The AEM pilot site in Switzerland consists of two separate areas with different key characteristics: on one hand the “Tesserete District” represents a residential area in the suburbs of Lugano and, on the other end, the “Care Home” represents an elderly care home within the urban area. The “Tesserete District” in the village of Capriasca consists of a residential area with 11 single- and multi-family houses, a large public pool, the football field building with several office spaces, and a district heating plant. The 11 residential buildings count 35 flats. The “Care Home” is a multi-story elderly care home of 30 apartments (30 residents), 1 community centre, and 1 industrial kitchen.
The following business cases are implemented:
- Energy Community as an Energy Service Company (ESCO) offering energy management services
The service offering include energy services inherent to energy efficiency and reduction of costs, in association with energy supply. These energy services would ideally be automated, and based on the profiling of the selected users, thus preserving their comfort preferences
- Energy Community as a Retailer
The Energy Community as a Retailer is supplying the community members with energy models and potentially participates in the wholesale market with the locally aggregated energy surplus. Beyond the intra-community energy/flexibility exchange, the aggregated expected surplus or deficit of energy can be managed centrally and valorized through bilateral contracts with third-party retailers or through direct participation in the wholesale market.
- Heating-as-a-Service Provider
Heat as a Service is a new model for how businesses sell heating. Consumers who buy Heat as a Service choose how much to spend on the experience they want – feeling warm and comfortable when and where they want in their homes – instead of paying for kilowatt hours of energy. Once a service provider understands a consumer, the service provider can help them pick the best low carbon system for their situation