Europe aims to have at least 42.5% of its energy come from renewable sources by 2030. The challenge is no longer just to install more solar panels and wind turbines, but to ensure that the grid operates safely when energy production depends on the sun and the wind.
Co4RES was created to address this challenge; it is a European project that will develop and test, under real-world conditions, the tools needed to manage an increasingly renewable power grid. At Voltiva Energy, we are part of this initiative as part of the Spanish pilot program.
A network designed for a different era
The sun and wind are not always available when energy is needed most, and renewable energy production is spread across thousands of facilities throughout the country. At the same time, electricity-intensive uses—such as data centers and electric cars—are on the rise.
Added to this is the fact that the grid has two major operators that still work largely independently of one another: transmission operators, who move electricity along the large high-voltage “highways,” and distribution companies, which deliver it to homes and businesses. The result is grid congestion, greater difficulty in balancing production and consumption, and renewable energy that goes to waste because the grid cannot absorb it.
What is Co4RES?
Co4RES develops and tests tools to enable the power grid to operate with an increasing amount of renewable energy. It works on four fronts:
- Forecasting: using artificial intelligence to predict more accurately how much energy the sun and wind will produce and how much will be consumed.
- Coordinate: Ensure that the various network managers work with the same information and make decisions jointly.
- Adjusting energy consumption: ensuring that batteries, HVAC systems, and electric vehicle chargers adjust their energy consumption when the grid needs it.
- Ensuring stability: new technologies that keep the grid stable even when renewable energy generation changes abruptly.
The project partners already have extensive experience in developing tools for renewable energy forecasting and efficient grid management, and through Co4RES they are pursuing more ambitious goals, such as halving the amount of renewable energy lost because the grid cannot absorb it, saving 20% in energy, and reducing the cost of grid reinforcement by 25%.
36 partners, 15 countries, and seven actual pilots
Funded by Horizon Europe with approximately 12.2 million euros (nearly 10 million contributed by the EU), Co4RES brings together 36 partners from 15 countries for 36 months, coordinated by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Its solutions will be validated in seven large-scale pilot projects with 11 grid operators, stretching from northern Europe to Cyprus, including Spain.
The consortium brings together electricity grid operators, renewable energy producers, aggregators, technology companies, and universities. This combination allows the challenge to be addressed from all angles: technology, grid operations, the market, and regulation.
The Spanish Pilot: Flexibility in the Local Network
The Spanish pilot project is led by the distributor Comercial Vallesana de Suministros, with support from Ikerlan, CEMOSA, and our organization. Its goal is to demonstrate how companies, residents, and energy communities can support the local grid. The project is being carried out at two locations: an industrial site in northern Spain equipped with solar panels, batteries, and electric vehicle chargers, and a distribution network in the northeast that connects self-consumption communities, where residents and businesses share the energy generated by their solar panels.
This second grid is highly digitized: it features repurposed batteries, industrial consumers, and 60 substations monitored in real time. There, researchers will test how these resources can adjust their consumption to relieve the grid and how the utility can make better use of solar energy and batteries.
The Role of Voltiva Energy
At Voltiva Energy, we operate as an independent aggregator. What does that mean? Individually, a battery, a solar panel, or an industrial building has limited capacity to support the grid. When grouped together, however, they provide sufficient capacity to participate in the electricity markets. Our role is to bring all these resources together and serve as a bridge between those who own them and the grid operators.
In addition, we are leading the design of a notification system between the grid and consumers: when the grid needs assistance, operators send a signal, and the pooled resources respond by increasing or decreasing their consumption. This helps maintain a balance between production and consumption and prevents grid congestion. The goal is to create business models that can be replicated throughout Spain.
Integrating more and more renewable energy depends not only on producing more clean energy, but also on managing it intelligently. Co4RES works to ensure that this transition is safe, affordable, and people-centered.
