The eCREW project aims at activating and fostering the inherent – and so far underused - forces of community driven collective actions initiatives (CAI). Empowering citizens and giving them the tools needed to produce, store and consume energy for a) their own benefits, b) the prosperity of the (local) economy, and for c) tackling climate change is an important and indispensable step on our road to a stable, secure, energy-efficient and climate-neutral future energy system. Recent European legislation has paved the way for unleashing the potentials of such initiatives by granting them a certain level of support and has set the scene for the establishment of Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) and Renewable Energy Communities (RECs). Unleashing the potentials of such CAIs requires new business models, financially viable solutions, reliable ICT tools and low, or no, entry barriers to engage as many citizens as possible. Establishing Lighthouse Communities (LCs), the eCREW approach is identifying such new busniess models for the energy transition.
The eCREW approach will thus have a great impact in the European energy transition, the targeted energy effeciency and use of renewable energy sources in a network energy system and thus for environmental and societal benefit. It provides an impactful way to cooperation for those households that have no access to CECs and RECs. During the project runtime, 240,000 households in Lighthouse and Follower Communities in Germany, Spain, Turkey, Italy, Sweden, France, Austria and Greece will be enabled to join a CREW through targeted communication and accompanying actions, resulting in an expected 150-250 CREWs established.
eCREW coordinates and supports the roll-out of an innovative scheme of household cooperation in energy management. These are Community Renewable Energy Webs (CREWs), in which households jointly exploit household-level electricity generation and battery storage capacities and optimise energy efficiency and expenditures. The key purpose of CREWs is to support the transition of passive consumers to active participants in the local energy system through informed decisions and collective actions. In eCREW, three energy utilities from Germany, Turkey and Spain (LCs) will roll-out the eCREW approach to their clients. A strong and divers Follower Community (FC) made up of entities from Austria, Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Sweden and Turkey is made fit for giving the eCREW approach a “go”, too. Together, 240,000 households will be enabled to join a CREW during the project runtime, establishing numerous CREWs with thousands of participants, saving at least 13 GWh/year. Cooperation within a CREW is facilitated through the provision of an award-winning smart phone app (called PEAKapp), exploiting smart meter data to stimulate an increase in energy efficiency and the uptake of local renewable electricity generation. Administration of the CREWs, including the billing of consumption and generation, is covered by electricity retailing companies, which are thereby transformed into holistic service providers; we call them Community Administering Entities (CAEs).
The aim of the eCREW-project was dedicated to establishing the barriers, potential solutions and related instruments for the introduction of a Third Pillar of Energy Communities - alongside Citizen Energy Communities (CEC) and Renewable Energy Community (REC).
