Pilot site Crevillent

The grid of the municipality is managed by Cooperative Crevillent, a part of Enercoop which manages 14.315 consumers (13.047 households and 1.268 companies) in low voltage network; and 30 consumers in medium voltage network (mainly industrial and service sector companies). They have installed and integrated into their grid more than 75.000 PV panels in solar plants and 2.000 modules of PV panels in solar roofs. The photovoltaic plants connected to the Cooperative Network produce a total power of 13,4 MW. The entire energy production of the entity has zero emissions; the entity is working hard to get all the generated and distributed energy 100% clean (saving 35.000 tonnes of CO₂ per year).

The experience and background have led the company to be one of the most important cooperatives in Spain having a great international prestige. The cooperative offers its users a full range of options, services and capabilities to meet the energy needs of businesses, households and municipalities, with full guarantees of supply and distribution of electricity.

The profits of the Cooperative are used to invest in the Distribution Network, to improve its technology and to give back to the society. Some of their contributions to the city are: a nursing home, schools for the disabled and a free mortuary for all the citizens of Crevillent. However, the main challenges are the lack of active users to provide residential demand response (DR), lack of flexibility to balance the variable RES production and lack of investment in small-scale PV generation.

Where

Crevillent, Municipality of the Valencian Region Valley, Spain

Goal

The first goal is to increase the energy independence of the city by promoting demand response schemas and other flexibility mechanisms to balance the variable RES production. This will create important new flexibilities, increasing the level of self-sufficiency in the community. Second goal is to increase social cohesion and enhance the interrelationships among local energy community members by means of citizen engagement and empowerment activities.

Benefits

The community building aspect has not been developed before; therefore the social cohesion and activation of users is the main innovation in this COMPILE pilot site as it is the first of a kind application.

Actions

Organization of citizens engagement and empowerment activities, such as workshops on EnC, with a goal of re-activating the EnC
Implementation of new energy flexibility assets, such as new smart meters (SLAM) and new PV roofs, in order to increase the energy independence of the city and the level of self-sufficiency in the community