INNOVACER

INNOVACER: “Process and organisational innovation to support the life cycle of Energy Communities”, financed under the ERDF LIGURIA 2021-2027 R.P. programme.

algoWatt S.p.A., received a loan of EUR 113,998.50 (total project expenditure EUR 227,997.00) for Digital Energy Service Provider activities.

THE PROJECT

The INNOVACER project, with a total duration of 9 months, has been granted funding under the call P.R. FESR LIGURIA 2021-2027 – OP 1 – O.S. 1.1 “Developing and strengthening research and innovation capacity and the introduction of advanced technologies” – Action 1.1.1. – Call for proposals ‘Support for the development of innovation projects in micro, small and medium-sized enterprises’. In relation to the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) of the Liguria Region, the INNOVACER project was presented in the Technological Area ‘Security and Quality of Life in the Territory’ with reference to the Sector ‘Energy Transition’ and specifically to the subsectors ‘Energy from renewable and innovative sources, transport, storage, conversion and materials’ and ‘Innovative technologies and processes for the creation and development of energy communities’.

Context

In the coming years, an important contribution to the energy transition is expected from the development of renewable generation plants distributed throughout the territory and built by Energy Communities (ECs). CEs represent a type of initiative that differs markedly from ‘traditional’ plants, including renewable ones, in that they are built and operated by ‘non-professional’ users. In addition, ECs connect energy producers, including from small and medium-sized local renewable energy sources, and consumers who can proactively choose between self-consumption and exchange with the grid, manage their own usage profile and enable new patterns of electricity use, made possible by technological tools and strategies for monitoring, storage and management. Therefore, they require an innovative approach that differs from that commonly followed for the construction and management of production facilities for professionals. In particular, it is strategic to provide a complete service that embraces the entire life cycle starting from the identification of the specific context (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) and needs, and accompanies its definition, implementation and operation, constituting an unequivocal reference at each stage of these operational procedures.

Rational

INNOVACER intends to capitalise on algoWatt’s previous industrial experience and the results of R&I activities to achieve a reorganisation of the production process that improves the company’s capabilities in providing the necessary integrated services to potential users of CE, thus directly affecting the possibility of growth and dissemination of these initiatives. INNOVACER intends to capitalise on algoWatt’s previous industrial experience and the results of R&I activities to achieve a reorganisation of the production process that improves the company’s capabilities in providing the necessary integrated services to potential users of CE, thus directly affecting the possibility of growth and dissemination of these initiatives. Anticipating market developments in the direction of the Twin Transition, which combines technological-digital and environmental-sustainable transformations, algoWatt intends to complement its production of software platforms for the Operation & Maintenance of photovoltaic plants and Energy Communities with an advanced organisational and operational structure, capable of handling the high complexity of the associated management procedures. In this sense, digitisation offers considerable support for the introduction of standardised and updatable modes of operation, and will benefit from the highly specialised ICT skills of in-house staff. In particular, advanced and flexible information flows and work tools will be defined, designed and made available, to intercept both the current and prospective needs of the organisation and to realise a process with cutting-edge characteristics and at the same time able to encompass future regulatory and technological developments resulting from the expansion of the sector.

EC Offer

The algoWatt offer addresses the entire process of setting up and running an Energy Community, starting with a preliminary assessment of utility and consumption types (industrial, commercial, residential) and generation capacity. It then includes tools and methods for user involvement through a dissemination plan and support for the most suitable organisational model for the specific context. In addition, it is able to take care of the design of renewable plants and the overall economic and financial plan, including administrative and authorisation procedures towards the Gestore dei Servizi Elettrici (GSE).

Downstream of the realisation of the photovoltaic plants, if provided for in the project, and the connection to the grid, the company offers digital platforms for the management of Energy Communities, aimed at the various categories of participating users, and for the management of the O&M of the plants. It is evident how such a complex and articulated set of activities in its various phases requires the collaboration of different professionals, and their involvement through a high level of coordination and the setting up of working groups, also transversally related to different corporate functions and offices. For this reason, an increased digitisation of both internal processes and those directly aimed at contacting customers and suppliers, achieved through software tools (open source and widely used) and procedures reorganised from this perspective, can provide undoubted advantages in the management of service delivery and ultimately for overall productivity.

