COMGRID
Community Optimization and Markets for GRID-supportive, Resilient, Inclusive Districts
- Call
- DUT Call 2025
- Duration
- –
- Project coordinator
- Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya (IREC)
Most Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) and Energy Communities (ECs) struggle with rigid, static planning, centralized control, and a lack of integrated fairness and life-cycle environmental assessments. Additionally, the hesitation of distribution system operators (DSOs) to share sensitive grid data creates major operational barriers. To tackle this, COMGRID develops a planning-to-operation framework focused on four core research questions:
1. Can adaptive planning and Locational Net Benefit Analysis (LNBA) improve investment and sizing decisions under uncertainty?
2. Can privacy-preserving distributed energy management (EMS) and safety-aware reinforcement learning enable grid-conscious control without exchanging sensitive node-level DSO data?
3. Can representative grid models inferred from limited measurements provide operational awareness for coordination?
4. Can fairness, retailer impacts, and life-cycle performance be directly integrated into optimization to balance economic, social, and environmental outcomes?
COMGRID will develop a planning-to-operation framework to address positive energy district (PED) bottlenecks. Key actions include using Locational Net Benefit Analysis (LNBA) to size renewable portfolios, deploying privacy-preserving distributed energy management (EMS) to coordinate community assets via aggregated signals, and reconstructing representative grid models from limited local measurements. It also directly embeds fairness allocation rules and life cycle assessments (LCA) into optimization algorithms.
This work spans six European countries, featuring targeted pilots and digital twins across Nordic (Sweden), Continental (Netherlands), Mediterranean (Spain and Italy), and Alpine (Switzerland) regions
COMGRID expects to deliver substantial technical, socio-economic, and environmental benefits across European energy districts. Technically, the framework aims to reduce feeder peak loads, enhance hosting capacity, reduce renewable curtailment, and defer traditional grid reinforcements. By utilizing representative models, DSOs can manage congestion with reduced voltage prediction errors without requiring sharing sensitive network data.
Socio-economically, the project safeguards equity by embedding fair allocation rules and reducing energy bills for participating households and local SMEs. It builds trust and inclusion, particularly within social housing, ensuring vulnerable residents obtain real benefits.
Environmentally, by co-optimizing emissions, COMGRID will deliver a reduction in life-cycle greenhouse gases, providing a secure, sustainable blueprint for cities.
Italy
The Netherlands
Portugal
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
IREC, INESC TEC, HES-SO, KTH, U. Twente, UNICAL, Phogar, Äventyret, Sveriges Allmannytta, Orebro Kommun
Comune de Soveria Mannelli, STEDIN, Comunitat Energia del Prat
Victor Ferreira, Josh Eichman, Eduardo Salazar