Sflex
Project nº 45405 Sflex
Support in the scope of the Incentives for Research and Technological Development (SI R&D) system – Individual Proj.
Sflex – Small Loads flexibility management
Total Eligible Cost: 478.624,37€
EU funded support: 300.934,83€
Project overview
Because of the transformation of the electric sector the costs of management and balance of the grids are increasing, which are reflected later in the customer tariffs. Solutions based on the technological advances in the ICT field are allowing the implementation of Intelligent Energy Networks and new demand management mechanisms, with an increasing potential to guarantee grid balance, but are still significant economic barriers for wider deployment (for inclusion of small energy loads).
The sFlex project - Flexibility management of small loads aims at developing an intelligent flexibility management platform that allows a use of flexibility from small loads focused on benefits to both Smart Buildings and Smart Grids, allowing a reduction of imbalances in grid balancing, reducing energy costs in buildings, maximizing the use of renewable energy, and enhancing new revenues with the use of flexibility. It will act in three distinct areas that reflect the innovation approach of this project:
Reducing costs of flexible load control management systems - Developing a low-cost universal IR control to manage the flexibility of consumption associated with houses and offices heating/ cooling with distributed HVAC systems.
Reducing operational costs of optimization management of distributed resources - Developing a flexibility optimization module with dynamic optimization rules and learning based on context and an predictive control model for HVAC equipment, expandable to other flexible loads.
Creating of added value with flexibility aggregation / disaggregation - Developing flexibility aggregation models for small loads to use in balancing and demand response markets, and development of a multi-criteria scheduling algorithm.
Location: Coimbra