Development of a System for Monitoring the Energy Consumption of a Renewable Energy Community

Economic growth caused the world's energy demand to drastically rise in the course of the last decades, and is projected to rise in the future. With this increasing demand, the introduction of new energy sources is becoming increasingly important. However, the creation and building of new infrastructure is not straightforward, and it would take decades to accomplish. In this context, Renewable Energy Communities are a novel concept that aims at supporting the energy transition to renewable sources, serving as middle entities between the consumer and the supplier. Renewable Energy Communities allow users to share energy locally through a decentralized model and offer a method to lower energy transportation costs and wastes, while encouraging the use and creation of new renewable energy sources with state-backed incentives. Furthermore, direct connections from the main power plants to the final consumers can be inefficient and susceptible to moments of high demand. There have been previous initiatives on this topic, which primarily focused on a Renewable Energy Community's management. However, raising awareness among Renewable Energy Community's members could prove essential for optimizing the community's effectiveness. This project seeks to improve the local communities' general experience, incorporating a tool to monitor the overall consumption of energy, as well as receiving alerts when a localized shared consumption opportunity presents. The system employs a low-cost Internet of Things device, connected to each member's electrical system to measure each member's production and consumption in order to reach this goal. The obtained data is analyzed to determine desired or unwanted behaviors, and to deliver a summary of the community's current state. Additionally, a mobile application is provided, acting as a graphical user interface for receiving system notifications and an overview of the community state.