DigitalEnergy4All

FFG - FTI-Initiative Laura Bassi 4.0

Austrian Institute of Technology

Avantsmart

Futus Energietechnik GmbH

Our Power Energiegenossenschaft SCE mbH - OurPower.coop

Sonnenplatz Großschönau GmbH

Terram Sequitur

Initial situation, problems and motivation:

The transformation of the energy system towards a sustainable supply system has made great progress in recent years thanks to intensive research and development activities, particularly in the technological field and in the field of digitisation (e.g. smart home systems). The increasing digitisation of the energy system transformation in conjunction with changing legal and regulatory frameworks (EU directive Clean Energy for all Europeans) offer new opportunities and possibilities (e.g. business models), but also bring the energy system transformation closer to people/society and increasingly influence their everyday lives. In contrast to other developments of our time, which often only affect a specific, limited group of social actors, changes in the energy supply system affect all people, but in different ways. If this means new chances and possibilities for certain groups, the same developments can lead to negative effects for other groups (higher electricity costs, negative influence on the quality of life,...).

Goals and innovation content:

However, in order to enable all people to have equal access to the opportunities and possibilities that present themselves, appropriate models must be developed that take into account the individual requirements and needs of the most diverse groups. This requires an interdisciplinary group of experts that deals at different levels with the following relevant topics in this context:

• fair, barrier-free and equal access or the possibility to participate in or help shape local energy communities, taking into account individual possibilities and circumstances for all people (participation, participation, transparency)
• consideration of their individual requirements, needs and realities of life in the company as well as the possibility to actively influence/co-design impacts on the immediate living environment
• understandable, transparent and fair communication as well as interaction possibilities for active participation (usability).

To this end, the project aimed at the development, implementation and testing of

• co-operative and not exclusively profit-oriented participation, charging and business models for energy communities,
• appropriate control and optimization algorithms based on distributed ledger technology to enable transparency and independence
• an understandable, usable user interface that offers users the opportunity to communicate their individual and possibly changing needs.

together with the future users of different population groups. The project was accompanied by a network to be established at an early stage consisting of employees of the project partners and external experts called in - whose task as an advisory board was to develop and discuss concepts for equal opportunities in the field of digitisation of energy supply in a series of workshops, to check their suitability and to incorporate them into the project in an appropriate way to ensure that the exclusion of individual groups from participation in energy communities is prevented. At the same time, it was assumed that dealing with the topic of energy in connection with exclusion and inclusion questions will strengthen the view of the topic complex of equality of opportunity, which is to be further strengthened by carrying out the planned gender assessments in the companies.

Aimed results and findings:

Concepts and algorithms for the design and establishment of energy communities that take into account different life realities and needs and thus prevent exclusion from the participation of digitised organisations of local/regional energy supply.