The new Opentunity project will open electricity ecosystems towards a real EU decarbonization

On 1st January 2022, the new project OPENTUNITY on “opening the electricity ecosystem to multiple actors in order to have a real decarbonization opportunity”, funded by the Horizon Europe Programme with 8.5M€ and set for 4 years, was launched. As part of a consortium of 21 partners in 8 countries throughout Europe working on the project, AMIBIT will be include in the development of HEMS for purpose of providing energy flexibility, Demand Response, and demonstration of developed functionalities in Slovenia.  

OPENTUNITY aims to create a flexibility ecosystem reducing interoperability barriers and favouring the use of standards in order to decarbonize EU grids and put the end-user in the spotlight. Grid operators, prosumers, market actors, among others will be supported by OPENTUNITY via innovative methodologies backed by advanced, interoperable software to provide them with new features and services related to technologies to boost flexibility in prosumer’s environments and technologies for grid operators to better manage grid operations.

This will be done through the deployment of thirteen innovations than can be divided in four categories: technologies to boost flexibility in Prosumer’s environment; supporting Technologies for DSOs/TSOs to better manage grid issues; energy-specific Blockchain for supporting new grid mechanisms; and procedures for enhancing interoperability.

Through the demonstration and integration of the innovative solutions proposed by OPENTUNITY, it will be possible to create a synergic energy ecosystem where grid operators will have better technology tools and the prosumers will be able to unlock the potential of their energy assets.

OPENTUNITY will be demonstrated by the end-users of the project (4 DSOs, 1 TSO, 1 Retailer and 1 Aggregator) with the support of the technical partners. These solutions will be tested and validated in 4 different EU Countries: Greece, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland, benefitting 26.852 citizens and reducing 91,22 MtCO2eq GHG emissions and energy poverty by 30% by 2032. The project could imply a reduction of 30% in energy bills leading to a reduction in energy prices up to 5 cts/kWh in Greece, 4,98 cts/kWh in Slovenia, 6,9 cts/kWh in Spain and 6 cts/kWh in Switzerland.

About AMIBIT

AMIBIT is a high-tech start-up company from Slovenia that addresses the increasing trend of digital transformation in the energy sector with own developed innovative hardware (SMART BMS box REDUXI) and software solutions. AMIBIT main goal in OPENTUNITY as a hardware and software provider is to further develop and integrate REDUXI to:

• Enhance the connectivity to aggregators and establish the connection to grid operator. This will enable new tariff designs and provision of flexibility products that could be used for different purposes like trading on flexibility market or provision of upcoming DSO ancillary services.
• Provide algorithms, communication and actuation protocols to bring innovative energy management and optimization models to the residential sector.
• Upgrade the REDUXI current solution to be more robust, user-friendly and capable of integrating large numbers of various devices from different manufacturers that would help support its further redistribution.

In scope of OPENTUNITY project, AMIBIT is involved into the development of HEMS and BEMS flexibility and DR optimization including initial settings algorithms, AI Non-intrusive load monitoring algorithms, Optimal selection of available flexibility, and Plug and play recognition for flexibility devices.

About ETRA I+D

ETRA Investigation y Desarrollo, S.A. (ETRA I+D) is the hi-tech unit within ETRA Group, one of the leading industrial groups in Spain. ETRA’s mission is putting technology to work for serving society in the fields of smart energy, mobility, security and communications. ETRA leads the 21 partners’ consortium developing OPENTUNITY project.

Further information:

Álvaro Nofuentes (Project coordinator)

anofuentes.etraid@grupoetra.com 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpentunityEU 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/opentunityeu 

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. Horizon Europe Grant agreement Nº 101096333.