Objectives

To accelerate the transition of Europe’s electricity system to a more decentralized structure, the SERENE project aims to demonstrate cost-effective and customer-centric solutions for effectively integrating different energy system carriers for the sustainable development of regional communities to meet their energy needs from local sources of renewable energy.

The specific goal is thus to establish locally integrated “energy islands” in different villages of Skanderborg (Denmark), Olst (the Netherlands) and Przywidz (Poland). Such “energy islands” will contribute to the decarbonisation of local energy systems via the optimal integration of multi-energy carriers through smart control and the balancing of systems and grids at the local level. This approach will also increase the levels of renewable energy use, thereby enhancing the environmental, social and economic conditions of the citizens and establishing more business and trade.

The experiences gained at the demonstration sites will be analysed and evaluated for replicability across Europe. Technical benchmark models and solutions will be established alongside business models and evaluated against the different challenges identified by the countries involved. The levels of user involvement and their interest to participate will be evaluated from the geographical, social, environmental and economic conditions.

Work Packages (WP)

Objective: to establish an efficient project manageament structure that assures the overall administration and coordination of the SERENE project;

Objective: to conduct detailed technical analyses and formulate comprehensive frameworks for multi-carrier energy systems. The WP develops distributed control schemes for the optimisation of energy systems and networks, including their safe and secure operation which can be used across the three community-based energy system demonstrators (WP4, WP5and WP6);

Objective: to address the socio-economic, governance and regulatory factors in integrated local energy systems and conceptualise which socio-economic, governance and regulatory factors influence a successful local energy system transition with a strong citizen engagement component;

Objective: to carry out demonstration activities in Skanderborg Municipality, Denmark with 4 demonstration cases in 2 villages (Låsby & Hylke), representing different types of residential buildings and different ownership and business models for renewable energy sources (RES) and intelligent energy management systems;

Objective: to investigate how citizen involvement in two villages in Olst, the Netherlands can be improved to create 100% renewable energy use at the neighbourhood level, including using heat pumps, solar PV and smart grid technology to solve load balancing problems and to stimulate self-consumption of local renewable energy. In this way, the consumption of natural gas as a heat source in the existing neighbourhoods can be phased out and dependency on the national grid and problems with local, low voltage grids can be avoided;

Objective: to carry out demonstration activities in Przywidz Municipality, Poland, which aims to become a part of an “energy cluster”. The activities to be realized are going to improve some of the issues that municipality is currently facing –  the focus will be on improving the quality of local grid), introducing the economic & energy efficiency aspect to the operation of the sewage treatment plant, integrating smart energy systems for a school complex and popularizing electric vehicles (cars and mini-buses). Last but not least, community involvement will be of crucial importance.

Objective: to establish the impacts from the technical and social innovations in the local energy system made by the demonstration sites. It will also create benchmark models for the technical solutions and business models that can be replicated in many local regions and which are proven to be acceptable by local citizens;

Objective: to prepare and perform communication dissemination and exploitation tasks for the knowledge transfer of project results to relevant target groups, business exploitation of the innovation actions and promoting the developed solutions, tools and technologies to multiple audiences;

Objective: to ensure compliance with the ‘ethics requirements’ from the project;

Demonstrators

Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland, which have different geographic, socio-economic conditions, institutional structures and characteristics, and diverse energy resources are targeted in the SERENE project for implementing the demonstration activities.

These demonstration sites have active participation from the key energy stakeholders, such as the utility companies, municipalities, cooperatives, property owners, industry and citizens. The solutions developed in the project that are tested among various pilots for mutual knowledge sharing and form the basis for the development of benchmark technical practices and solutions including business models that have been tested for acceptability by the local citizens (including consumers, prosumers, property owners and tenants).  The idea is that these tried and tested business models will be able to  be reproduced in similar communities. The demonstration pilots give key emphasis on the active participation of consumers to gain an understanding of their behaviour, willingness and acceptance of solutions and services in the energy transition that results from the innovation action of the project.

The involvement of local users lies at the centre of any changes to the energy system. The local community will be informed about the different technical opportunities and potential business cases to help them fully participate and make informed choices.

DANISH CASE

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DUTCH CASE

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POLISH CASE

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DANISH CASE

The Danish demonstrator is a rural area of Låsby and Hylke in Skanderborg Municipality. The overall objective is to carry out test and demonstration activities by working closely with local citizens, property owners, utilities and stakeholders for establishing the transition of the existing heating supply from fossil fuels (natural gas and oil boilers) to electric heating from heat pumps in residential buildings, and increase the self-consumption from renewables.

Further, it is supplemented by the electrical charging for vehicles, digitisation and smart control of integrated solar PV, battery storage, heat and EV systems to effect local demand side management, maximising self-consumption from solar PV and provide local grid support. It will also include analysis on how the local electricity grid system is affected, identify possible bottlenecks and focus on how the local rural energy systems and the local grid system can be optimized.

