Exploring to Innovate Energy Efficiency
SENDER’s Diverse Demo Sites: A Testbed for Tomorrow’s Energy Solutions
By collecting consumer data through secure sensors and creating AI-driven digital twins to analyze consumption patterns, SENDER aims to engage consumers in co-designing effective energy solutions.
SENDER has strategically selected three diverse demonstration sites, varying in location, population, and societal characteristics, to test its cutting-edge energy solutions. The project will culminate in a comprehensive methodology and a publicly accessible replication booklet, ensuring the scalability and impact of SENDER’s innovative approach.
Where? The Spanish demonstration site will be based in Alginet, a village located 25 km from Valencia, in the east of Spain, with 13 000 inhabitants.
With whom? The distribution network in Alginet has a special particularity: it is owned by the end users through a cooperative.
In what context? Currently, the Cooperative supplies 46 million kilowatts annually by means of 40 centres of transformation, with an installed power of 18,000 kW and almost 6.000 users get benefit from the smart meters deployed by the electric cooperative, as well as other services and actions that the cooperative initiate to benefit its end users. Apart from the main basic activities of commercialization and distribution of electric energy, the cooperative group also plays a major social role in the town by investing and redistributing their benefits among the end users.
Where? The W.E.I.Z. demonstration site is located in the eastern part of Styria, about 30km from the provincial capital Graz.
With whom? The pilot area includes the municipality of Weiz (11.700 inhabitants), as well as the six neighbouring municipalities and a total of 26.000 inhabitants. In this context, the municipality of Weiz is seen as a centre that provides numerous important functions (schools, shopping, authorities, entertainment, hospitals, etc.) for the households of the neighbouring municipalities.
In what context? Currently connected to the grid but the potential for photovoltaic systems is very high relative to the number of citizens due to the space requirements in the neighbouring municipalities.
Tampere and Espoo, Finland
Where? The pilot sites in Finland are located in Tampere, western Finland, and in Espoo, southern Finland, near the capital Helsinki.
Tampere has about 245,000 inhabitants and Espoo about 300,000. Both are among the largest cities in Finland.
They are also important working municipalities to work in from nearby municipalities.
With whom? Around 3 500 people live in the area, but more importantly, about 15 000 people come here daily for working. The area is composed of university buildings, VTT offices as well as several companies. Services such as shopping centres and restaurants are found in the area. In both Tampere and Espoo, 50 households will be invited to participate in the demand response experiment.
In what context? In Finland, the price of electricity has increased significantly recently, and numerous households have entered into an electricity contract with hourly market price to save on energy costs
Electric residential space heating is more common in Finland than in most European countries. Demand flexibility on electricity is needed more than ever before.