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Green Energy Community (GECO)
Acronym GECO
Logo GECO
Abstract The Green Energy Community (GECO) is a demonstration project that will take place in the Pilastro - Roveri district of Bologna. It comprises the creation of an energy community, a new entity recently introduced by the EU Clean Energy Package(CEP)
Large_Description The Green Energy Community (GECO) is a demonstration project that will take place in the Pilastro - Roveri district of Bologna. It comprises the creation of an energy community, a new entity recently introduced by the EU Clean Energy Package (CEP). The GECO project intends to tackle social, technical and economic aspects related to the creation of the green energy community in order to increase sustainability, reduce energy poverty and generate a low carbon economic cycle. GECO will manage the energy community and also provide to its members services related to technical assistance with energy saving, renewable energy design, training and promotion of behavioural changes among the citizens and community stakeholders.

This will be enabled through renewable energy, storage, smart appliances, optimization algorithms, blockchain technologies and the internet of things (IoT). The project seeks to test the newest smart solutions to maximize self-consumption of energy, storage and local resources, increasing the flexibility through real-time monitoring, predictive analytics and automated response. It is also expected that the synergies, frictions and disruptions arising from the functioning of the green and smart energy community will help to shape the transposition of CEP into the Italian legal framework, the neighbourhoods and the national energy grid. This is because the GECO community will not only provide competitive clean energy prices, but also inform national policymakers.

In the end, the main goals of the project are to mitigate and adapt to climate change, to develop cooperation among neighbours and provide added-value to the local economy. All local households and business members of the community will benefit from the GECO actions. The project is carried out by AESS, ENEA, UNIBO, CAAB/FICO and Agenzia Pilastro, with the Emilia Romagna Region, GSE, RSE, City of Bologna, local associations, businesses and citizens and with the financial support of EIT Climate-Kic.

Partners:
- ENEA: Agenzia Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e lo Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile
- Modena Energy and Sustainable Development Agency
- Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Other Third Parties:

- Agenzia locale di Sviluppo Pilastro Distretto Nord Est
- Bastelli
- CAAB

On December 2018, the European Union approved the first part of a comprehensive legislative package entitled ‘Clean Energy for all Europeans - CEP’ that put in place appropriate legal frameworks to enable the energy transitition and give a special role to citizens and communites activities introducing the Energy Community into the regulatory framework. Even if CEP will be transposed into national laws by March 2020, some experiences of energy communities have been already implemented across Europe. Different studies identified 121 MW installed by community groups since 1997 in UK, and more than 2.800 local energy co-operatives in Europe, which around 1000 are in Germany and around 400 are in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, the CEP legal framework introduced a new paradigm in the energy sector and pilot projects should be implemented to assess the legal, administrative, social and technological impacts of the Energy Communities. In this contest the Green Energy COmmunity (GECO) of Pilastro-Roveri aims to anticipate the implementation of the EU Legislation by CEP, before the national transposition , experimenting an energy community, that increases the generation and self-consumption of renewable energy, support the local community’s economy and address key issues by exploring green opportunities in the energy market.

The project seeks to define and experiment the GECO entity and develop activities in order to increase the usage of renewable energy locally produced and balance the grid, to implement innovative solutions for the integration of renewable energy sources in the national grid, supported by artificial intelligence, high-quality demand-side management and storage technologies, and to provide services like voltage balancing control, congestion management, flexible load and peak demand shaving, energy saving. GECO project will be embedded in the national regulatory framework, providing support to the national stakeholder (GSE , Terna , SRE an Emilia Romagna Region) as experiment project to address the national legislation development and it will attract potential members among the district stakeholders: Citizen , Private companies, Associations, City Authority, Public Authori ties , University.

It is expected that the development of the energy community would enable the reduction of the cost of electricity for the social housing affecting the fuel poverty and improving local business, optimize the flow of electricity in the local substation, increase the self-consumption of renewable energy and also reduce the demand peaks. The project, with the engagement and empowerment of the community, will enable the city of Bologna to works towards the implementation of the SEAP and Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs ) reducing the CO2 emissions and guaranteeing an affordable and clean energy. This proposal aims at contrbuting to the ‘1 million homes initiative’ See GECO presenta tion uploaded in 'FILES'.


Il progetto, con l'impegno e la responsabilizzazione della comunità, consentirà alla città di Bologna di lavorare per l'attuazione del 'Piano d’Azione per l’Energia Sostenibile' (PAES) e degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo della Sostenibilità (SDG) riducendo le emissioni di CO2 e garantendo un'energia pulita e gestibile. Il progetto mira anche a contribuire all'iniziativa ‘1 milione di case'.

