OptiStore Project Kicks Off
Nicosia, Cyprus – July 2024 – Petrolina Electric and The Cyprus Institute are pleased to announce the launch of OptiStore, a Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF)-funded project that aims to develop advanced energy management solutions for optimizing energy storage systems and enhancing renewable energy integration in Cyprus.
A New Energy Market, New Challenges
With the upcoming competitive electricity market in Cyprus and the rapid growth of PV systems, consumers, businesses, and producers face increasing complexity in managing their energy costs, investments and assets. Fluctuating energy prices, growing curtailments of solar production, and the absence of sophisticated optimisation tools create both a challenge and an opportunity.
OptiStore was designed to address exactly this gap: to deliver intelligent tools and systems that help active energy consumers make better decisions about when and how to use, store, or sell electricity.
Two Strategic Partners
- Petrolina Electric, representing a supplier and aggregator, currently a supplier in the transitory markets, preparing to operate in the new electricity market with hybrid PV–battery systems and advanced digital tools for its customers and producers.
- The Cyprus Institute’s PROTEAS Facility, representing a complex technology sandbox and research microgrid with multiple energy sources, storage technologies, and flexible loads – an ideal testbed for advanced control and optimisation strategies.
What OptiStore Will Deliver
Over its implementation period, OptiStore will:
- Design and implement an advanced Energy Management System (EMS) for Petrolina Electric, capable of coordinating batteries, PV systems and other flexible assets in line with market prices.
- Upgrade the PROTEAS facility with new equipment and control infrastructure in order to test hybrid storage concepts, vehicle-to-grid (V2G) applications and market-based optimisation.
- Develop digital tools for customers and producers to understand their energy flows, optimise the use of storage, and improve their financial returns.
- Provide a free online simulation tool to help any Cypriot consumer explore how PV and battery systems could affect their grid consumption and electricity bills.
The project ENTERPRISES/ENERGY/1123/0054 is implemented within the framework of the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan “Cyprus_Tomorrow” ("Κύπρος__το αύριο"), with finding from the European Union – Next Generation EU, through the Research and Innovation Foundation.