There are two demonstration sites in Låsby village in the form of new residential buildings, one community with 8 apartments and the other with 29 rental apartments. At Hylke village, there are also two demonstration sites which are existing buildings owned by a social residential housing company where the present energy systems will be replaced. The specific objectives include:

  • The optimal operation of centrally located intelligent heat pump installations with salt hydrate based heat storages in the four demonstration buildings with solar photovoltaic installations;
  • A shared electric vehicle scheme powered by the local solar photovoltaic installations along with community-scale battery energy storage applying suitable demand response schemes in the demonstration buildings at Låsby;
  • Demonstration of different socio-economic models for owning and operating the community based integrated energy systems at the four demonstration sites.

In all pilot sites, intelligent control strategy facilitated by ICT infrastructure applies prediction algorithms of local solar PV and wind power (from the grids) generation, energy profiles and prices, optimal temperature, customer comfort and preferences, and local distribution grid conditions to be used to activate suitable demand response and scheduling of the flexible demand and energy storage units. The residents in the buildings will have dashboards available on phone/tablet/PC for monitoring and controlling the energy systems in the buildings.

For more info about demonstrators please read SERENE e-newsletters.

DUTCH CASE

The demonstrator in the Netherlands involves two demonstration sites, the community Aardehuizen with 24 houses and neighbourhood Vriendenerf that consists of 12 houses, both in the village of Olst. The overall goal here is to implement solutions to enhance the smartening of the electricity grid in the area with electric boilers, electric vehicles, battery storage (Aardehuizen), and heat pumps (Vriendenerf). The neighbourhood already has a community project that integrates solar PV systems and energy efficient buildings. Further, the two communities will closely interact and work together to exchange ideas and experiences to realise the targeted activities. Much can be learned from these communities on how to work together and achieve common goals within a sustainable community and how to create regional exposure of ideas and experiences. The specific objectives are:

  • The demonstration of smart control of heating devices (sector coupling between electricity and heat) in the form of (hybrid) heat pumps in conjunction with solar photovoltaics increasing its self-consumption and enabling peak shaving at Vriendenerf neighbourhood;
  • The demonstration of smart control of neighbourhood-scale battery storage and electric boiler in synergy with solar photo-voltaic generation applying Demand Side Management at Aardehuizen;
  • Enabling local demand response schemes and increased utilisation of solar PV generation by exchanging energy between citizens, using an automated administration technology that enables citizens to trade their energy within the community. For this, a dashboard available for residents on PC/phone for monitoring and control of energy and to keep track of the origin of the energy supply (local or from the connected grid) will be made available;
  • Establishment of Local EV-car sharing and charging concept as part of both village/neighbourhood energy system;
  • Establishment and testing of a working administrative system for the local energy cooperation as part of the smart grid control in both neighbourhoods.

For more info about demonstrators please read SERENE e-newsletters.

POLISH CASE

In the Polish demonstrator there are three cases, a school building, an industrial site and energy complexes (both public and community based blocks) located in the Municipality of Przywidz in Pomerania Region. The overall goal is to establish an introduction to the concept of “energy clusters”, that is part of Poland’s ambitious renewable energy policies. Based on the concept, the local counties and municipalities will involve local citizens and stakeholders in the creation of sustainable “energy nests” to meet and manage the energy demand locally by utilising local energy resources, creating local entrepreneurs and enabling socio-economic-environmental benefits. The specific objectives are:

  • Installation of measurement and instrumentation systems at various consumer and building premises to conduct data analytics of heat and electricity profiles and other relevant parameters for flexibility estimation and upgradation needed for integrated local energy systems;
  • The implementation of smart control and operation of integrated solutions of heat pumps, energy storages (battery, heat exchangers) to increase the shares of solar PV generation at the energy complexes and buildings involved in the demonstration. The techno-economic impacts on the local electricity grid will also be analysed;
  • Demonstration of flow battery storage, public EV charging stations and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) facility, at the school facilities, and its smart control with DSM and integrated energy management system that involves HVAC and solar PV systems;

For more info about demonstrators please read SERENE e-newsletters.

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PRESS RELEASE [ENG]
PRESS RELEASE [DK]
PRESS RELEASE [PL]

The SERENE project takes part in BRIDGE Horizon2020 Initiative  in terms of smart grid renewables and smart energy solutions. The SERENE representatives, coordinated by Hans Bjerregaard from Bjerregaard Consulting, DK, for the 4 BRIDGE Working Groups (WG) are as follows:

  • Data management WG: Birgitte Bak-Jensen, Aalborg University, DK
  • Business models WG: Timber Haaker, Saxion University, NL
  • Regulations WG: Frans Coenen, Twente University, NL
  • Consumer and Citizen engagement WG: Ewa Domke, IMP PAN, PL

SERENE in BRIDGE brochures:

Bridge WG REPORTS: