (Faroe Islands), Donegal County Council, and ERNACT (Ireland), leading the project.
A transnational approach is needed to bring ICT and energy expertise together to collectively develop
a robust transboundary solution that can be implemented in differing conditions. The project brings together the Lead Partners from three previous NPA projects (SMARCTIC, h-CHP and LECo), who combined their complementary skillsets within a clustering project (GREENER) and includes three other partners and fifteen Associate Partners who bring additional skills, knowledge and geographic reach.
Find out more about the Second Call projects approved.