Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REDREAM (REAL CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT THROUGH A NEW USER-CENTRIC ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT FOR END-USERS’ASSETS IN A MULTI-MARKET SCENARIO)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-04-01 bis 2024-03-31
What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Consumers are passive actors in the European energy market, mainly dominant by big companies.
Why is it important for society?
Consumers need to by active actors of the energy transition if this has to be sustainable and long lasting in the future.
What are the overall objectives?
The main objective of the REDREAM project is to effectively move the consumer (as a residential, industrial and tertiary consumer) participation to the centre of the energy market through an open and co-creative ecosystem where all stakeholders will actively interact. This ambitious challenge will require the collection of demand response tools and services (energy and non-energy) capable of enabling the capacity for the consumers of participating in the energy market through an improvement of predictability of consumption patterns and consumer behaviour. A new solution based on an open co-creative energy ecosystem built upon a new paradigm where the user gives the value will centralise the portfolio of innovations to develop this new paradigm.
Conclusions of the action
The project has improved the knowledge of end users about what actions can be done to reduce emissions, reduce their bill and help the grid and how their consumption are. Different engagement strategies have manifested that different countries and communities needs tailor made strategies to gather users. The project has also shown that regulation changes are required to unlock the demand flexibility and the appearance of new figures such us the Independent Aggregator.
Consumers are passive actors in the European energy market, mainly dominant by big companies.
Why is it important for society?
Consumers need to by active actors of the energy transition if this has to be sustainable and long lasting in the future.
What are the overall objectives?
The main objective of the REDREAM project is to effectively move the consumer (as a residential, industrial and tertiary consumer) participation to the centre of the energy market through an open and co-creative ecosystem where all stakeholders will actively interact. This ambitious challenge will require the collection of demand response tools and services (energy and non-energy) capable of enabling the capacity for the consumers of participating in the energy market through an improvement of predictability of consumption patterns and consumer behaviour. A new solution based on an open co-creative energy ecosystem built upon a new paradigm where the user gives the value will centralise the portfolio of innovations to develop this new paradigm.
Conclusions of the action
The project has improved the knowledge of end users about what actions can be done to reduce emissions, reduce their bill and help the grid and how their consumption are. Different engagement strategies have manifested that different countries and communities needs tailor made strategies to gather users. The project has also shown that regulation changes are required to unlock the demand flexibility and the appearance of new figures such us the Independent Aggregator.
REDREAM created a new user-centric ecosystem following SDL methodologies defined at the beginning of the project. The SDL vision was included inside the interfaces (the onboarding and the web and mobile apps) and plans of the users (that range from more simple or easy to understand to more advance ones).
The REDREAM ecosystem is an interaction place among the users and the scientific and technical stakeholders that can obtain data or develop their own services or interfaces. The ecosystem also provides suggestions to the end-users to improve energy efficiency and flexibility.
4 demo sites were deployed in Spain, Italy, Croatia and UK, where finding users with electrical manageable consumptions or interested in participating in solar sharing programs were the main challenge; so different customer-engagement strategies were implemented. During the demonstration, the user experience was monitored, highlighting that users assess both apps as user-friendly, but only consider the costs and balance screens useful.
-The interactions of the 693 users (residential & commercial/industrial) involved with the system were also estimated and measured through KPIs (133186,54 KWh/year energy mobilised through demand response; 1703 interactions with the apps). The results of the ecosystem implementation were validated, and the impact of the solutions analysed from economical, consumer, environmental and regulatory perspectives.
The scalability and replicability analysis demonstrated -through the 4 case studies as early adopters- the effectiveness, scalability and replicability of business models and funding & financing schemes of REDREAM’s 22 services related with energy, mobility and comfort. Additionally, an IP Management plan and strategy for all foreground and KERs was developed.
Learning material that could be used by demos were developed, and events and fairs where the solutions were presented were organized, producing academic material where tools are presented.
Overview of the results
37 results (foreground) were identified and 7 preliminary KER (5 of which are published in the Horizon results platform), including core information and IP strategy defined:
- KER1 ReDREAM ecosystem concept
- KER2 Demonstration and implementation of new services in 4 energy communities
- KER3 Consumer engagement strategy
- KER4 Energy Efficiency & Demand Response tools
- KER5 Comfort service
- KER6 Energy interaction tools (gamification & social network)
- KER7 Regulatory insights and policy recommendations
The REDREAM ecosystem is an interaction place among the users and the scientific and technical stakeholders that can obtain data or develop their own services or interfaces. The ecosystem also provides suggestions to the end-users to improve energy efficiency and flexibility.
4 demo sites were deployed in Spain, Italy, Croatia and UK, where finding users with electrical manageable consumptions or interested in participating in solar sharing programs were the main challenge; so different customer-engagement strategies were implemented. During the demonstration, the user experience was monitored, highlighting that users assess both apps as user-friendly, but only consider the costs and balance screens useful.
