DECODIT 2nd general assembly takes stock
Eight months on from its launch the DECODIT project is starting to take shape, participants indicated in the second general assembly.
The DECODIT general assembly, which took place from 28-30 January hosted by the INESC TEC research institution at its FEUP campus in Porto, Portugal, was an opportunity to take stock of progress in the various work programmes and the preparation of the four pilots and to assess the next steps.
Day 1 was focussed on progress and day 2 on collaboration, with the final half day looking ahead – all aimed to set the foundation for the delivery of impactful solutions.
DECODIT is aimed to develop digital services to support citizens on decision making for participation in the energy transition through co-created services and customer journeys.
“DECODIT is an ambitious project that is aiming to solve a very important real life problem,” commented Stratis Kanarachos, Senior R&I Consultant at European Dynamics and the project coordinator.
“Citizens are suffering from high energy prices and face many complex options in trying to collate to find the optimal solution and DECODIT is developing user friendly digital tools to enable them to find the best solution for their particular case.”
Aggeliki Aggeli, Researcher at BUILD at Aalborg University, said a feature of DECODIT is that the digital tools are intended to be co-created with the communities so that the diversity of individual practices can be embedded into them.
“A strength of the project is to work with communities as the impact of an intervention at the collective level is often stronger that at the individual level.”
Demonstrations
The four demonstrations are planned in Switzerland, Latvia, Greece and Spain.
Commenting on the Swiss demonstration, Riccardo Toffanin, Project Manager at the Massagno utility AEM, said that it is taking place in a community in a suburban area with a mix of residential buildings and service facilities and the main intention is to test demand response solutions but also energy renovation.
Unda Jansone, Project Manager at the Latvian ESCO Renesco, commented that the country’s pilot is focussed on heating, which has high consumption in their northerly location.
“The heating system is from the Soviet era and the buildings are in poor condition and we want to empower the citizens with more control by renovating the buildings – we as the ESCO taking on the financial risks.”
Maria Valiou from the Greek non-profit energy community Cooperative Energy explained that their demonstration is focussed on the social interactions arising in the community, which is powered from a nearby solar park.
“We plan to deploy devices to give household members information on their consumption and the tools to help them use it more smartly and efficiently.”
Antonio Soler Valcárcel, Project Director at the Murcia energy company MIWenergia said the Spanish demonstration is aimed to investigate energy management solutions for customers to improve their use of energy.
“About half of the participants are prosumers and half not so have different solution needs for energy management and house improvements.”
Looking ahead
A key aspect of the project is that the tools and solutions can be commercialised for use beyond the project.
Francesco Milani, Innovation Consultant at the Italian consultancy R2M Solution, says that to enable this the market trends are being studied.
“We are starting in the four pilot countries and plan to extend the research across Europe and at the same time we are assessing the alignment of the specific requirements of the users and the business intentions of providers.”
DECODIT also has entered two initiatives to ensure that its outcomes can be widely shared.
One is to join forces with three other Horizon Europe projects – DIGITISE, EU-DREAM and ENERGENIUS – to form the E-NERGY project cluster with the common goal to democratse consumer access and participation in the energy sector.
DECODIT also has joined the EU BRIDGE initiative, which will enable sharing of knowledge and baselining of activities as well as gaining support for the uptake of its findings.
