Origin

The ORIGIN project’s mission is to develop a sophisticated intelligent ICT system for the management of energy in a community, and associated business models. The purpose of the proposed solutions is to orchestrate efficient and balanced use of locally generated energy from renewable sources, such as wind or solar energy.4

Main Goal:

• Development and deployment of an intelligent demand forecastingand community scale energy management system.

• Demonstration of energy / carbon savings at three “validation communities” in Scotland, Portugal and Italy.

• Development of community energy business models.

The system focussed on the concepts of aligning energy demand with the availability of renewables-based supply, addressing community goals for cost, carbon footprint and other objectives. It comprised algorithms for prediction of demand and supply, optimisation of energy management actions, and continual control of all software and hardware elements across the energy network. The hardware basis comprised smart meters in buildings, actuators for selected devices, one or more central servers, and an associated communications infrastructure.

This system was developed, and then installed and evaluated at three communities across Europe, namely: Damanhur in Northern Italy, Tamera in Southern Portugal, and Findhorn in the North of Scotland.

VPS supplied the hardware components for monitoring and actuation for the validation communities and was involved in designing, setting up, customising and testing this hardware and provide support during installation. Moreover, provided the algorithm developers access to their software platforms and was involved in the development of the new algorithms and control software. VPS also supplied and advised on the installation of the Weather Stations in the validation communities.