Recap of E-LAND first pilot period

The E-LAND project aims to develop and demonstrate tools for energy systems to overcome the technical, business, and societal challenges associated with the creation of low carbon, climate resilient energy supply in challenging ecosystems of isolated, remote, or rural areas.

For achieving this objective and studying the overall effect of the E-LAND toolbox, the project will be implemented in three real-life pilots across Europe and two in India:

The Industrial Harbor: Port of Borg, Norway

The University Campus: UVTgv Campus, Romania

The Technology Park: Walqa Technology Park, Spain

The industrial Metropolitan: BYPL in Delhi and TATA Power in Mumbai, India

Results of ELAND toolbox

Community tools

The community tools are part of a structured community engagement methodology called the “Common Impact Model” (CIM) which developed during the E-LAND project for building community acceptance for decarbonized multi-vector local energy systems.

 

Results for different pilot sites (ELAND, D6.1. First Pilot Results)

The community engagement activities of the ELAND project have progressed on all the pilots in different phases. The primary focus of the first phase has been on the recruited and engaging end-users through various tools of the CIM model. These tools have been used to involve community members and stakeholders in the project. The target value for community member involvement was set at 70%, which has been nearly attained by using community engagement tools. Despite less stakeholder activity due to Covid-19 challenges, 65% of community members in all pilot sites have been collectively involved in the project. On the other hand, 99 external stakeholders, who are not part of the community members but are associated with community engagement, have been reached through community development tools.

Business tools

The Business Model Innovation tool helps businesses and communities in identifying new business models to implement low carbon, local energy systems.

 

Results for different pilot sites  (ELAND, D6.1. First Pilot Results)

The Business Model Innovation (BMI) has been tested by several pilot sites through workshops with internal community members and external stakeholders as a part of the Stakeholder Innovation Group (SIG). As a result, 32 SIG members have been involved in collaborative actions, although the target number was 10. Furthermore, five services for the DSO have been identified within various pilots. Since each site has different nature and local regulations, the services are still not finalised and will be presented in the final piloting results. These pilot activities have also contributed to the development of viable business model patterns. Hence, 25 patterns which are viable for E-LAND topics have been identified and described.

Technology tools (MVS and EPA)

The E-LAND technology tools have been developed during the project to help the LES on the pilot site with both short-term optimisation and longer-term investment planning. One of these tools is the Multi-Vector Simulator (MVS) which is an investment planning tool for the optimization of multi-vector local energy systems. The other one is The Energy Planning Application (EPA) which provides an intuitive user interface for the optimization of multi-vector local energy systems.

 

Results for different pilot sites  (ELAND, D6.1. First Pilot Results)

The technology tools required a more detailed process for the pilot preparation, testing and validation. Following are the steps for the piloting methodology of the technology tools for the E-LAND project:

1. Recap of use-cases defined in 1 Use-case definition.
2. Definition of pilot site objectives and review of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) needed to ensure piloting period progress according to the initial plan.
3. Timeline for integration and validation of use-cases created with the pilot site owners.
4. An end-to-end testing regime created through the collaboration of all partners involved in the technology tools implementation.
5. Use-case validation for each pilot with specific use-cases that contribute to the quantification of the project KPIs and the corresponding impact

The COVID-19 pandemic made it challenging to keep the piloting for the E-LAND tools on track. For this, the above methodology was tweaked, and an additional key component was added with the monthly “E-LAND Taskforce” meetings. The first pilot results for the technology tools focused on Primary Use-Cases (PUCs) 8 and 9 on “Multi-vector optimization and optimal sizing of assets in a LES”, where the following results were achieved for the investment planning of RES in the LES of various pilot-sites in the project:

 

For the short-term optimization tools, the PUC 1-7 are being evaluated during the second period on the three pilot sites in Europe (Norway, Spain and Romania).

Stay tuned for more results shared in coming months.