A ‘Community-based Virtual Power Plant (cVPP)’ project has officially kicked off in Buncrana to link energy systems in Donegal with other European regions.
COPOWER will begin with the development of a cVPP and a viable business model in five communities in Finland, Iceland, Faroe Islands and Ireland. The project is funded by the Northern Periphery and Arctic Programme 2021 – 2027.
With a total budget of €1,498,935, during the next three years, the Letterkenny-based ERNACT network (lead partner) will work together with Donegal County Council, Nolsoy Energy Ltd (Faroe Islands), University of Iceland, Centria University of Applied Sciences and Oulu University of Applied Sciences (Finland) to leverage information technology and smart grid infrastructure to link multiple small energy systems and operate them in coordination like a utility-scale power station to balance local electricity demand and production.
“COPOWER will be capable of integrating several distributed local energy solutions to empower communities to collectively generate, store and manage their own local energy requirements”, states ERNACT Chairperson and Donegal County Council Cllr Rena Donaghey.
The COPOWER model will be jointly developed and implemented by all project partners before 2026. In total, 20 partner organisations will work together, 6 project partners and 14 associate partners who will cooperate transnationally in the co-design and joint development of energy solutions and project outputs, such as, mapping local Distributed Energy Resources and defining the necessary technology tools, data, and security measures.
“By co-designing the transnational community-based Virtual Power Plant model, we will aggregate distributed generation and flexibility, and simulate energy flows, weather conditions and price changes in five Northern Periphery and Arctic areas to help maximise interconnectedness”, explains Dr Caitriona Strain, ERNACT Programme Manager and COPOWER Project Leader.
