CARTIF, the Technological Institute of Energy (ITE) and the technology centres Ikerlan, Aicia and ITG make up the HySGrid+ network, a Spanish technological alliance that will aim to develop solutions for local energy communities with a positive net balance.
The HySGrid+ network will focus its work on establishing strong cooperation among members to strengthen their technological capabilities. It includes all kinds of actions aimed at increasing the participation of Spanish companies, especially SMEs, in international projects, and outreach and dissemination actions. It is the only network of excellence for this purpose promoted within the framework of the Cervera Programme for Technological Centres promoted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI).
Achieving a positive energy balance means that the energy delivered by the community must be greater than the energy supplied from the outside and this must be based mainly on renewable sources. And to achieve this, in addition to generating local and intensive energy based on renewables, it is necessary to optimally manage the flexibility provided by energy resources such as storage systems, as well as an active role of the user, through demand response schemes or aggregation of users to provide flexibility services.
As for heating or cooling networks, these must be based on locally available, renewable and low-carbon energy sources. Likewise, the synergies and complementarities existing between thermal and electrical energy and their associated networks must be exploited.
In short, the HySGrid+ network will investigate new strategies and technological solutions that enable optimal planning, efficient exploitation and intelligent control of local energy communities and their resources in order to achieve a positive energy balance based on renewable sources. In the same way, its ultimate goal is to develop a regulatory framework and propose new market mechanisms that allow end users of energy to be protagonists of the energy transition.