UI partner in COPOWER project

The University of Iceland partners a recently launched project named COPOWER. The aim of the project is to develop a community-based Virtual Power Plant (cVPP) and a viable business model to support it in 5 communities of Finland, Iceland, Ireland and Faroe Islands. The overall objective is to use transnational cooperation to exploit information technologies to link multiple small energy systems and operate them in coordination like a utility-scale power station to balance electricity demand and production.

Professor Rúnar Unnþórsson, head of the Faculty of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science partners the project on behalf of UI. He said that COPOWER "will demonstrate how communities can generate their own energy needs through a system of collective power that increases participation and control in local areas.

It also raises awareness of how consumers and producers can work together to generate their own local energy requirements."

The project is co-funded by the European Union, under the Programme Northern Periphery and Arctic (2021-2027) and the project budget is €1,5 million.