The possibility of creating consumption clusters, also called “self-consumption communities”, is one of the key elements of the Energy Strategy 2050. These communities, which bring together several consumers from a PPE, a shopping centre or an industrial zone, need sophisticated management tools for the future. Residents join together to create an energy cooperative based on the production of electricity from solar panels. They can be producers, sellers, or both. Advantage: consume locally and increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix. The surplus of one can be bought by a member of the community at a rate that is often more interesting than that of injection into the grid. Simple principle, complex management… It is necessary to know who sells and when, who buys and at what price, and for this to create generic models that support all cases.
The project’s second focus is on encouraging smart consumption and participation in the objectives of the 2050 Strategy. A mobile application and a website provide information on production and consumption in real time. Appropriate energy advice can encourage consumers to easily adapt their behaviour. The third axis of the project aims to enable energy trading between communities. A community can decide how to market its surplus production and choose which channel to buy the missing energy through. This service is offered through the implementation of an innovative concept of an energy exchange market place. Despite a legal framework that is still unclear, the Icare Institute has decided to anticipate the future by integrating a solution that is flexible enough to adapt to the challenges of tomorrow.
Since the end of 2019, the Icare Institute’s solution in production has been used by ten communities, i.e. over 75 households and SMEs.