Il progettto ha un forte obbiettivo educativo e comunicativo per cui è stato e srà utilizzata in larga misura la comunicazione web via weinar o video. Qui una playlist di quelli prodotti all'oggi


location Bologna Italy
start_date 02/09/2019
end_date 31/08/2022
url_reference https://www.gecocommunity.it
achievements GECO aims at experimenting the creation of an energy community addressing the transposition of the EU directive and overcoming the socio-technical and financial barriers, leading citizen and private/public organisation members of the community to increase the renewable energy production, reduce the energy consumption and cut down the electricity costs especially for low-income families. GECO will impact the district with about 66.700 tCO2 avoided in the district by 2022. Moreover, the following impacts will be achieved: Impact Goal 1 . Promote Retrofit and Decentralised Energy: it aims to focus in particularly on the local electricity productionachieving at least 30 MW of renewables installed in the district, but it is expected the that GECO provides energy efficiency servicesat first and in a second face also building retrofit services. Impact Goal 2. Create Green, Resilient Cities and Impact Goal 13. Smart Sustainable Districts: GECO will impact the City climate strategies, providing a contribute in terms of CO2 emissions avoided and renewable energy produces.Impact Goal 3. Accelerate Clean Urban Mobility: the investment foreseen in the district include electri c mobility as storage integrated in the smart gridImpact Goal 8. Reduce Indu stry Emissions: GECO will reduce CO2 emissions in the Roveri industriesImpact Goal 9. Reboot Regional Economies: The regional energy plan iden fied among the regional strategies to develop an inclusive and sustainable region, the development of energy communi es. The project will support the region in delivering a first pilot project.Impact Goal 10. Mainstream Climate in Financial Markets and Impact Goal 12. Foster Bankable Green Assets in Ci es: the project will accelerate climate investment in the district.Tangible results of GECO project will be:- GECO entity that operates at district level;- Renewable energy plants, storages, electric mobility integrated in the community realised- Smart devises and a system developed for the optimal management of the distributed resources- Blockchain technology developed for energy communities - Reports on the national EU directive transposition - Reports on project monitoring and scalability Intangible results of the project will be:- increased awareness of the citizens, public organisations and business on energy saving opportunities and also on reduce tariff forelectricity supply produced locally and the opportunity to invest in renewables.- students and citizen trained and educated to increase their awareness; - local actors collaborating to build a local community; - national network of stakeholders developing new opportunities for the local communities.The engagement process will involve City of Bologna, Agenzia del Pilastro, CAAB, Pilastro commercial center, Residents, University ofBologna and Industries in Roveri (Bastelli, FRI, Music factory,...)
innovation The Green Energy COmmunity - GECO aims to deliver a change in the energy use and production considering the social, environmental and economic aspects. The objectives are to define and experiment the energy community entity, increase the renewable energy produced and stocked in the district, build a system that guarantees and permits users to exchange energy, promote and accelerate new and flexible energy community model and establish a sustainable community. From the technological point of view, the project seeks to experiment the newest smart solutions, storage and decentralized energy resources to maximize self-consumption and unlock a flexible demand side, by using real-time monitoring, predictive analytics and automated response, enabling a step ahead in the clean energy transition. In 2020 GECO will also build the bases for an entity that can exploit the opportunities of new segments of the energy market, which will be opened after the internaliza on of the CEP (Art. 22 of the Renewable Energy Directive and art. 16 and 17 of the Electricity Directive). GECO in fact will simulate the aggregation of generation and demand, allowing consumers of all sizes to interact with the support of the blockchain system by making their demand more flexible. Since 2020 it is also expected that the legal community entity will identify the services to be provided to its members related to the energy brokerage, smart contracts, district energy management, energy saving and renewable energy production and it will conduct activities related to the engagement, training, dissemination, and promotion of behavioural changes among the community stakeholders. It is known that energy awareness, good examples and the comparison between neighbourhoods are powerful engines for change behaviors. Already in 2021 the experiment will work with a broad spectrum of the society, aggregating residents, commerce and local industries in the district, all of them will benefit from the activities of GECO. Furthermore, it is expected that the synergies, frictions and disruptions arising from the smart energy community proposed will help to shape the future of neighbourhood and the Italian energy systems in the low carbon economy. The community will not only provide competitive clean energy prices, but also fight climate change, develop cooperation among neighbours and provide added-value to the local economy. GECO will constantly adapt under the new legal frameworks and updated scientific research, and it will also use pilot project opportunities to develop and test new business models with focus in the citizen empowerment. To give just one concrete example, the GECO aims to use community storage for the social housing blocks, reducing the energy price and increasing the sustainability. About this subject, Müller and Welpe, in recent study published at Energy Policy, 2018, vol. 118, 492-503, men on that 'shared storage has received only limited attention so far. This is a surprising research gap because community scale electricity storage has the advantage of adding significant storage capacity to the grid compared to individual end user systems'. On the other side, Lombardi and Schwabe 2017, Parra et al. 2017 and Stephan et al. 2016, shows that a combination of multiple applications or the sharing of storage and PV systems by multiple users can be more cost effective.

