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Community Energy Systems

Generating renewable energy on-site is not only a fundamental part of net zero site management - it’s a competitive advantage in an increasingly electrified world. But filling your site with unmanaged generation assets threatens your operations with grid congestion, damage to infrastructure, and lost utility savings. As part of its Energy as a Service package, C-Energy is developing the Community Energy System, an on-site energy distribution model that connects isolated assets into a coordinated system to minimize supply disruption and maximize cost savings on utility bills.

Why an energy community?

A community energy system connects on-site generation into a coordinated system linking generation assets and consumption points on a site into a smart local grid. Unlike a group of unmanaged assets, which constantly pump maximum power back to the grid out of the control of site managers, an energy community allows site operators to optimize local generation for their business needs.

Utility Bill Savings

A community energy system generates utility bill savings by maximizing self-consumption and limiting dependence on volatile energy markets. Infrastructure and software work together to optimise energy flows for savings by coordinating local generation with local consumption.

 

Dependable Supply

An energy community allows you to power multiple consumption points on your site dependably, sheltered from wider energy market fluctuations. 

Generation in a Community Energy System is designed and managed to prevent wear and damage to local grid infrastructure caused by uncontrolled congestion.

Competitive Advantage

As industry and construction move towards electrification, having the infrastructure to reliably handle increased local electricity flows will be a competitive advantage for sites, particularly those for sites expecting heavy electric vehicle traffic in the future.

Cordeel’s Temse headquarters is a proving site for community energy systems

Cordeel plans to install and connect a hydrogen electrolyser into its on-site energy community to produce hydrogen for Cordeel’s fleet and test hydrogen's value proposition for our clients

To accelerate the transition towards efficient renewable smart grids, C-Energy is actively researching, developing and testing a community energy system installation at Cordeel’s headquarters in Temse, Belgium

The site is developing a variety of generation and storage assets such as rooftop and floating PV, Hydrogen, battery storage, V2G and pumped hydro. These assets will eventually connect and coordinate this local renewable generation to consumption points on its own site as well as a nearby business park, medium size industrial facilities and residential buildings.           

Cordeel’s community energy system is aiming for a 70% self-consumption rate through the active coordination of generation and consumption on-site.

Cordeel is building an industry-leading commercial proposition for community energy

Cordeel is a European leader in the development of Community Energy Systems as a commercial proposition. 

To advance the state of the art in community energy in time to meet our clients' needs, Cordeel has taken a leading role in the Horizon Europe-funded project CREATORS. CREATORS joins 17 partners across 8 countries with the aim of testing and proving the Energy as a Service model through Community Energy Systems. 

Cordeel, together with Spanish engineering firm COMSA, is leading specialists in monitoring and simulation (I.LECO), emulation for digital twins (Typhoon HIL), and financing (ep group) to develop a comprehensive Energy as a Service offering for clients through the community energy model.

Beginning in 2020 and ending in 2024, the partnership will support in total 20 energy communities in Europe in creation phase, with 4 core sites in Estonia, Spain, Belgium and Slovenia; 6 followers in Bulgaria, France, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Spain and 10 replication sites selected in open calls.

Learn more about Cordeel’s research and innovation work on the Community Energy System model here: