transformation
Berchidda, Italy 
The Consortium
LocalRES’ consortium is composed by 20 partners across 8 different countries: Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Belgium and Germany. This consortium represents key stakeholders within the value chain of smart grids, each one contributing with specific valuable knowledge to meet LocalRES objectives.
The consortium partners include four municipalities located in four different countries (Finland, Italy, Spain and Austria), where the four demonstration sites of the project are placed. The LocalRES approach will be demonstrated in these pilot sites, which include two villages in rural areas (Ispaster, Ollersdorf) and two towns located in geographical islands (Kökar, Berchidda). In all cases, these demonstration sites represent remote communities with weak grid connections, which have a sound replication potential across the EU.
CARTIF Technology Center is a leading Spanish Applied Research Centre in terms of Research and Development and technology transfer activities. It was created in 1994 and gathered some 150 researchers.
CARTIF currently participates in 55 on-going international projects, including 31 projects from H2020, of which 5 of them are under CARTIF’s coordination.
CARTIF is part of the European E2BA (Energy Efficient Buildings Association). Additionally, CARTIF is one of the founding members and main promoters of the Smart City VyP initiative carried out in the Spanish cities of Valladolid and Palencia. CARTIF is LocalRES Project Coordinator.
Country: Spain
Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) is Austria’s largest non-university research organisation with more than 1.300 employees. It takes a leading position in the Austrian innovation system and a corresponding key role in Europe. AIT’s experts involved in this assignment are working in the Center for Energy.
The Center for Energy accounts with more than 200 people who offer their expertise to energy system stakeholders including governmental and regulatory bodies, providing them with a sound basis for creating a political and legal framework that is designed to meet the energy challenges of the future. In this context, AIT offers consulting and training services for scenario development for renewable energy systems, decision support services, support for design and validation of market conditions as well as analysis of flexibility potential in the energy system
Country: Austria
Artelys is an SME (100 employees in 2020) whose headquarters are located in Paris and has offices in Montreal (Canada), Chicago, and Brussels (UK). It is recognized as a world-class software edition company which specialises in optimisation, decision-support and modelling. The tools developed by Artelys are used by decision-makers and analysts all along the energy value chain (European Commission, local authorities, TSOs, national regulatory agencies, utilities, energy ministries and agencies,etc.).
Country: France
Centrica Business Solutions Belgium N.V. (CENTRICA) is a worldwide energy services company and energy supplier with 26 million customers, both residential (B2C) and industrial (B2B). Centrica is the former aggregator REstore who has been acquired by the Centrica group. It is a leading energy-technology company specialized in the development and marketing of advanced automated demand management and virtual power plant (VPP) solutions. Founded in 2010 by Pieter-Jan Mermans and Jan-Willem Rombouts with headquarters in Antwerp (Belgium). REstore pioneered with its demand response (DR) aggregation software for electricity. Currently CENTRICA has over 3500MW of flexible power in its portfolio. It aggregates available DR flexibility from industrial and residential customers and offers this flexibility to balance responsible parties and transmission system operators (e.g. Elia, Amprion, National Grid, RTE). At the fundament of this service lies the patented FlexPondTM software platform that enables the creation of VPPs.
Country: Belgium
Flexens was founded in 2018 to become a world leading project development company for advanced sustainable and flexible energy systems, initially developing and implementing a full society scale demo based on the FLEXe concept on the Åland Islands. Flexens is owned by the Finnish innovation company CLIC Innovation, and the key actors in the energy sector on Åland Islands including both private and public companies, as well as the local government. Flexens core competence is in depth understanding of RES based energy systems with several market players, and its focus is on renewables integration –with the interaction and storage technologies at the core. The company mission includes development of new market models based on a local legislation mandate, the implementation of a new flexibility trading platform, initiating investment in new flexibility resources and by participating in creating new technology companies e.g. to offer new digital services. The project development for multi-technology integrated RES systems is based on competencies in concept development for market-based smart energy systems, communication and citizen engagement, project management, investment planning, feasibility studies, funding and financing.
Country: Finland
RINA Consulting S.p.A. (RINA) is a global corporation that provides services across the Energy, Marine, Certification, Transport & Infrastructure and Industry sectors through a global network of 200 offices in 70 countries. Through its 3.800 talented professionals, RINA provides a wide range of high quality tailored solutions aiming to back up the market operators across the entire life cycle of their projects. All RINA services are performed at the highest professional level, understanding and complying with Client’s needs and requirements while taking into due consideration sustainability and health, safety and environmental targets. As a result of the integration of a number of internationally respected RINA companies, RINA pools several entities under one unique brand. In terms of Governance, RINA consists of the Holding Company RINA S.p.A. that controls and coordinates the two main operational companies RINA Services S.p.A. and RINA Consulting S.p.A. RINA Consulting offers high-end services to investors, promoters, operators and contractors, as well as to insurers and public administrations, to support their initiatives.
