Posted on

UBITECH ENERGY kicks off the IANOS Innovation Action on Decarbonization and Smartification of Islands

UBITECH ENERGY participates in the virtual kick-off meeting, hosted by CNET (October 7-8, 2020), of the IANOS Innovation Action, officially started on October 1st, 2020. The project is funded by European Commission under Horizon 2020 Programme (Grant Agreement No. 957810) and spans on the period October 2020 – September 2024. The IANOS project aims to demonstrate, under real-life operational conditions, a group of both technological and non-technological solutions adapted to harsh islandic conditions, in two (2) Lighthouse (LH) islands, covering a multitude of energy supply, storage and end-use vectors on different climatic and socio-economic conditions, while taking the appropriate measures for their replication into three (3) Fellow islands.

In order to tackle the system resilience challenge, IANOS focuses in the maximization of flexibility harnessing and provision along with self-consumption capability, through the utilization of distributed RE and storage technologies. Operational linkage and coordination of the energy vectors (electricity, thermal, fuels) is performed through multi-source energy storage, demand response (DR) and Power-to-X technologies (i.e. power-to-gas, power-to-hydrogen, power-to-heat, power-to-mobility), supported by an intelligent Virtual Power Plant platform (iVPP). The iVPP design aims in optimal modularity and scalability, offering secured monitoring, aggregation and predictive energy management features, complemented by a set of cloud and fog-enabled software and hardware modules, oriented to serve the needs of island energy market stakeholders.

At the planning level, IANOS streamlines the decision-making process towards tailor-made solutions considering islands’ specific traits, through the Island Energy Planning and Transition Suite (IEPT). IANOS adopts a LEC – oriented design, in which the policy/ regulations decision makers, small prosumers, large energy providers are empowered to create synergies, exchange knowledge and lead community-driven RE investments, also reaping the benefits of their active participation in transactive energy programs and services.

IANOS is helping reimagine future EU Islands through a strong decarbonization strategy. For this purpose, the project takes specific actions into implementing the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) and ensuring long-term EU technological competitiveness by testing innovative energy technologies on islands, establishing their cost-competitiveness and performances under harsh environments. IANOS focuses on facilitating the opportunities for local and regional governments to capitalise on cooperation with other islands and accelerate the transformation towards energy sustainability by increasing their capacity in restructuring the current island governance models into more islander-centric ones with clear action plans supported by the island public authorities and services.

Within IANOS, UBITECH ENERGY leads the implementation of the Transition and Investment Decision Support Framework, which constitutes a concrete energy planning and decision-making toolkit to assist the energy transition of geographical islands, integrating a a) dedicated web platform for LCA/LCC studies, b) an equity crowdfunding tool, c) blended with power system modelling and simulation tools and d) a Cost-Benefit tool. In particular, UBITECH ENERGY integrates the LCA/LCC tool for Transition Support and the Equity Crowdfunding tool for Community-driven Investments with power system modelling and simulation tools (INTEMA, Stochastic Load Flow, Monte Carlo Resources adequacy modeling, Stability assessment, Unit Commitment, Reserves Planning), in order to deliver a holistic toolset able to evaluate the overall benefits expected from clean energy/smart grid interventions, from various perspectives, based on the viewpoint from each stakeholder (e.g. Municipality, DSO and community representatives).