-The interactions of the 693 users (residential & commercial/industrial) involved with the system were also estimated and measured through KPIs (133186,54 KWh/year energy mobilised through demand response; 1703 interactions with the apps). The results of the ecosystem implementation were validated, and the impact of the solutions analysed from economical, consumer, environmental and regulatory perspectives.
The scalability and replicability analysis demonstrated -through the 4 case studies as early adopters- the effectiveness, scalability and replicability of business models and funding & financing schemes of REDREAM’s 22 services related with energy, mobility and comfort. Additionally, an IP Management plan and strategy for all foreground and KERs was developed.
Learning material that could be used by demos were developed, and events and fairs where the solutions were presented were organized, producing academic material where tools are presented.
Overview of the results
37 results (foreground) were identified and 7 preliminary KER (5 of which are published in the Horizon results platform), including core information and IP strategy defined:
- KER1 ReDREAM ecosystem concept
- KER2 Demonstration and implementation of new services in 4 energy communities
- KER3 Consumer engagement strategy
- KER4 Energy Efficiency & Demand Response tools
- KER5 Comfort service
- KER6 Energy interaction tools (gamification & social network)
- KER7 Regulatory insights and policy recommendations
During the project first period, REDREAM analysed the alignment between the consumer-centric model and the SDL paradigm proposed. The alignment between the consumer engagement strategies and the EU policy was defined to set the project KPIs and the consumer engagement project Methodology (SO1). This initial methodology, with the user feedbacks gathered during the second period, was embedded in the technological solutions (SO2-SO8). Finally, this initial phase provided the basis for REDREAM’s assessment and the relevant policy and regulation which is in the process to apply for the DEMOs.
In particular, the appliance of SDL paradigm focusing on an active role of the customers was very important with regards to the Explanation of the SDL paradigm and the Engagement Methodology, that go beyond the current state of the art whose potential impacts include: a) Increase the engagement and participation of consumers into the energy market; b) Increase consumers' awareness of energy efficiency and the environmental impact of their consumption; c) Increase of community awareness and capability to drive the energy transition. This was shared with other bridge projects (SO9).
During the second period, the challenge was encouraging users to test the proposed solutions. To achieve clients, different plans were used to group the tools from the simplest ones to the most advanced and complex ones. Solar self-consumptions became the most accepted plan in UK, SP and HR where different actions of demos were activated the users to change their behaviour: reducing the environmental impact of their consumption, increasing the local renewable usage and creating a community belong feeling.
The project breakthrough continues with the creation of digital twins and the exposure of the designed API for them, opening the capability for third parties to develop their services, tools, applications and interfaces. Secondly, gamification has activated the most inactive users to start being conscious of the energy consumed by their energy appliances and mobility. Thirdly, the creation of virtual devices allowed the activation of the sharing of local renewable production. This plan had the most social impact since users are currently eager to consume renewable energy. Fourthly, the energy efficiency and demand response tools developed allowed testing of the ongoing local flexibility market platforms in Spain and UK, and they also manifest the urgency to establish the regulation to enable end users to participate and obtain remuneration payments. In addition, the advisory tool, combined with the smart plug gamification, was used to activate users' implicit demand response.
In particular, the appliance of SDL paradigm focusing on an active role of the customers was very important with regards to the Explanation of the SDL paradigm and the Engagement Methodology, that go beyond the current state of the art whose potential impacts include: a) Increase the engagement and participation of consumers into the energy market; b) Increase consumers' awareness of energy efficiency and the environmental impact of their consumption; c) Increase of community awareness and capability to drive the energy transition. This was shared with other bridge projects (SO9).
During the second period, the challenge was encouraging users to test the proposed solutions. To achieve clients, different plans were used to group the tools from the simplest ones to the most advanced and complex ones. Solar self-consumptions became the most accepted plan in UK, SP and HR where different actions of demos were activated the users to change their behaviour: reducing the environmental impact of their consumption, increasing the local renewable usage and creating a community belong feeling.
The project breakthrough continues with the creation of digital twins and the exposure of the designed API for them, opening the capability for third parties to develop their services, tools, applications and interfaces. Secondly, gamification has activated the most inactive users to start being conscious of the energy consumed by their energy appliances and mobility. Thirdly, the creation of virtual devices allowed the activation of the sharing of local renewable production. This plan had the most social impact since users are currently eager to consume renewable energy. Fourthly, the energy efficiency and demand response tools developed allowed testing of the ongoing local flexibility market platforms in Spain and UK, and they also manifest the urgency to establish the regulation to enable end users to participate and obtain remuneration payments. In addition, the advisory tool, combined with the smart plug gamification, was used to activate users' implicit demand response.