Meet Elergone Energia

Elergone Energia provides a global and strategic vision to the energy and economic sustainability of companies. In particular, Elergone Energia offers solutions that combine the three major factors that enable companies to achieve their goals: Competitive Energy Prices, Optimisation of Energy Consumption and Decentralised Energy Production.

In the month dedicated to the PRR projects, we talked to Amândio Ferreira, from Elergone Energia, whose collaboration with INESC TEC comes from way back, while following a well-defined path towards the future, with the four new projects accepted under PRR.

Name of the institution: Elergone Energia Lda
Business area: Electricity sector (Electricity commercialisation/Consulting /Electric mobility/PV installation)
Name: Amândio Ferreira
Position in the institution: Head of R&D
INESC TEC centres with which the company collaborated: Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES) and High-Assurance Software Laboratory (HASLab)
Names of the projects and projects managers at INESC TEC:

• InterConnect – David Rua and Ricardo Bessa
• POCITYF – Justino Rodrigues
• ELFOS – Ricardo Bessa
• NegoCER – José Villar
• Turn Green – Fábio Coelho
• PCM to improve energy efficiency – Zenaida Mourão
• Hybrid AC/DC microgrids – Clara Gouveia
• New charging solutions for electric vehicles – Ricardo Bessa

What is the connection between Elergone and INESC TEC?

Elergone Energia and INESC TEC have a connection that was established many years ago, with both institutions strengthening said relationship over the last decade. During this period, we did improve our collaboration activities, especially regarding innovation projects, with the development of several joint initiatives. One of the first and most relevant was ELFOS (Elergone FOrecasting Services), a platform to support the commercialisation of electricity that allowed Elergone to improve the performance of its forecasts, reducing deviations and, consequently, the consequences inherent to the purchase of energy in the wholesale electricity market.

What are the main results of this collaboration?

This collaboration helped Elergone to stay up to date about the most innovative technological solutions. Moreover, it allowed the company to test and validate some of these solutions and understand the applicability of certain technologies to Elergone’s activities. After being tested and validated, the solutions lead to new tools, useful to the company’s operation, new services – which Elergone provides to customers -, new processes, etc. Another result, less obvious but equally relevant, is the constant need to set higher standards. We must follow the state of the art, something that influences our teams’ ambitions, which have been embracing a culture increasingly focused on the excellence of the added-value technological solutions that we provide to our customers and society.

How do you rate your experience with INESC TEC?

It has been very enriching and rewarding! INESC TEC, as an interface institute, has shown the ability to bring together academic know-how and the business world. The different teams have a vast and proven set of skills, being able to address the challenges we propose, in a sector that faces significant changes. In addition to the ELFOS project, we’ve collaborated on projects related to electric mobility, demand-side flexibility, renewable energy communities, etc.

What do you value most in this collaboration?

Above all, the receptiveness, and how we address mutual challenges while sharing common objectives. It is very important for companies to have interface institutes as partners, particularly for the consolidation of knowledge and innovation in their activities; it is equally important for interface institutes to find, among companies, the openness and willingness to apply their knowledge to the real world, leading to the generation of social, economic and environmental value.

Soon, Elergone will collaborate on new projects with INESC TEC, within the scope of the PRR. What are your expectations?

Elergone Energia will collaborate with INESC TEC on four PRR projects. Here’s a short description of each one:

• Turn Green – digital platform to support the decarbonisation of organisations;
• PCM to improve energy efficiency – use of phase changing materials to increase the thermal inertia of cold systems, thus benefiting from flexibility;
• Hybrid AC/DC microgrids – private microgrid management solutions in service buildings to increase energy efficiency;
• New electric vehicle charging solutions – bidirectional charging management of electric vehicles in service buildings.

Therefore, expectations are high! We aim to create and validate solutions to introduce our increasingly data-driven services portfolio, in “smart” solutions, endowed with the intelligence to optimally manage our customers’ energy assets. Ultimately, this is Elergone Energia’s mission: to position itself as a solution provider, with a wide range of products and services that address the energy and decarbonisation issues of the customers. To get there, we must keep investing in innovation and collaboration activities like the ones we have promoted over the past few years with INESC TEC.

What can we expect from Elergone in the upcoming years?

Above all, a lot of ambition, transformation, and innovation. We are developing a set of new products and services that aim to contribute positively to the ambitious goals of decarbonisation of the Sonae group, the energy sector, and the country.