The French energy cooperative and SmartCORE partner Enercoop recently launched three new supply tariffs to help its customers consume with more flexibility and take advantage of the best moments of renewable electricity production.
Over the last few years, renewable energy has grown in France (and that's good news!), particularly solar power, which is impacting prices on the wholesale electricity markets. Prices are getting lower and lower in the afternoon, sometimes to the point of becoming negative. So there has been a major paradigm shift in the markets: the cheapest hours are no longer just at night, but often in the middle of the day.
In this context, Enercoop has decided to launch new supply offers based on a logic of peak and off-peak hours adapted to this new dynamic. This approach is clearly in line with its political project that advocates for an energy transition based on efficiency and sufficiency: customers are encouraged to consume at the same time as renewable production.
The work on these new tariffs builds on the cooperative's past achievements. In 2023, Enercoop celebrated the internalisation of the role of Balance Responsible Party and the flexibility alert mechanism “Opération Flexibilité”, which was initiated during its participation in the Horizon project REScoop VPP. This initiative was the first concrete connection with customers on flexible consumption.
Enercoop: Powering SmartCORE with experience and a large community
Led by the energy community Énergies Citoyennes en Pays de Vilaine (ÉPV), the SmartCORE pilot project in France builds upon the previous ELFE project, which aimed to optimise the match between local renewable energy production and consumption. The French pilot also involves the École Normale Supérieure de Rennes (ENS) as a technical partner. As part of the pilot project, ÉPV will set up a new wider panel of volunteer consumers who willing to shift their consumption patterns or have their equipment remotely controlled. It will also deploy the infrastructure needed to steer assets and to communicate with participants.
ENS, for its part, will design the Energy Management System, the control software that manages and optimises consumptions within the community. Enercoop will also contribute to this technical development - for instance, by providing its existing open-source enda forecasting algorithms and impring them. These algorithms enable energy communities to forecast short-term electricity load and production.
This pilot project opens the door to exploring how energy communities can enhance flexibility within the Enercoop business model and more generally how they can find sustainable financial models for flexibility. The SmartCORE journey will not end with this pilot; the insights gained will spread like seeds of innovation. Energy communities will receive tailored training, and one French community will benefit from personalised support through a dedicated mentoring programme.
