INEEXS to validate energy efficiency services on the blockchain
The INEEXS (Innovative Energy Efficiency Service Models for Sector Integration via Blockchain) project has launched with a primary focus on improving the business case for energy efficiency with decentralised digital technologies.
The core concept of the INEEXS project is the deployment of integrated energy services across sectors and carriers and the tokenisation of energy saving data in a public blockchain to facilitate cooperation among the various market segments and players.
A particular focus will be placed on the development of business models and contractual schemes that facilitate the implementation of sector integrating smart energy services and the deployment of a wide range of sustainable technologies, including renewables, electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps, internet of things (IoT) controls and other energy efficiency measures.
As such, the project is aimed to overcome barriers to the wider deployment of energy efficiency and demand flexibility solutions such as data exchange and thereby provide support to meeting the targets of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (Article 7).
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INEEXS, which is being supported with EU funding, is being led by the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy (IEECP).
Other partners in the consortium are HERON, National Technical University of Athens and domX (Greece), ESCAN, Enercoop and Verdia Legal (Spain), Berliner Energieagentur and OFFIS (Germany), Inlecom Group (Belgium), HIVEN (Finland) and the Energy Web Foundation (Switzerland).
“Elaborating innovative and fitting business models by active market participants is pivotal if we are to address the existential challenge of transforming the energy system,” says Filippos Anagnostopoulos, senior associate at IEECP and the project coordinator.
“The INEEXS project offers a unique opportunity to energy retailers, energy communities, technology developers, energy agencies and real estate companies to validate, replicate, adopt and roll concrete technical solutions with potentially transformative impact.”
Business use cases
The project plans over the next three years to deploy and validate different business models in four different EU states to offer wide geographical coverage and distinct settings, e.g. in regulation.
These are:
• Energy performance contracting with pay-for-performance guarantees for ESCOs for the renovation of publicly owned buildings, which will be implemented in Berlin, Germany.
• Improved self-consumption of distributed energy resources in energy cooperatives via behaviour impact prompts/nudges, which will be implemented in Crevillent, Spain.
• Energy efficiency and flexibility services for legacy natural gas boilers, which will be implemented in five Greek cities, Athens, Thessaloniki, Larisa, Trikala and Volos.
• Smart energy management for EV chargers and electricity-based HVAC appliances by energy retailers, the location still to be decided.
A fifth business case, which is still conceptual, is a decentralised virtual power plant to explore the use of distributed ledger technologies to aggregate distributed energy efficiency measures via pay-for-performance methodologies to participate in energy markets.
The INEEXS project consortium envisages that by the end of 2025, more than 15,000 customers will be benefitting from the new smart services and almost €4 million (US$4.3 million) will be saved in energy costs by the end-users as a result of these business models.
With their replication within Europe, the numbers could increase significantly.