The experiment project in Pilastro-Roveri

The GECO project aims to develop and experiment a Green Energy Community in Bologna, Pilastro - Roveri district. The GECO will be an entity that can exploit the opportunities of new segments of the energy market, which will be opened a er the internaliza tion of the CEP (Art. 22 of the Renewable Energy Direc tive and art. 16 and 17 of the Electricity Direc tive). GECO in fact will act as aggregator of genera on and demand, allowing consumers of all sizes to interact with the energy system by making their demand more flexible . GECO will be developed by means of a system approach, considering the technical, legal, administra tive, financial and social aspects and it will seek to develop the best cost-benefit op ons and in the most efficient way possible, making the best with the available resources. From the technical point of view, the project seeks to experiment the newest and the most advanced smart solutions for the real me state es ma on of the distribu on network inside the local energy community, that represents the prerequisite for the op timal management of the distributed resources of genera on and consump on, including the electrochemical storage units. Objectives of the op mal management can be maximize the self-consump tion, the exchange of a pre-determined profile of power exchanged with the external distribu on network or to allow demand response procedures.. It is also expected that the legal community entity will conduct ac tivities related to the engagement, training, dissemination, and promotion of behavioural changes among the community stakeholders.
Keywords Green Energy Community, Green Energy, Smart energy community, local energy community, citizen energy community
Development_Status In Progress
Funding European
Keywords Green Energy Community, Green Energy, Smart energy community, local energy community, citizen energy community
S3 Area Energy and sustainable development  Traiectory Smart Energy Systems
Platform Energy and Environment  Section Energy Efficiency
Project_Type INN
Partnerships
Research Unit Name Laboratory Role
X-LAB Unità Operativa X-LAB Home page CROSS-TEC laboratory (ICT and ENERGY) Scientific/Technical coordinator
LITE3R Laboratorio industriale tecnologie energetiche ENEA Emilia-Romagna Home page CROSS-TEC laboratory (ICT and ENERGY) Partner
LEI LCA ed ecodesign per l’eco-innovazione Home page LEA laboratory (ENVIRONMENT) Partner

Related research topics
Code Topic Description
3.4.6 Energy communities Energy communities are an approach that enables citizens and companies in a territory working together to invest in renewables, reduce energy costs and promote virtuous behavior in the use of energy that increase efficiency and improve the production of r
3.1.6 blockchain blockchain and distributed ledger technologies
ganache
3.4.2 Smart city and community Vivacity in changing economies: cities are engines of economic growth and of places where innovations emerge. Yet some cities have greater economic success than others. All over Europe we find cities with rapid economic growth and a strong decline, as wel
2.8 Circular economy Circular economy
3.4.5 Smart city platform Accessibility and connectivity: the economic competitiveness of cities and the quality of citizens living in urban areas are directly influenced by the accessibility of urban services and services inside and outside cities, as well as by connectivity.
Ac
3.4.6 Energy communities Energy communities are an approach that enables citizens and companies in a territory working together to invest in renewables, reduce energy costs and promote virtuous behavior in the use of energy that increase efficiency and improve the production of r
3.1.6 blockchain blockchain and distributed ledger technologies
ganache
3.4.2 Smart city and community Vivacity in changing economies: cities are engines of economic growth and of places where innovations emerge. Yet some cities have greater economic success than others. All over Europe we find cities with rapid economic growth and a strong decline, as wel
2.8 Circular economy Circular economy
3.4.5 Smart city platform Accessibility and connectivity: the economic competitiveness of cities and the quality of citizens living in urban areas are directly influenced by the accessibility of urban services and services inside and outside cities, as well as by connectivity.
Ac
3.4.6 Energy communities Energy communities are an approach that enables citizens and companies in a territory working together to invest in renewables, reduce energy costs and promote virtuous behavior in the use of energy that increase efficiency and improve the production of r
3.1.6 blockchain blockchain and distributed ledger technologies
ganache
3.4.2 Smart city and community Vivacity in changing economies: cities are engines of economic growth and of places where innovations emerge. Yet some cities have greater economic success than others. All over Europe we find cities with rapid economic growth and a strong decline, as wel
2.8 Circular economy Circular economy
3.4.5 Smart city platform Accessibility and connectivity: the economic competitiveness of cities and the quality of citizens living in urban areas are directly influenced by the accessibility of urban services and services inside and outside cities, as well as by connectivity.
Ac






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