BACK TO TECHNOLOGY
image1

Artificial intelligence to optimise the use of renewables on islands
A cloud solution optimises energy demand on the islands

Tekniker is developing a cloud solution to monitor energy demand by analysing a number of variables such as household energy consumption, photovoltaic energy production, climatology or population changes. A mobile app monitors the status of renewable energy facilities to send recommendations and notifications to users so they may implement optimum energy management actions both individually and from a community perspective.

Renewables are destined to renovate energy consumption on these islands where, compared with mainland Spain, power could become 400% more expensive because it depends on the energy market where emissions of polluting gases grow due to the intensive use fossil fuels.

The implementation of renewable energy sources (RES) in this geographic area in the form of, for instance, photovoltaic power is constrained by a lack of solutions capable of guaranteeing efficacious and resilient management actions adapted to parameters such as the weather and population changes on the islands.

In this regard, predictive technologies based on AI allow you bring together all of these variable conditions to generate the recommendations required in each specific case with a view to determining an optimum profile to be applied and automated on equipment delivering renewables.

The Tekniker technology centre has an extensive amount of experience in applying AI solutions. It is within the framework of the European REACT project that the organisation has been involved in the development of a cloud platform that predicts and monitors energy demand on the islands by means of various analytical services using physical modelling techniques, predictive control models, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Thanks to these techniques, the platform is able to manage energy that is generated and eventually stored more efficiently. The ultimate goal is to maximise the use of clean energy generated and to automate equipment so that generation and consumption are allowed to converge at an individual and community level.

This optimisation in terms of how energy is used means lower costs users and a smaller ecological footprint as greenhouse gases are also reduced.

A mobile app is used for user-platform interactions (also available on a website) and allows you to monitor the status of a facility and receive notifications and recommendations to foster flexible decision making to better address energy consumption.

Consequently, the technology centre contributes with its experience in terms of the different technologies used in the project to acquire equipment data by means of an Energy Gateway, define semantic ontologies associated with the heterogenous information managed by the platform and provide predictive and modelling techniques that form part of the analytical services delivered in addition to recommendations concerning management actions and visualisation tools so that users can become actively involved flexible energy management processes.

The REACT initiative (Renewable Energy for self-sustAinable island CommuniTies) will be in operation for 4.5 years on three small pilot islands covering several climatic regions, each one featuring different energy infrastructures and regulatory frameworks: La Graciosa in the Spanish Canary Islands, Inis Mór in the Irish Alan islands and San Pietro in Sardinia, Italy.

A scalability plan will also be submitted for another five larger islands, namely, Lesbos, Gotland, Isle of Wight, La Reunión and Mallorca. Once the project comes to an end, a proposal will be submitted to allow these facilities to be managed by a Local Energy Community in order to achieve energy independence for the above mentioned islands.

This project is co-funded by the European Commission under the " LC-SC3-ES-4-2018-2020 Building a low-carbon, climate resilient future: secure, clean and efficient energy” under Grant agreement No. 824395.