France
Énergies citoyennes en Pays de Vilaine, Enercoop, and University of Rennes
The French pilot project focuses on awareness and participation by exploring social and economic incentives for citizen engagement. It also examines scalable business models and addresses both technical and social barriers in collaboration with local authorities and the Distribution System Operator (DSO), which is, in this case, the Syndicat Départemental d’Énergies.
As part of the pilot project, an open-source energy management infrastructure will be deployed across 500 sites, including households, municipalities, and SMEs. A dedicated user interface will provide community members with real-time access to energy data.
We cannot use non-controllable renewable energies without adapting consumption patterns. Through this local experiment, we need to find technical, economic and sociological solutions to achieve this. We will have to take into account the interests of all stakeholders, including consumer citizens, who are involved in this innovative project focused on our region.
Partners
Énergies citoyennes en Pays de Vilaine
Énergies citoyennes en Pays de Vilaine (EPV) leads the French pilot project. With more than 2,000 members, this energy community owns 3 solar plants and 13 wind turbines, generating a total of 24MW. Since 2003, it has engaged in the energy transition through production, as well as promoting energy sufficiency and doing public outreach in events and schools. EPV also acts as a counsellor for local public authorities on those topics.
Enercoop
Building on its extensive experience and strong presence in the French electric market, Enercoop is a cooperative RES supplier that manages over 100,000 clients and 450 producers. It specialises in customer management, energy markets, balancing responsibility, energy production, energy services (such as photovoltaic and renovation engineering), and training. Its cooperative model encourages customer involvement as stakeholders in the company’s decisions.
University of Rennes
Under the University of Rennes, the SyEnsCES team of the IETR Laboratory brings over 20 years of research experience in flexibility management software, including the modelling and forecasting of renewable energy production, as well as the optimal control of storage units and flexible consumption. The University of Rennes is developing an open-source energy management system designed to optimise energy use.