Last 28th of November a first-of-its-kind citizen-centred energy trading market was launched in Eemnes. Eemnes municipality invited citizens, associations and local enterpreneurs to participate to the on-boarding event where all energy actors at stake could explain how the Local Energy Community will operate. After the introductory keynotes an open Q&A session offered the audience a chance to speak-out doubts and receive clarifications.
Multi-Actor Multi-Criteria Analysis session
Before public event started, local energy market stakeholders joined a MAMCA session led by Shary Heuninckx (VUB).When stakeholders aim at different objectives, it is often hard to understand how to prioritise the multiple outcomes. The “multi actor multi criteria analysis” is a VUB patented methodology developed to look for consensus in such contexts characterised by complexity.
For the Eemnes pilot site, a survey was first sent out among the DSO, the local administration, the platform provider and the energy cooperatives. They had to identify and describe their main objectives within this project. Therefore, the MAMCA workshop brought these stakeholders together to open a joint discussion. Initially they had to give a weight to their objectives, according to relative importance for their company. In a second step they had to assess how the different models of energy sharing mechanisms complied with their objectives.
The results showed that energy sharing in an energy community framework fitted best with almost all of the stakeholders’ needs. Although the set of needs were quite different, it is noteworthy that objectives like an increase of renewables and grid functionality are more important to most stakeholders than economic advantages.
Event Keynotes
Sven Lankreijer, Eemnes’ alderman, shortly introduced the project to the audience. He clarified the importance of citizen involvement in the energy transition: hitting the common goals of cutting emissions will not only happen smoothly, but it will also help saving some money in the energy bills! Later on he explained how Eemnes municipality asked and obtained an exemption from Dutch Electricity law. Such exemption will allow operating a peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading market.
Rene Pie from EnergieVan, explained how energy transition advisors can support individuals, families or organisations dealing with the upcoming hurdles. We need a system change and luckily there are expert teams out there ready to follow through the process.
Stefan Lodeweyckx from i.LECO, gave the audience a deeper insight into the technical aspects of how the Local Energy Community in Eemnes will operate. The platform provider is the one in charge of designing the data networking system. Such system, or platform, will handle all data collected by the gateways installed to optimise energy consumption models. Blockchain technology will ensure security and peaks in the network will be continuously in control thanks to energy storage and DSO support.
Finally, Hans Wiering from Eemnes Energie, a local energy cooperative, invited participants to opt-in and sign, offering some specific details over the rollout of Eemnes’ local prosumers/consumers trading community. More than 200 people participated to the event and around 50 of them opted-in Eemnes Local Energy Community.