As a pioneer in citizen energy in France since 2003, the association Énergies citoyennes en Pays de Vilaine (EPV) continues to innovate by exploring the possibilities of energy flexibility for households, local authorities, and businesses, with the intention to anticipate the end of regulated energy sales tariffs for local wind farms (as early as 2029 for France's first citizen-owned wind farm), while also responding to the strong demand from energy community members to consume locally produced electricity.
Following the ELFE (Expérimentons Localement la Flexibilité Énergétique) project – which took place from 2021 to 2024 and demonstrated the technical feasibility of consumption flexibility -, EPV is expanding this experiment thanks to the SmartCORE project. EPV focuses on the following two pillars.
Understanding consumer behavior
Starting in the second half of 2026, the French SmartCORE pilot, led by EPV, will launch an experiment on consumption flexibility involving 450 households and 50 buildings (local authorities, businesses), offering various home automation control systems in collaboration with the partners Enercoop, École Normale Supérieure de Rennes (ENS) and EnergyID.
Four use cases will be examined in detail, by focusing on:
- individual self-consumption,
- collective self-consumption,
- dynamic pricing, and
- consumption patterns.
The objective is threefold:
- to assess which home automation systems are most appropriate for each scenario,
- to analyse how households, users of public buildings, and company employees change their electricity consumption through these systems along with the integration of local energy weather forecasts, and
- to help participants better understand how renewable energy work.
Explore the feasibility of a local electricity market
At the same time, EPV and Enercoop will
work on several scenarios for a local electricity market for the Pays de
Vilaine area. This will involve assessing the potential impact and economic
viability of energy flexibility, on the one hand. And, on the other hand, it
will require the development of business models that respond to the challenges
and constraints of the local area in order to offer energy communities an
additional local and citizen-led alternative to the national market.
Securing the future of renewables in Pays de Vilaine
The SmartCORE French pilot advances a
future-proof energy transition in the Pays de Vilaine region by addressing
three key dimensions: social participation, economic viability, and technical
optimisation. By combining community engagement, a successful business model,
and optimal energy management solutions, the project seeks to demonstrate the
key role of community energy in the energy transition and aims to represent an
inspiring example for citizen-led energy initiatives across North-West Europe.
