D7.7 – FLEXCoop Holistic Performance Evaluation, Impact Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis - Final Version
Creators: name: Bacher, P.
name: Leerbeck, K.
name: Mourkousis, G.
name: Kakardakos, N.
name: Kakardakos, T.
name: Tual, R.
name: Aranda, J.
name: Martínez, G.
name: Antón, M.
name: Pañella, P.
name: Kompos, K.
name: Papanikolaou, A.
name: Oikonomopoulos, G.
name: Pagkozidis, A.
name: van Vliet, R.
name: Doedens, D.
name: Cipriano, J.
name: Gabaldon, E.
name: Pérez, D.
name: Cuno, S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: demand response
demand-side flexibility
cost-benefit analysis
key performance indicator
flexibility assessment
test evaluation

description: This report presents a performance evaluation and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) of the most important aspects of the services developed in the FLEXCoop project. The performance evaluation focuses on solar power forecasts, full-scale experimental tests and flexibility assessment of applying the FLEXCoop system with a simulation model. Forecasts are evaluated with a developed evaluation software, which generates evaluation reports for Photo-Voltaic (PV) systems. The flexibility assessment and simulation analysis are based on a dynamic model of either direct electrical or heat pump heated building, which is used to quantify flexibility and economic potential – which forms the basis of benefits calculations in the CBA. The CBA presents the currently related data for the case studies in the Dutch and Spanish pilot sites as well as the Dutch and Spanish energy market sections related to each pilot site. On top of these data, we identify potential savings and costs profiles which are combined to form 32 different scenarios, used to extract insights and indications for the viability of the deployment of the FLEXCoop Solution to energy cooperatives and their members. The economic CBA from the case studies in the Netherlands and Spain, converge in the conclusion that current cost of the Bill of Materials (BoMs) and installation and customisation services per dwelling (in conjunction with the FLEXCoop Solution pricing scheme) required to deploy the FLEXCoop Solution to the prosumers is considerably high. These costs require expected savings of more than 160€ annual savings per dwelling/prosumer and cooperatives with at least 500 members using the FLEXCoop Solution. The number of prosumers adopting the FLEXCoop Solution per cooperative is important, as, at the moment, there is no business case for cooperatives having less than 200-250 prosumers using the solution. Lowering the initial capital costs per dwelling shows some interesting scenarios in terms of viability and should be a key focus point for the future. There are two main developments than can remedy substantially the expected benefits for cooperatives (aggregators) and their members:<br> - Regulatory conformity throughout Europe, to enable the deployment of the FLEXCoop Solution in conditions where more than one optimisation strategy is concurrently exploitable.<br> - Development, standardisation and utilisation of common open communication and control protocol for devices and platforms/solutions to significantly lower initial capital costs per dwelling. Regardless of specific market trends, cooperatives are encouraged to explore partnerships with Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) device vendors and create dedicated R&amp;D units for data analysis, modelling of business cases and simulation execution. The key point is the data acquisition and data governance. Cooperatives would maximise benefits by deploying solutions that allows them to have full “digital sovereignty” as defined by the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) and control over the data and, if possible, have control and ownership (exclusive or shared) of the related algorithms. This will allow cooperatives to better monitor and understand market condition and status, evaluate business cases and outline the desired functionality. The final objective is to reach a market and ecosystem awareness level where it is easy to identify the services that can maximise profit while enforcing the necessary environmental-friendly strategies. Moreover, digital sovereignty can potentially create new business models through the commercial exploitation of anonymised usage data sets or the participation in the development of the EU’s energy data spaces in the overall future energy market.