Section: General | DISCOVER the PROJECT - the New and Advanced Service in Croatia with BEZ GRANICA!

Hello again Bez Granica. We have learnt about the existing services in Europe and in Croatia through the Specific Guidebook, and you took the most of that collection work to design a New and Advanced Service specifically for your context. Can you now say something about it? What is this Service about?

Thanks Aisfor you for your interest and questions. The guidebook itself pointed out that there is a lack of adequate tools to support the establishment of energy communities, the process is complex, and especially the economic effects or benefits for future members are not clear. In this sense, we decided to create a simple tool to simulate the effect of joining energy communities to support interested citizens.

How did you end up with this tool?

The starting point of the project is our good understanding of the needs and processes in the establishment of the EC (we are members of the Energy Community of the Northern Adriatic), and excellent cooperation with the University of Rijeka – Center for Smart and Sustainable Cities, where we received expert support for the selection of the methodological framework, definition of business processes and optimization algorithms. The development of the tool itself was realized within the association.

Why such tool is needed in your context? How would it impact the Croatian/regional context?

We believe that this tool will have a wider significance, we have not noticed that there is anything similar, and the need was clearly expressed at the workshops we held. We believe that its implementation will facilitate the processes of establishing the EC.

How does it work? and who is it for?

The tool is a WEB based application, it is very easy to use, and appropriate instructions for use have been created. The tool is currently still in the testing and improvement phase, and will become more widely available with the opening of the OSS in our premises in Drenova.

What kind of difficulties did you encounter preparing this service? and why?

The key problem is the lack of open datasets and easier access to data on the energy consumption of future members themselves. Unfortunately, the situation in the Republic of Croatia is not favorable in this context (not even close to the available data in, for example, Italy or Austria). Therefore, we have decided on certain simplifications, but we believe that the final result is still valuable.

Can you tell the main elements of innovation of the Service?

The application is made using advanced technologies and interfaces, is unlimited scalable, and can process large amounts of data if needed. Particular attention is paid to the speed of work. Currently, there are several million data measurements in the database, and there are no delays in processing. In situations where more detailed data is available, more extensive analytics based on artificial intelligence technologies are also applied.

What are the future steps now?

The app has already been introduced to our users and we have received very positive feedback for example, from the city of Opatija, which is our partner in the project. Further testing and improved functionality will follow.

Thanks for your time, Bez Granica, and good luck with your work!

Thank you for your interest, let's hope that all these efforts will result in a faster development of civic energy in the Republic of Croatia.