8th GO-P2P Meeting (hybrid) in Lisbon, Portugal – May 2024

Join us for the 8th GO-P2P Event in Lisbon, Portugal on scaling up local energy markets. This year’s event is organised in collaboration with NOVA School of Law and NOVA IMS, and is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

Where: NOVA University of Lisbon, Campus Campolide, 1070-124 Lisbon, Portugal
When: 28th and 29th of May 2024

About the Event

In recent years, local energy markets, including peer-to-peer energy trading, transactive energy and community self-consumption, have gained significant momentum. These initiatives empower energy end-users and small-scale prosumers to directly exchange electricity and encourage active engagement in the energy market.

While pilot projects have demonstrated the viability of these market models, challenges such as existing policies, regulations, and technical and social barriers hinder their scalability and wider adoption beyond the pilot phase. Many barriers inhibiting scaling relate to risk allocation and management. Pilot projects are carefully designed to cap up-side financial risk by defining project budget, scale and duration. Project participants’ risks are carefully controlled, with any financial losses underwritten by project funders. Regulatory risks have frequently been quarantined inside regulatory sandboxes to avoid wider energy system or political risks. Each of these are sensible precautions, but they are designed to limit, rather than acknowledge, allocate and manage such risks.

To scale beyond the pilot and the sandbox, such risks need to be accepted, evaluated and addressed. Portugal is one of the most progressive countries in adoption of local energy markets. Join us at the 8th GO-P2P meeting to learn from Portuguese and other European cases, companies and regulators on how they have addressed such risks, and the extent to which their solutions may be adopted and adapted for other contexts.

REGISTER HERE

(in-person & online)

Agenda

Tuesday, 28th of May – 09:00-17:00 (open to the public)

Location: NOVA University of Lisbon, Campus Campolide, 1070-124 Lisbon, Portugal + online

Day 1 will focus on different scalability challenges, such as social, technical, regulatory or market challenges. Each case study presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with stakeholders affected by these challenges, who will have the opportunity to engage in an in-depth discussion on the challenges presented in order to find a solution to improve scalability.

(Details description of the cases can be found below)

Wednesday, 29th of May – 09:00 – 15:00 (GO-P2P members only)

Location: Abreu Advogados, Av. Infante Dom Henrique 26, 1100-139, Lisbon, Portugal + online

Day 2 will focus on discussing the next GO-P2P  work packages specifically the analysis of the case study data,  introducing the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and the calculation of country level reports. There will be also the opportunity for members to share updates on what they are working on, as well as what’s ‘new’ and what’s ‘hot’ in their country/field.

About the Cases

Cleanwatts Living Lab

The Cleanwatts Living Lab (CWLL) (2024-2027) represents a groundbreaking partnership with the Portuguese energy regulator ERSE and distribution system operator E-Redes. This initiative marks a significant step towards addressing the challenges posed by the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources into the grid. By transforming the grid into a dynamic, integrated network, CWLL aims to ensure stability and efficiency through innovative energy management practices. CWLL operates as a regulatory sandbox, providing a controlled environment to test various forward-thinking solutions. These include peer-to-peer energy trading, aggregating loads for grid services, employing electric vehicle chargers as flexible loads, and using battery storage to enhance renewable integration and provide grid flexibility. A key aspect of CWLL’s approach is leveraging the Kiome app to foster community engagement, empowering users to make informed energy decisions and participate actively in energy efficiency.

Addressing the scalability challenges, particularly in residential areas where technology costs can outweigh the benefits for small-scale loads, is crucial. CWLL can aggregate small loads to achieve a reliable scale for energy balancing, navigating the “chicken and egg” problem of requiring scale to prove the approach’s effectiveness. The project’s success is also tied to overcoming geographical constraints to achieve the necessary scale. By integrating innovative solutions and community engagement through the Kiome app, CWLL seeks to establish a scalable and replicable model for future energy systems. This approach not only aims to solve the technical and economic challenges of renewable energy integration but also to enhance community involvement in the green transition, setting a new standard for grid management and sustainable energy practices.

ENTRNCE

ENTRNCE facilitates the operation of decentralized energy markets. Energy communities, decentral governments, cooperative energy suppliers, energy hubs, active consumers (prosumers), and innovative energy service providers play a key role in these markets. On connection level, ENTRNCE enables direct energy exchange between producers and consumers (peer-to-peer), alongside full transparency regarding the origin and destination of energy, as well as full insight in the financial flows accompanied with the trading. As example, the ENTRNCE platform settles the imbalance position on connection level, indicating a new and disruptive approach to local energy trading. As a result, ENTRNCE allows customers to engage in peer-2-peer deals, Cooperative Energy Exchange deals and peer-2-market deals (wholesale exchange). All this provides decentralized markets with freedom of choice and reduces barriers to entry into the energy market.

