Section outline

  • If Smart Grids are the physical infrastructure, digital platforms are the software that allows them to be managed intelligently. These tools are essential to transform a group of prosumers into a fully coordinated and optimized energy community.

      • The Flexibility-Centric Value Chain (FCVC)

        To understand the role of digital platforms, it is useful to use the Flexibility-Centric Value Chain (FCVC) framework, proposed by Rodrigues et al. (2025). This model breaks down the process of providing flexibility (and, by extension, managing shared energy) into several phases, each supported by digital tools.

        The main phases are:

        1. Flexibility Enablement: The phase in which a consumer equips themselves with the necessary technology (e.g., photovoltaic panels, batteries, heat pumps). Platforms can support this phase with simulators and feasibility assessment tools.
        2. Integration/Enablement: Installation of meters and configuration of energy management systems (HEMS/EMS) that allow monitoring and controlling devices.
        3. Aggregation: Platforms aggregate data and flexibility potential from multiple members to create a single manageable virtual entity.
        4. Negotiation Preparation: Tools analyze network needs and prepare offers to be submitted to local flexibility markets.
        5. Market Operation: Platforms facilitate market participation, submission of offers, and receipt of results.
        6. Activation & Settlement: Tools send activation commands to devices (e.g., “charge the battery now”) and manage accounting and revenue distribution.

         The Flexibility-Centric Value Chain (FCVC) shows the phases, activities, and roles needed to transform consumers’ flexibility potential into services for the grid. Source: Rodrigues et al. (2025).

      • Types of Platforms and Key Features

        The guide Digital Tools for Energy Communities, published by the European Commission’s Energy Communities Repository (2023), provides an excellent overview of available tools, classifying them by function.

        The main types of platforms include:

        A) Platforms for Internal Management and Communication

        A REC is first and foremost an organization of people. It needs tools for administrative management and member engagement.

        • Features: Member registry management, accounting, voting, internal communications, document sharing.
        • Practical Example: Som Comunitats (Spain). This is an online platform co-developed by several Spanish energy communities. It offers a “back-office” for administrative management (billing, accounting) and a “virtual office” area for members, where they can view their data, payments, and community activities. The platform is owned by the communities themselves, ensuring data sovereignty.

        Structure of the Som Comunitats platform, integrating a public website, a reserved member area (Virtual Office), and an administration area (Back-Office Management). Source: Energy Communities Repository (2023).

        B) Platforms for Energy Operations

        These platforms constitute the technical “engine” of the REC. They focus on optimizing energy flows.

        • Features:
          • Monitoring: Real-time visualization of production, consumption, and storage charge status. EnergyID (Belgium and other EU countries) is an excellent example of a tool that allows individuals and communities to collect, analyze, and compare their energy data.
          • Forecasting: Use of algorithms (often based on AI and machine learning) to predict photovoltaic production (based on weather) and members’ consumption profiles. The ComER project (Di Fazio et al., 2022) develops forecasting algorithms based on autoregressive methods (ARIMA) for aggregated community loads. The Magliano Alpi city project (Italy), in collaboration with the JRC, developed its own forecasting tool for this purpose.
          • Optimization and Control: Development of control logics to decide when to charge or discharge batteries, when to activate flexible loads, etc. The goal is to maximize shared self-consumption and, consequently, economic benefits. Capillo et al. (2024) propose a Hierarchical Energy Management System (HEMS) using a combination of Fuzzy Logic and Genetic Algorithms to optimize CEC costs, outperforming simple local self-consumption approaches by 20%.
          • Peer-to-Peer Trading: Enabling direct energy exchange. ENTRNCE Trader (Netherlands), developed by an affiliate of Alliander, allows producers and consumers to trade electricity directly.
          • Flexibility Management: Interface with the grid to provide demand response services. PowerShaper (UK), managed by Carbon-Coop, is a service that allows remote control of user devices (electric vehicles, batteries) to provide grid flexibility in exchange for compensation.

        Main source for this section: Energy Communities Repository, European Commission (2023). Digital Tools for Energy Communities – A Short Guide.