European project led by INESC TEC in the field of energy came to an end

The European project AnyPLACE, led by INESC TEC through the Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES) came to an end this month. After three and a half years, it was developed an energy management system capable of monitoring and controlling local devices according to the preferences of the end-users.

Due to the developed technology, entitled HEMS (Home Energy Management System), the users now have the possibility to manage their own consumption, contributing to a new portfolio of energy services and taking advantage of the dynamism of tariff prices and therefore minimizing the energy costs.

“Let us imagine that at a certain time of the day there is a surplus of wind power which causes energy costs to decrease. HEMS receives information on that price in real time, and according to the usage profile, the platform acts on the home devices in order to benefit from that tariff. Another advantage is the fact that the HEMS is modular, which means that it can be adaptable to any home, regardless of the existing technologies”, mentioned David Rua, senior researcher from CPES, who was responsible for the project for three and a half years.

HEMS was tested during the project in a demonstration area composed by residential consumers, located in Dörentrup (Lippe, Germany).

It was also in Dörentrup that the final event of the project was held. It gathered the consortium and other important stakeholders such as the consumers that participated in the project and local authorities.

Eight entities from four nationalities participated in the AnyPLACE project. Other than INESC TEC, the following entities were part of the project: the Vienna University of Technology (Austria) and the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Science (Germany), the JRC – Joint Research Centre European Commission (the Netherlands), EFACEC Energia – Máquinas e Equipamentos Elétricos SA (Portugal), Power Plus Comunications AG (Germany), BOSCH Termotecnologia SA (Portugal) and Kreis Lippe der Landrat (Germany).

HEMS is now being improved through new tools and algorithms, under the project InteGrid, therefore following a new logic based on the participation in advanced system services.

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC and UP-FEUP.