On March 6-7, R&D Nester participated in the General Assembly of the project U2DEMO - "Use of open-source P2P energy sharing platforms for energy DEMOcratization", marking the project's six-month milestone and an important moment to discuss the current progress and future steps of this innovative project that aims to demonstrate scalable and interoperable peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading and sharing.

R&D Nester's role in U2DEMO

Since the project's launch, R&D Nester has been a key contributor across multiple fronts:

• Portuguese Pilot Implementation: Collaborating in the setup of a real-world P2P energy trading demonstration in Portugal, which will test local energy sharing among prosumers and consumers from Évora. The PT pilot will address several challenges, starting with the integration of P2P trading concept to manage the energy transactions between members of a Renewable Energy Community (REC). Hereto, the algorithms governing energy sharing will be subjected to empirical testing. This evaluation aims to facilitate a comprehensive comparative analysis and assessment of P2P energy sharing mechanisms in contrast to alternative energy sharing algorithms that do not encompass the P2P mechanism using a controlled regulatory environment denoted as a "regulatory sandbox". A pivotal challenge to be addressed within the PT Pilot pertains to the active engagement of ECs in the management of balancing services overseen by TSOs.

• Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) valorisation tool: Developing methodologies to support the flexibility and P2P trading platform to ensure the optimization of DERs integration and DERs valorization. The spatio-temporal distribution of DERs and demand-response will allow the optimization of its penetration in the electricity grid and its valorization.

• Platform Requirements: Contributing to the standardization, interoperability, and cybersecurity framework of the U2DEMO platform.

• Study Black Start service: Investigate business models that are suitable for DERs to contribute to black-start.

Key Achievements to Date

1. Finalized the initial scenarios for the Portuguese pilot, focusing on local energy exchange and grid flexibility;

2. Contributed to the platform interoperability, data models, cibersecurity and data management discussions and definitions;

3. Supported:

  * WP2 - P2P Energy Sharing Functional Architecture for Energy trading and Flexibility Provision

  * WP3 - Open-Source Energy Sharing Communities Platform

  * WP6- P2P trading and Energy Sharing assessment and roadmap for massive adoption;

4. Provided insights on replicability potential and regulatory considerations.

Discussions and Next Steps

During the assembly, several important sessions took place, including updates on each Work Package, a deep-dive into each country pilot (including Portugal), and hands-on sessions about regulatory, social, and business frameworks. R&D Nester actively engaged in the working sessions concerning platform development and participated in the "Idealization" workshop focused on user adoption and platform functionalities.

Next steps include:

Over the coming months, R&D Nester and U2DEMO will focus on:

1. Pilot Deployment: Finalize the pilot scenarios and implementation, including stakeholder engagement and real-world testing of P2P transactions;

2. Platform development and enhancing  of the U2DEMO platform's cybersecurity, interoperability and scalability,

3. Developing of Forecasting and data analytics methods to support the decision of Active Consumer;

4. Refining metrics to assess the technical, economic, and social impact of energy-sharing models;

5. Contributing to EU-wide guidelines for interoperable P2P energy markets (aligned with WP6).

R&D Nester is proud to be part of a consortium that is pushing the boundaries of energy flexibility, consumer empowerment, and community-driven energy systems.

For more information:

U2-DEMO PROJECT @ R&D Nester website

U2Demo website