Background:
Europe and the world are facing a serious problem called the climate emergency. This means that the Earth’s temperature is increasing at an alarming rate because of certain gases in the atmosphere that trap heat. In fact, the last eight years have been the warmest on record, and this trend is putting us in danger. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service revealed in January 2023 that 2022 was the second warmest year on record for Europe and the fifth warmest globally.
To tackle this urgent problem, EU authorities are working on large-scale and long-term plans to reduce the EU’s contribution to the continuous increase in temperature caused primarily by the utilization of fossil fuels as an energy source. Currently, the EU is revising its energy legislation under the ‘Fit for 55 package’ to align current laws with the 2030 and 2050 ambitions set in the EU Green Deal. This means using energy more efficiently, using more renewable energy, and making sure our buildings and industry use less energy.
In this sense, the digitalization of the energy sector also provides high added value to decarbonize the EU’s economies, as established in the EU’s Energy Digitalization Roadmap. Moreover, the implementation of digital solutions enables an easier integration of the energy system across multiple energy carriers, infrastructures, and consumption sectors.
Goals of the project:
Through the demonstration and integration of the innovative solutions provided by OPENTUNITY, it will be possible to create a synergic energy ecosystem where grid operators have better technology tools, and the prosumers are able to unlock the potential of their energy assets.
Decarbonization of EU society
- Increased RES installed capacity in buildings
- Increased Distributed RES generated energy
- Energy efficiency savings
- Decarbonization of heating and cooling
- GHG reduction at prosumer level
- Better Air Quality Index
Citizen and stakeholder empowerment
- Reduction of energy bills
- Energy poverty reduction
- Increase Flexibility potential
Ensure quality of supply in a context of increase of Renewable Energy Sources (RES)
- Reduction of variability of the voltage
- Reduction of technical losses
- Energy Not Served reduction
- Decrease minutes of supply lost per year
Expected results:
- Energy-specific blockchain for supporting new grid mechanisms.
- Flexibility market design and management.
- Integration of DSO and TSO ICT infrastructures into energy management systems.
- To accelerate the integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), accommodate the expansion of e-mobility and heat-pump and introduce new mechanisms, to solve grid issues in cost-effective manner.
- To foster energy communities.
- To enhance grid observability and controllability.
- End-user flexibility recruitment and compensation tools.
Expected impact:
OPENTUNITY project contributes to solve the issues related to climate change and environment by means of facilitating the integration of distributed renewable generation sources (DER), and the increase in energy efficiency of power grids.
Thanks to OPENTUNITY’s smart, efficient end-to-end planning, monitoring, and control of power networks, electricity markets can benefit from an overall reduction in system costs. This reduction can come from lower system power losses, a lower number and duration of outages, or lower investments in peak demand.
By 2032, once the OPENTUNITY innovations become available to the market, OPENTUNITY will have generated an impact of 600.88MWh of avoided or reduced non-supplied energy in the pilot countries. Moreover, OPENTUNITY will contribute to reducing distribution losses. OPENTUNITY Real Time Thermal Rating will save 186.67GWh of energy annually by 2032.
OPENTUNITY will benefit 26,852 citizens, reduce 91.22MtCO2eq GHG emissions per year, and reduce energy poverty by 30% in the pilot sites by 2032. OPENTUNITY could also imply a 30% reduction in energy bills, leading to a reduction in energy prices of up to 5 cents/kWh in Greece, 4.98 cents/kWh in Slovenia, 6.9 cents/kWh in Spain, and 6 cents/kWh in Switzerland.
Furthermore, at a local level, the OPENTUNITY project aims to improve the management of distribution networks by reducing the need for additional investments and increasing efficiency. This approach can facilitate the market introduction of renewables, accelerate the decarbonization of the electricity grid, improve the security and efficiency of electricity transmission and distribution, and stabilize market prices for electricity, while also ensuring a higher level of energy supply security. As a result of the OPENTUNITY project, the self-consumption capacity in the four participating countries is expected to reach almost 1GW by 2032. This will translate to a yearly renewable energy production of 1.38 TWh of green energy.