ENTRNCE is developing the Cooperative Energy Exchange, which is an exchange platform in which energy communities can trade their residual electricity with other energy communities against the cost price. Ultimately, a ‘local’ component should be implemented in the exchange such that operational Local Electricity Markets can be facilitated. In the presentation, we will elaborate on the different scalability challenges that we have encountered in implementing the Local4Local model and the Cooperative Energy Exchange.

Community DSO

The Community DSO project (2023-2028) is Northern Powergrid’s flagship innovation project in partnership with TNEI and LCP Delta. It aims to deliver a UK energy industry-first approach to developing a future framework for community distribution system operation (DSO). The project is funded through Ofgem’s Network Innovation Competition (NIC). Over the next five years (from 2023) the project will develop and trial standard approaches to enable communities and regional stakeholders to work with Northern Powergrid as their local electricity network operator to deploy Smart Local Energy Systems, whilst building more resilience and capacity for vital local electricity networks.

The principal feature of the Community DSO concept is that it is built on a “bottom up” approach in which individual cells (typically a substation circuit) are managed as single entities, matching generation within the cell with consumption within the cell. This local balancing of generation and demand addresses many of the challenges facing energy communities wishing to obtain connection agreements for either generation or additional electrical demand in distribution networks with constrained capacity.  The project seeks to develop what will become standardised cell archetypes which can be replicated and combined elsewhere as required.

EDP

The Évora pilot project, a cornerstone of the Horizon 2020 POCITYF programme, is pioneering the integration of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Collective Self-Consumption (CSC) in line with Regulation No. 373/2021. With the strategic vision of creating Positive Energy Blocks (PEBs), this initiative aims to transform specific urban areas into net energy producers on an annual basis. This is achieved by exceeding their consumption through sustainable practices and renewable sources. Incorporating the latest findings from the COMMUNITAS project under Horizon Europe, the Évora project innovates by piloting a P2P energy trading platform that allows members within RECs or CSCs to trade surplus energy. This platform is designed for semi-automated management of energy distribution, fostering an efficient local market ecosystem.

Key to the sustainability and scalability of the project is a financial structure that incentivises participation through direct bill reductions for buyers and management fee discounts for sellers, thereby eliminating the need for intermediaries such as DSOs in the settlement of transactions. The project aims to increase renewable energy self-sufficiency in these communities, significantly reduce costs and accelerate payback, and serve as a scalable prototype for future smart city energy solutions.

Hotel recommendations

Hotels near Praça da Espanha:
Hotel Acores Lisboa
SANA Malhoa Hotel

Hotels nearby Parque Metro Station:
VIP Executive Picoas

Hotel near Marques de Pombal:
HF Fenix Music

About the GO-P2P

The Global Observatory on Peer-to-Peer, Community Self-Consumption and Transactive Energy (GO-P2P) is a technology-neutral, pre-competitive, whole systems focused platform providing an authoritative and impartial evidence base for policy makers and regulators working on these innovative business models across the world. The bulk of the Observatory’s work is being driven by leading researchers in member countries of the UsersTCP (the User-Centred Energy Systems Technology Collaboration Programme by the International Energy Agency). GO-P2P is led by the UK research community and has been funded through the InnovateUK Prospering From the Energy Revolution (PFER) Energy Revolution Research Consortium (EnergyREV). Current UsersTCP members in addition to the UK participating in GO-P2P include: Australia; Belgium; Ireland; Italy; Korea; Netherlands; New Zealand; Switzerland; and the United States. We have representatives from a wide range of stakeholders working in these fields including industry, non-profits, academics and policymakers who contribute and benefit from GO-P2P’s findings. GO-P2P has produced a series of landmark literature reviews across its five sub-tasks, and is now collecting case study data for analysis for policy recommendations for its participating countries. These findings will not only serve policymakers, but also feed into the International Energy Agency and its publications.

For more information please contact the GO-P2P Task Leader, Anna Gorbatcheva (go-p2p@userstcp.org) or the co-organiser Lucila de Almeida (lucila.dealmeida@novalaw.unl.pt).