Home of the elderly with our help to cheaper electricity and heating
Yesterday, on the 23rd of March 2022, there was a celebratory event at the end of the project BETAi (Blockchain Energy Trading with Artificial Intelligence) at Dom Lenart, home of the elderly in small Slovenian town Lenart near Maribor. Gregor Novak, CEO of SunContract and Head of Development and Innovation at SONCE energija, presented the role of both companies in this innovative project, that will improve lives of residents and help reducing heat and electricity costs.
Solar power plants and heat pumps
As part of the project, Dom Lenart was given two solar power plants and two heat pumps, it was also installed an electric charging station. With excess electricity produced Dom Lenart will trade on SunContract energy marketplace.
For the purposes of the project, it has been established Huawei’s largest electricity storage bank so far in Europe. The entire storage system contains 240 kWh and is capable of filling and discharging with a constant power of 80 kW. The preparation of energy reserves in the electricity storage sector for consuming, which is higher in the morning and evening, is crucial for reducing the monthly cost of Dom Lenart’s billing power. It is also helping to optimize the energy balance of SunContract’s balance sheet and to optimize even with regard to electricity prices on the market.
To effectively reallocating the operation of all energy installations involved and collecting data, the developed back-office system using artificial intelligence has been developed.
Savings and benefits
Dom Lenart is connected to the p2p smart trading system on the SunContract energy marketplace. As part of the demo project, we have demonstrated that the home of the elderly will generate savings in electricity costs and heat purchase with the entire project on the energy market. It will also have savings in the power it will take from the network. By using all its renewable potential (roof) for this project, Dom Lenart will produce a third of the electricity it needs annually, from a fully renewable energy source. The rest will be bought on the energy market.
SunContract’s exclusive partner SONCE energija also pursued the goal of helping the multiple users involved in the balance sheet group together to reduce the costs of the balance sheet group in the balancing market through AI. It is used to optimize the purchase and sale of wholesale electricity according to the needs of the users involved in the balance-of-the-art group or in this case Dom Lenart.
Partners of the project
Project BETAi, which has stared in April 2019, was connecting high-technological and socially advanced enterprises to a consortium for the joint development of direct automatic electricity trading under the P2P system, enabled by blockchain technology. In addition to SONCE energija, SunContract’s partner in Slovenia, the other companies that participated in this project, were: ComCom developed the key logic and methods of AI, Viris has provided cybersecurity, Eudom has taken over the development of device control.
The investment was partly co-financed by the European Union from the European Regional Development Fund and by the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Slovenia. The project’s estimated value is 2,1 million Euro.
