Meet CEVE

We’re close to completing 100 years of service to the population of our region; CEVE – Cooperativa Elétrica do Vale d’Este –  knows that time and evolution do not stop. Recognising the inevitability of the Energy Transition, given how urgent climate matters are, and the need for a paradigm shift – particularly regarding fossil fuels – we perceive INESC TEC as a technological partner with the capacity to address this challenge.

Interview

What is the connection between CEVE and INESC TEC?

CEVE’s connection with INESC TEC is based on our desire to bring academic knowledge to our initiatives within the scope of the Energy Transition, focusing on the excellent job carried out by INESC TEC.

Also, INESC TEC realised that CEVE’s structure allows access to a living laboratory to develop projects and obtain reliable results that are consistent with the actual operation of a power grid.

The first project we applied for with INESC TEC was the seventh Consumption Efficiency Promotion Plan (PPEC) funded by ERSE; since then, we’ve been in touch to participate in relevant projects for both entities.

What are the main results of this collaboration?

In addition to the joint participation in European programmes focusing on the development of technological solutions for Energy Transition – namely the approval of two R&TD projects (Enpower and HEDGE-Iot) -, we’d like to highlight ERSE’s approval of our application to the PPEC; this was a long-standing aspiration of CEVE: to support the population with a project aimed at mitigating energy poverty.

EcoVale, approved under the PPEC, is a project that aims to develop and implement awareness-raising activities on energy vulnerability and efficiency, with students and citizens of Vila Nova de Famalicão and Barcelos.

The Enpower project aims to help Energy Communities (EC) participants to access new services based on Artificial Intelligence (AI): consumption monitoring, specific efficiency recommendations, flexibility services, optimisation of energy flows within the EC, tariff recommendations, etc., towards increasing user awareness and consumer engagement.

The HEDGE-IoT project aims to explore the flexibility of an intelligent EC that provides services for the decarbonisation of residential and business buildings, thus contributing to network resilience and consumer engagement. It will combine distributed production flexibility, interoperability, AI/ML tools, and shared economy business models in a living lab.

How do you rate your experience with INESC TEC?

Our experience with INESC TEC has always been quite satisfying and pleasurable; we often mistake INESC TEC with a department part of our own company, given how smooth it is to work as a team. INESC TEC has been supporting us in project management – a crucial support, given our inexperience in these cases.

The result of this symbiosis is the creation of a Living Lab to study how consumers use energy and what possible services can be provided to them according to their needs.

What do you value the most in this collaboration?

We value INESC TEC’s proactivity and how close their members work with our teams. The excellence and the high level of technological knowledge that INESC TEC presents are fundamental for the development of projects and solutions.

What can we expect from CEVE over the upcoming years?

We’re close to completing 100 years of service to the population of our region; CEVE knows that time and evolution do not stop. Recognising the inevitability of the Energy Transition, given how urgent climate matters are, and the need for a paradigm shift – particularly regarding fossil fuels – we perceive INESC TEC as a technological partner with the capacity to address this challenge.

The Energy Transition encompasses not only the production and consumption of renewable energy, but also changes in the way we optimise the use of goods and services in the electricity grid. In this transformation, as the energy market becomes more demanding, local and dynamic, power grids need to take the necessary steps to embrace change.

We also aim to keep exploring energy efficiency, a term that refers to the ability to achieve the best performance, with less use of resources and without giving up quality, as we understand that this is the fundamental pillar of the Energy Transition.

CEVE is fully committed to promote energy transition, as smooth and as comfortable as possible, to its customers, while continuing to provide a high quality and proximity service.

CEVE is also committed to obtaining the new status of “Community of Citizens for Energy”, provided for in the European package “Clean Energy for all Europeans”, since this is the core of CEVE’s establishment: to become a local energy production and consumption project.