On January 22, 2025, a visit by researchers of GECAD/ISEP was made to Portugal’s first Renewable Energy Community (REC), in Agra do Amial, Porto.
The Porto municipality company, “Águas e Energia do Porto” – AEdP, and the “Porto Energy Agency” – AdE Porto were present. AdE is an entity focused on addressing energy in the municipal domain and which brings together 10 municipalities, including Porto, and which leads “Asprela + sustainable”. Also present were researchers from ISEP/GECAD (https://www.gecad.isep.ipp.pt/) who are involved in the SAtCOMM project (https://satcommproject.eu/), a European project in the field of energy communities. in the Atlantic Region (Portugal, Spain, France and Ireland).
The objective of CER in the social housing neighborhood “Agra do Amial” is to reduce energy costs for its members, act to mitigate energy poverty and increase the penetration of renewable energy. The CER covers the social housing neighborhood, Agra do Amial and the EB1/JI school with the same name. The neighborhood is made up of 181 houses and approximately 355 residents, and the school is attended by 127 students from the 1st to the 4th year of schooling. CER members comprise 70 consumer facilities, of which 55 are residential and the remaining 15 are common building services. There are currently 30 requests for new members to join the community.
The project was presented to the General Directorate of Energy and Geology (DGEG) for licensing by AdE Porto, with AEdP being the entity responsible for managing self-consumption (EGAC). The project includes collective self-consumption aspects, with a set of self-consumption production units (UPAC), which in total represent 111 kWp (205 panels) in residential buildings, and 15 kWp (28 panels) in the school. The estimated annual production of these panels is 160 MWh and includes a new 100 kVA/133 kWh battery, as well as 2nd life 15 kVA/21 kWh batteries at the school. There are also six electric vehicle charging points of 22 kW each.
The distribution (sharing) of energy among CER members is based on differentiated fixed coefficients, proportional to the consumption of each member. In the future, it is intended that this sharing will be based on variable (dynamic) coefficients. Before the CER, members without a social tariff paid, on average, between €55 per month, and members with a social tariff paid €33, considering an average monthly consumption of 223 kWh per household. Currently, members without a social tariff are paying around €30 per month (a reduction of 46%), while members with a social tariff are paying €20 per month (a reduction of 40%).
