Greece

Pilot Description

Chalki Island, with 592 electricity customers, is served by 11 suppliers and primarily relies on diesel generators. ChalkiON energy community aims to optimally manage locally generated energy, increasingly transitioning to renewable sources, and ensuring a stable power supply, particularly during the summer. The infrastructure is operational, and the community has been established, focusing on citizen engagement to transform the island into a 100% green, sustainable, and autonomous destination. In this pilot, we demonstrate how aggregated flexibility from prosumers and smart active consumers, organized in a local community and supported by the independent aggregator GEARS, can provide grid network operator services to mitigate distribution grid congestion. The pilot showcases enhanced flexibility management of the island's assets, particularly during the summer's increased energy demand due to tourism. The focus areas include air conditioning/heat pumps, e-mobility, and water network flexibility, with initiatives like smart charging of EVs. The pilot encourages agile grid management by mapping household consumption patterns to high RES-based production intervals. It also aims to improve water management in collaboration with the water network operator. GEARS will operate a local flexibility hybrid data-driven VPP, enabling flexibility providers and consumers to trade localized and/or aggregated flexibility. The trading options extend beyond energy to include non-energy assets, such as social services for vulnerable populations, creating a comprehensive approach to community sustainability. Parity will also contribute to the pilot by establishing electric vehicle charges, to complement the existing infrastructure and promote e-mobility. 

• Demonstrate how aggregated flexibility can provide services to the grid operator
• Exploiting the flexibility from EVs and e-boat smart charging and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) storage
• Affect household consumption behaviours, through DR mechanisms and incentives
• 592 electricity customers, off which 482 are households, 96 are SMEs and 14 are public authorities