HERON AT THE FOREFRONT OF TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION

By participating in five projects funded by the "Horizon 2020" program of the European Union, HERON, in its capacity as a producer and supplier of energy, further extends its technical expertise and innovation in the provision of its contemporary products and services to energy consumers.

Through its innovative and state-of-the-art solutions, HERON is already leading the way to energy transition, based on "green" energy, energy efficiency and the digital transformation of the market.  This is evidenced in practice through the EN.A., EcoDrive and EcoAdvisor programs, which opened the competition for the penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in household consumers and businesses, in the development of electromobility in the field of road transports, and also in the provision of highly specialized services for energy saving in industries, hotels and large retail chains.

It would be impossible for HERON to be absent from the "energy revolution", whose aim is the achievement of national and European objectives for climate change management, and also to encourage consumers to participate in the processes of production and management of energy through the use of new technologies.

With this goal in mind, HERON participates in five projects funded by the E.U. "Horizon 2020" program for research and innovation. These programs are:    

1. InterConnect: The InterConnect project pursues the development and demonstration of advanced solutions, which will allow the digitalization of buildings, homes and electricity grids based on an Internet of Things (IoT) architecture.

The "smart" energy management solutions will be tested through seven pilot actions, which will take place in the countries below: Portugal, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and France.

2. DECIDE: DECIDE aims to gain a better understanding of how energy communities and energy efficiency services are established and managed. One of the important objectives of the project is to engage over 628,000 end consumers in 9 pilots in 7 E.U. member states, in order to save over 16 GWh and 11 kton CO₂ Additionally, nearly 6 MWp of renewable energy, including electricity generation and heat supply, will be installed.
3. iFLEX: The basic concept of the project is the development of a digital agent, the iFLEX Assistant, who will act between consumers, the household RES energy management system and the various stakeholders. The objective of the project is to enable the consumer to achieve specific energy targets through local energy management and demand response.

4. BIGG: BIGG aims at demonstrating technologies, data and data analytic techniques for more than 4,000 buildings in 6 large-scale pilot test-beds. The project is based on the following four main pillars:

• Building performance monitoring,
• Regulatory framework support,
• Support of investments for the energy performance of buildings, and
• Support of electricity grids through demand energy response.

5. I-NERGY: The I-NERGY project aims at the development, escalation and demonstration of innovative applications of AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) Energy Analytics and digital services which will be tested in 9 pilots. The scope of these applications and services is:

• Optimal management of energy resources and RES,
• Improved efficiency and reliable operation of electricity grids, such as, for example, through electromobility,
• Optimal risk assessment for the planning of energy efficiency investments, and
• Optimized participation of local and virtual energy communities.

Moreover, HERON also participates in the following Partnership Agreement program:

6. HEART: HEART aims at developing an integrated solution which will allow household customers to receive real-time information about the energy consumption of their homes, while it will also provide many business and social opportunities to all interested parties. This will lead to a reduction of communication costs, and at the same time, it will also offer more efficient and more cost-effective real-time solutions for energy saving.