Over three years, INESC TEC will develop and demonstrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques within the scope of the GREEN.DATA.AI project. The project focuses on energy efficiency and distributed intelligence (namely in terms of devices – edge computing) as key elements to optimise the charging of electric vehicles and improve the operational efficiency of renewable electricity. The project – funded by the EU’s Horizon Europe Programme – will demonstrate the efficiency of new analytical services in the banking, energy, water, agriculture and mobility sectors. The main goal is to develop new data management solutions through the AI potential to accelerate the transition into a greener Economy.
Portugal will be the starting point for a set of cross-cutting demonstrations that cover the mobility and energy sector, creating AI solutions based on energy efficiency criteria. “We’ll use the processing capacity in terms of electrical vehicle charging solutions to implement AI algorithms that enable the distributed, yet coordinated management of charging, considering the local power grid operating conditions”, explained Gil Sampaio, INESC TEC researcher.
The project aims to implement more efficient charging strategies that consider data privacy and sharing criteria, while valuing INESC TEC patented technologies. One of the activities planned is changing the electric vehicles charging infrastructure available at the Institute’s main building, which will host new chargers – with some of said devices connected to a micro-grid at the Laboratory of Smart Grids and Electric Vehicles. This will demonstrate “optimised processes to harness renewable energy and charge vehicles, avoiding any disturbances in terms of the grid’s technical restrictions, while exploring local computing, reducing data volume and power consumption associated with AI solutions”, said Gil Sampaio,
The project also addresses relevant data sharing issues, considering competition context where the fear of exposure hinders the potential benefits of sharing. In this sense, INESC TEC will also explore monetisation and data exchange mechanisms (federated learning) among competing entities holding renewable production assets. According to the researcher, “said process could improve production forecasting and infrastructures maintenance procedures”. These techniques will be demonstrated during a national pilot promoted by another national partner: EDP NEW.
The Portuguese pilots stem from the European project GREEN.DATA.AI, which features INESC TEC and EDP NEW as partners; the project also comprehends other five pilots that focus on different sectors. banking, energy, agriculture, water and mobility. Moreover, the project also focuses on the Green Deal, while trying to become a vessel for the development of greener technologies, in order to achieve energy efficiency and address current social and environmental issues. This endeavour aims to consolidate previously designed solutions, funded within the H2020 programme, while increasing their TRL and integrating them into an open-code, widely distributed and efficient platform.
The GREEN.DATA.AI consortium includes 17 partners from 10 countries, and it resorts to a multidisciplinary approach to fully exploit the knowledge of different energy, transportation business, economy, data science and engineering experts.
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