Country: Italy
DOWEL Innovation (DOWEL) is a cooperative consulting company specializing in Innovation Strategy and Management. We work as a team, in a spirit of collaboration and mutual support. The environmental transition is at the heart of our business and our values. We provide a range of services relating to all phases of the innovation lifecycle, with a specialization in low carbon energy systems, sustainable and smart cities and energy efficient buildings.
Country: France
Energy Cities (ENC) is an European learning community for future-proof cities. Across Europe, cities and towns have been translating strong political will into energy and climate action. As part of the Energy Cities network, they share, inspire, and learn from each other – building better, more inclusive, and more local sustainable solutions for their citizens. Energy Cities showcases tangible alternatives deployed by municipalities, advocating change to political and economic governance at all levels. Together we are fostering the wide cultural change needed for a ‘futureproof’ society.
Country: France
Eurac Research is a private research center, founded in 1992 in Bolzano, South Tyrol. Research is our passion. With curiosity, enthusiasm, courage, and perseverance we face the challenges of our time: people need health, functioning political systems, an intact environment. To counteract climate change, energy supplies must become CO2-neutral as quickly as possible: The Institute for Renewable Energy of Eurac Research conducts innovative applied research to generate energy from sustainable sources, manage energy systems and reduce energy consumption. We are involved in this transformation at all levels, we collaborate with industry partners on technological innovations and advise decision-makers on setting the course for the transformation of entire systems. The Institute is also an active partner, collaborator and board member in European and International agencies, associations, and scientific networks. We also collaborate actively and fruitfully with several local scientific partners and agencies.
Country: Italy
Munster Technological University (MTU) is a publicly funded Higher Education Institution in the South of Ireland. It is the largest of Ireland’s Institutes of Technology outside Dublin with a total student enrolment of about 18,000 full-time and part-time students and over 2000 academic, research and administration staff. The People Behaviour & Technology Integration (PBTI) group will represent MTU in the project. The PBTI group specialises in the development of next-generation cloud-based applications, systems, products and solutions that are specifically designed to encourage citizen engagement and improve urban spaces. The group brings together multidisciplinary researchers from the engineering, social, and information sciences addressing the challenges of the future where the ever-closer integration of technology into almost all areas of life can be used to create many novel and useful applications. Country: Ireland
Kökar Kommun is a municipality representing a small, lively archipelago with all the basic services: a library and a school by the sea, a kindergarten, health services and a nursing home. Kökar Kommun is one of six self-governed small island municipalities. Kökar is part of the autonomous region of Åland, chosen by the Finnish State as a test bed for innovative energy solutions. During the last four years, a set of investigations have been made on Åland, which can be implemented in a first step on Kökar. The development of the municipality of Kökar is dependent on a vibrant local business. Entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial spirit have clearly strengthened in Kökar in recent years: there were 33 registered entrepreneurs in 2013, compared with 18 in 2007. Kökar has an association of entrepreneurs that aims to promote entrepreneurship and cooperation between entrepreneurs. Most of the private entrepreneurs are in tourism, shipping and agriculture, but a new bakery has also recently opened in Kökar. The municipality is Kökar’s largest employer: the municipality employs about 30 people, most of whom work in day care, nursing homes and schools.
Country: Finland
The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) is a state owned and controlled non-profit limited liability company established by law and operating under the ownership steering of the Finnish Ministry of Employment and the Economy. VTT is an RTO whose activities are focused on three areas: Carbon neutral solutions, Sustainable products and materials, and Digital technologies. VTT is impact-driven and takes advantage from its wide multi-technological knowledge base to strengthen Finnish and European industrial competitiveness. VTT can combine different technologies, produce information, upgrade technology knowledge, and create business intelligence and value added for its stakeholders. Over the years, VTT has gained vast experience from participation and coordination of numerous European projects including R&D Framework Programme projects and other thematic frameworks and programmes.
Country: Finland
R2M Solution S.r.l. is an integrated and multi-disciplinary consulting company that aggressively targets filling the gap between research activities and market implementation. We excel at helping companies grow and acting as an accelerator for bringing technologies and services to the market across the fields of Innovation Management, Engineering, Energy, and ICT/Automation. We invest in opportunities, conduct research, and offer pure engineering, energy services, and ICT consulting services. We actively seek spinoff creation opportunities, showcase promising technologies and build clusters for their uptake.
Country: Italy
Located in an isolated area on the southern slopes of Mount Limbara, in the north of Sardinia Island, Berchidda is a village with three thousand inhabitants that covers approx. 201 km2. It is located at an average altitude of 300m, with a wide hilly area in a radius of almost 20 km. The anthropic structures, vegetation and climatic conditions are typical for the inland areas of Sardinia, with average temperatures of 15°C. Berchidda Municipality adhered the Covenant of Mayors with the aim of achieve energy independence and reduce energy dissipation, regain and strengthen the local economy, also through the enhancement of its excellent food and the environment and increase the resident population, recovering in this way also the homes in decay.
Country: Italy
Barrizar Cooperativeis an ESCO founded in 2013 to encourage Energy Efficiency and implement the use of Renewable Energy. It works to foster a sustainable model where distributed generation means fairly distributed wealth, and local cooperatives drive social economy. Barrizar has 14 collaboration partners and 4 workers, including engineers (civil works, thermal, electric), installation technicians, civil works, equipment supply, maintenance technicians and biologist. Its main project is “Lea-Artibai towards energy sovereignty”. The global aim is to feed, in a high percentage with local renewable energy sources (RES), the Lea-Artibai region (27.000 people and 200 km2) in the Basque Country (Spain). Solar, wind, microhydro, marine, biomass energy, available with efficiency.
Country: Spain
Ispasterko Udala (ISPASTER) is a small village with 740 inhabitants in a municipal area of 22 km2, located in the coast of Bizkaia, in the north of Spain. The demo site is located in the Elexalde district, a neighbourhood with 350 inhabitants, site of the Town Hall, public school, cultural centre and most of the public services. There is no relevant industry area near the demonstration site, but some small services/industries. The goal at mid-long term is to be an autonomous and isolated energy island based on 100% renewable energy sources. To this end, Ispaster signed the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 in 2008 and the Covenant of Mayors.
Country: Spain
TECNALIA Research and Innovation (TECNALIA) is the largest centre of applied research and technological development in Spain, a benchmark in Europe and a member of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance. We collaborate with companies and institutions to improve their competitiveness, people’s quality of life and achieve sustainable growth. Our mission is to “Transform technological research into prosperity” and our vision is “to be the agents of change in companies and society, adapting them to the challenges of a constantly evolving future”.
We do it thanks to a team made up of more than 1,400 people (44% women – 56% men) who are passionate about technology and committed to building a better society. TECNALIA’s revenue in 2020 amounted to 114 million euros, 49% in revenue from activity with companies. In 2020, the Sale of Industrial Property Rights section recorded 4.4 million euros in income, with a portfolio of 777 patents. It took part in 13 New Technology-Based Companies (NTBC) and 20 of the sponsored NTBCs are still active today. They generated a total of 213 jobs and a turnover of 28,4 million euros.
Its main scopes of action are: Smart Manufacturing, Digital Transformation, Energy Transition, Sustainable Mobility, Personalized Health and Urban Ecosystem.
Country: Spain
Founded in 1999, Sistemes Avançats d’Energia Solar Termica Sccl (AIGUASOL) provides engineering, consultancy and research services, and promotes innovative solutions to reduce the impact associated with energy consumption. Operating as a working cooperative, with a horizontal work structure participatory management, AIGUASOL pursues organizational transformation and focuses on social responsibility, innovation, training and quality. The AIGUASOL team is made up of around twenty high-level scientific and technical professionals, including PhDs, engineers and physicists, who have a wealth of experience in the energy sector, both in private companies and research centres. AIGUASOL has extensive experience in several areas: engineering and integration of energy concepts (renewable, heat pump, waste management, etc) into advanced applied systems; modelling, design, monitoring and control of bespoke energy solutions; and commercialization of energy systems from a demonstration stage to a real operational environment. AIGUASOL most important addition to the project is versatile approach that integrates engineering, consultancy and research.
Country: Spain
Ollersdorf is a town in the district of Güssing in the Austrian state of Burgenland. Counts with almost 1000 habitants. The municipality of Ollersdorfis part of the Klimate and Energy Model Region (KEM) “KEM Golf und Thermenregion Stegersbach”. KEM’s are a program of the Austrian Klimate and Energy Fund. Ollersdorf is also part of the Innovation Lab act4.energy which is an initiative of the Austrian Ministry of Transportsation, Innovation and Technology in the program “City of Tomorrow”. As such Ollersdorf has a clear strategy to focus on renewable energy and smart municipality.
Country: Austria
The University of Passau (UNI PASSAU) (www.uni-passau.de) has traditionally been playing a leading role in research related to smart grid, digitalization of the energy system, energy efficiency, self-organization, performance modelling, IT security, and further computer networking related topics. The University’s IT centre offers excellent opportunities for the dissemination of knowledge and research results both to academia, SME, and to leading industrial partners.
The chair of computer networks and communications, being part of this project, offers seminars and lecture series at the university that focus on the areas of energy efficiency, smart grids, energy informatics, security, trust & reputation and network privacy. Their main responsibilities within LocalRES are leading the blackout strategies task and supporting the demonstration site in Ollersdorf, Austria.
Country: Germany