In fact, the project proposes an innovative mix of products and services aimed at all those who, for various reasons, are interested in the creation and management of Energy Communities, to simplify and stimulate the birth and development of their initiatives through a sustainable approach in social, environmental and even landscape terms. In particular, the project intends to develop methodologies, services and tools for the active participation in the energy system of a wide range of subjects currently present as mere consumers, thus creating the conditions for a wide adoption of the Energy Community model by a potentially very large number of participants.

This action will make it possible to “cope with the continuous growth of energy consumption and the consequent environmental impact” with sustainable solutions “from an energy and environmental, but also socio-economic point of view”. The project also contributes to the development of “Energy from Renewable and Innovative Sources” – also a theme of the sub-sector “Energy Transition” – as it promotes the dissemination of generation systems from renewable sources that go to make up the Energy Communities themselves.

Processes and services

By leveraging the dissemination of the skills developed, the reorganisation of processes and the document and support infrastructure designed and implemented, at the end of the project ALGOWATT will have consolidated and made scalable, in accordance with the expected growth of the sector, its ability to provide the full and complete range of services for the realisation of Energy Communities. In addition, the company will be able to include in its integrated commercial offer a further set of activities that include the proposal, realisation and management of the operational lifecycle of photovoltaic (PV) plants, whether stand-alone or included in the construction scope of a CE. The ‘product’ that will be offered will include the following activities provided to potential members of an EC in a single integrated service:

• Informative pre-analysis: includes the provision of all information necessary to assess the convenience of forming an Energy Community.
• Dissemination and recruitment of founding members: support in the search for members to join in order to reach an optimal critical mass for the start-up of the Energy Community
• Initial assessment and feasibility analysis: technical analysis to verify the feasibility of the planned installations and energy assessment for the Community’s energy balance.
• Economic and financial planning: analysis of the business plan on the basis of the identified energy flows and the investments required and the financing methods identified.
• Formalisation: management of the Energy Community constitution procedure.
• Design: development of the detailed design of the facilities and realisation of the operational plan for implementation.
• Realisation: installation of monitoring and supervisory equipment and systems.
• Start-up: management of the accreditation procedure with the GSE and start of the operational phase.
• Operational management: maintenance and operational management of the Energy Community for the period of operation required by the regulations (currently 20 years) and the agreed business plan.

All planned activities will be organised via a single initiative management software platform and will be individually supported by suitable tools for the different functions (e.g. simulators, CAD systems, monitoring systems) all integrated in the same management framework. The company will therefore undergo a transformation: from an entity capable of providing several implementation and application services that separately address the different steps in the life cycle of renewable energy installations to a ‘general contractor’ that provides a single point of access to everything necessary for the complete life cycle management of an Energy Community.

Goals

The ultimate goal of the project is therefore to integrate the design and implementation steps leading from the plant concept to its operational management into a single end-to-end process, aimed more broadly at the realisation of Energy Communities. The organisational and process innovations to be developed will be enabled, enhanced and made a cornerstone of corporate growth through the digitisation of tools and workflows and the corresponding operational procedures. Also benefiting from the innovations introduced will be a series of related R&I activities, aimed at developing skills for energy management of production and consumption plant aggregates, tools for optimising O&M management, to be transferred into the production process. The qualifying aspects of the project activities will therefore be:

• Review of the current mode of service
• Definition of process reorganisation
• Selection, preparation and commissioning of supporting applications, also in relation to compatibility and integration aspects
• Transition management and performance improvement activities
• Designing the supply chain of an EC (including the part concerning PV systems)
• Consulting, management and monitoring services for an EC and its PV system
• Implementation of an integration platform that allows the management of the entire life cycle of the Energy Community by integrating the data of the different tools dedicated to the implementation or management of the various phases.