INEEXS to validate energy efficiency services on the blockchain

The project INEEXS (Innovative Energy Efficiency Service Models for Sector Integration via Blockchain) has started with the main focus on improving the business basis for energy efficiency with decentralized digital technologies.

The core concept of the INEEXS project is the distribution of integrated energy services across sectors and carriers and the tokenization of energy saving data in a public blockchain to facilitate cooperation between the various market segments and actors.

A particular focus will be placed on the development of business models and contractual arrangements that facilitate the implementation of sector-integrating smart energy services and the deployment of a wide range of sustainable technologies, including renewable energy, electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps, Internet of Things (IoT) controls and other energy efficiency measures.

As such, the project is aimed at overcoming obstacles to a wider distribution of energy efficiency and demand flexibility solutions such as data exchange and thus providing support to meet the objectives of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (Article 7).

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INEEXS, which is supported by EU funds, is led by the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy (IEECP).

Other partners in the consortium are HERON, National Technical University of Athens and domX (Greece), ESCAN, Enercoop and Verdia Legal (Spain), Berliner Energieagentur and OFFIS (Germany), Inlecom Group (Belgium), HIVEN (Finland) and the Energy Web Foundation (Switzerland).

“Developing innovative and appropriate business models of active market participants is central if we are to meet the existential challenge of transforming the energy system,” says Filippos Anagnostopoulos, senior associate at IEECP and project coordinator.

“The INEEXS project provides a unique opportunity for energy retailers, energy communities, technology developers, energy agencies and real estate companies to validate, replicate, deploy and roll out concrete technical solutions with potentially transformative impact.”

Business use cases

Over the next three years, the project plans to deploy and validate different business models in four different EU states to offer broad geographic coverage and distinct settings, for example in regulation.

These are:
• Energy performance contracts with pay-for-performance guarantees for ESCOs for the renovation of publicly owned buildings, which will be implemented in Berlin, Germany.

• Improved self-consumption of distributed energy resources in energy cooperatives via behavioral influence calls/nudges, which will be implemented in Crevillent, Spain.

• Energy efficiency and flexibility services for older natural gas boilers, which will be implemented in five Greek cities, Athens, Thessaloniki, Larisa, Trikala and Volos.

• Smart energy management for electric car chargers and electricity-based HVAC appliances by energy retailers, location yet to be determined.

A fifth business case, which is still conceptual, is a decentralized virtual power plant to explore the use of distributed ledger technology to aggregate distributed energy efficiency measures via pay-for-performance methods to participate in energy markets.

The INEEXS project consortium envisages that by the end of 2025, more than 15,000 customers will benefit from the new smart services and almost 4 million euros ($4.3 million) will be saved in energy costs by end users as a result of these business models.

With their replication in Europe, the numbers could increase significantly.