REScoopVPP community tools being tested
Five large demonstration sites with solar photovoltaic panels will be testing the REScoopVPP tools:
- A Housing cooperative with 47 residential units
- An Urban ecovillage with 15 residential units, a hostel, and a café
- A carpenter's and electricians workshop
- A multi-family home with three families
- A Historical building complex with 11 residential units and various offices.
All sites have a large PV plant and electrical vehicle charging stations. Three of the pilots have larger batteries and two of them have a combined heat and power installation.
Optimise self-consumption
In the REScoopVPP project, Bürgerwerke supports prosumers and housing communities with flexible consumption units (batteries, heat pump, electric vehicle charging station), to optimise their energy consumption, by using electricity at moments when their own solar panels are producing it.
Energy monitoring
End-users and site managers have access to an energy monitoring dashboard that visualises the energy flows in the sites at any time.
Thermal storage
Bürgerwerke supports the sites with a hybrid heating system (heat pump, gas boiler, thermal storage) to optimise heating resources. The most suitable heating source are switched on automatically in order to increase self-consumption and reduce energy costs.
German Mieterstrom
Many Bürgerwerke member cooperatives operate solar electricity supply according to the German Mieterstrom framework in their sites.
Introduced in 2017, the Mieterstrom regulation allows PV electricity generated on the roofs of residential buildings to be delivered to tenants living in the same building. The producer of the electricity is exempted of most of the charges and taxes for the locally consumed power and receives a premium for the locally consumed power. The producer is also obliged to take care of the residual load and to supply the participating consumers at all times, thus it needs a supplier license.
By unlocking the flexibility potential that exists in the buildings, Bürgerwerke aims at using REScoopVPP tools to consume more out of this jointly produced electricity and make collective self-consumption in the Mieterstrom framework more attractive for tenants.
Making another step towards the energy transition
Ownership of different elements of the energy value chain is an important value to pursue by citizen energy cooperatives.
By joining REScoopVPP and strengthening its members’ role as local energy managers, Bürgerwerke is keeping the benefits of flexibility in the community.
REScoopVPP will provide opportunities for Bürgerwerke and its members to set up a whole range of new activities and enable its members to increase their renewable consumption to further move towards sustainable lifestyles!
