Upper Austria
© OÖ Energiesparverband, AustrianImages.com/Erwin Wodicka
Through this project, among other things, a platform should be created to find the ideal industrial partner for an energy community.
So far it has been difficult or not allowed to share energy beyond company borders.
The exchange of renewable energy between companies – now made possible by legal changes – creates new opportunities for CO2 reduction and improves the competitiveness of industrial companies. The lead project ‘Industrial Microgrids’ is developing a platform that makes industrial energy consumption and production visible in a spatial context and demonstrates the potential of “energy communities”.
With this new legal framework, also new questions and challenges appear:
- Which companies fit best in an energy community?
- Who will coordinate the energy flows in these communities?
- What are the benefits of such energy communities and what is the individual advantages for every participant?
The objectives of the project are
- Creation of a platform for the presentation of suitable industrial participants for an Energy Community in a spatial environment, considering the technical, business and legal framework.
- Application of the platform for industrial energy communities at three locations in Upper Austria (Wels, Ennshafen and Hagenberg) with different framework conditions such as electrical energy exchange, thermal exchange, combined thermal-electrical exchange
- Development of business models and their direct evaluation by means of simulations on the developed platform.
- Evaluation of the socio-economic effects as well as the public benefit in terms of awareness raising and flexibility possibilities for companies, employees and end customers. At the three locations, energy communities are currently being tested and mapped on a simulation basis.
Contact:
Project partner: Klima- und Energiefonds, Vorzeigeregion Energie
Contact person: Gerald Steinmaurer