Energy communities are transforming the energy model in Catalonia and Spain, driven by a favourable regulatory framework and by Royal Decree 244/2019, which established the foundations for shared self-consumption. However, the current context—characterised by high photovoltaic penetration and price volatility—requires a qualitative leap: moving from static shared self-consumption to an intelligent, flexible, and optimised model.

Within this context, INNECOB emerges as an innovative IT Green funding project promoted by ACCIÓ (Government of Catalonia). Its objective is to develop and validate a comprehensive energy management system for energy communities capable of maximising self-consumption, reducing surplus generation, and improving the economic viability of these collective projects.

The project’s beneficiary and pilot case is the La Bordeta Energy Community (Barcelona), where batteries will be deployed to assess the feasibility of the shared storage system developed. The goal is to create a functional and replicable model that can be implemented in other communities.

From self-consumption to advanced energy management

INNECOB proposes a new paradigm based on the dynamic management of energy flows and the integration of key technologies:

• Intelligent energy allocation based on real demand
• Community-scale electrical storage
• Thermal energy storage and advanced system control
• Integration of electric vehicles as energy assets (V2C – Vehicle-to-Community)

This approach enables consumption to adapt to renewable generation, reduces dependence on the grid, and increases resilience to electricity market volatility.

Aiguasol’s expertise within INNECOB

At Aiguasol, we contribute our expertise in energy modelling and the development of advanced digital tools to bring community energy management to the next level.

Our role focuses on developing a smart energy management and storage control software system, capable of anticipating and optimising the community’s energy behaviour:

• We develop proprietary software to optimally manage the charging and discharging of community battery systems.
• We apply artificial intelligence models to forecast users’ energy consumption in the long term, with prediction horizons of up to one year.
• Using real and historical data, we train the system to automatically adapt battery operation strategies based on consumption patterns, photovoltaic generation, and electricity market prices.

Through this approach, we maximise the local use of renewable energy, reduce energy costs, and increase the profitability of installations, delivering direct value to energy communities.

Impact: greater efficiency, sovereignty, and sustainability

The project integrates all these functionalities into a Smart Energy Management System (SEMS) that intelligently coordinates generation, storage, and consumption. This scalable architecture—based on advanced digital technologies—can adapt to different types of energy communities and opens the door to participation in future flexibility markets.

The initiative directly addresses several key sector challenges:

• Increasing self-consumption and reducing surplus generation
• Improving the economic viability of energy communities
• Reducing emissions and accelerating decarbonisation
• Developing a replicable and scalable model

INNECOB represents a step forward toward smarter, more efficient, and more resilient energy communities. At Aiguasol, we drive this transformation by combining technology, data, and expertise to turn energy into a shared, optimised asset that serves local communities and territories.