RAES - Remote Autonomous Energy Systems

The design of solutions for electrification has been approached by the companies in the market through the supply design (mostly considering PV and hybrid systems with Diesel and PV). There are no models to design the solutions based on the current and future demand needs (assuming that the electrification will contribute to the communities’ socio-economic development). This project proposes to develop a modeling tool, based on information of resource availability and socio-economic development of the region of implementation, in order to estimate the demand evolution of the community, aiding in the design a solution that is flexible modular and able to cope with the communities development. With such a tool, a company working on rural electrification has a competitive advantage of being able to develop a tailor made solution, more cost-efficient and more attractive to the decision makers. (Abril 2010-MArch 2012) 

Life Cycle Evaluation of Baixo-Sabor Hydropower system: Evaluation on the Portuguese Energy System

The electric utility EDP is currently building an new hydropower infrastructure called Baixo Sabor, with pump-storage capacity. The objective of the project was to do an evaluation of the life cycle impact of the total system. This required modeling the complete electricity generation system in Portugal mainland and estimating the impact of the system in energy mix until 2070, taking into account the national and European investment plans for the next decades.

MOBI.E Açores

The Regional Government of Azores is considering to implement a MOBI.E network in the archipelago. The project consisted in evaluating the impact of the electric charging on the different islands at the hourly scale and estimating the increase in the demand and the impact in the generation for different vehicle penetration scenarios.

Pump-storage in São Miguel

The electric utility of Azores, EDA (Electricidade dos Açores) is planning to build a large pump water system infrastructure to allow the increase in renewable electricity generation, especially during the off-peak.  The objective of this project is to evaluate some design proposals, including hydraulic systems, grid flows and the impact on total energy system (March 2012-March 2013)

MOBI.E Lisboa

In the first phase of the MOBI.E project (electric vehicles charging network), the Lisbon municipality had to install 687 charging points. This project consisted in implementing a multi-decision criteria making approach to help the decision makers (the municipality agencies ENOVA and EMEL) to decide the location of the charging points, considering different criteria such as parking availability, parking pressure, public visibility, safety, etc.

SMARTGALP

The SMARTGALP project is a partnership between GALP Energia, the main Portuguese utility operating in the energy market (liquid fuels, natural gas, electricity) and the MIT Portugal Program, supported by the Portuguese Innovation Fund for Renewable Energies from the Portuguese Government.

 

The objective of the project is to develop a webportal for residential energy consumers that provides an integrated overview of energy consumption at the household level (electricity, gas and fuels) with different features: historical view of consumption, carbon footprint, tailor-made energy efficiency tips, energy efficiency performance indicator and a ranking system. The portal provides also other type of services, such as billing information, payment warnings (car insurance, bills) or equipment maintenance warnings.

 

The project started in 2011, with the installation of electricity, gas meters from ISA and devices in cars that measure the vehicle consumption in 60 residential clients in the Lisbon area. The webportal launch will take place in June 2012 and until the end of the year the project will reach 120 households.

 

The preliminary results provided very interesting insights of families’ consumer behavior. The most determinant drivers for consumption efficiency are the type of appliances and usage pattern, while the household area, construction typology or even family size or not as important. Further, in Portugal the use of fuels for transportation is far more important to the energy bill and energy efficiency indicator than electricity or gas consumption. Finally, a large set of energy efficiency tips has been design to guide consumers to improve their behavior.

 

 

After the webportal launching, it will be possible to observe if the consumers, when informed about their consumption and efficiency level in comparison to others and with the aid of some tips, will be able to improve their energy efficiency and maintain the behavioral change as an enduring behavioral pattern.