Come rain or shine, whether residents are cooking, showering or away at work, an energy management system ensures that the electricity demand of the floating residential project Schoonschip in the Netherlands is met as sustainably and cost-effectively as possible. The system determines whether electricity needs are supplied by rooftop PV installations, on-site battery storage or the grid. Its primary aim is to maximise self-sufficiency.
Community energy supply
The Schoonschip energy community comprises 30 floating houses on a side arm of the IJ canal, north of Amsterdam. The first prefabricated homes were moored in 2018, and the 46-unit neighbourhood was completed in 2020. Residents jointly manage their energy supply. The buildings are equipped with PV installations, solar thermal collectors, heat pumps and battery storage, which together form a microgrid connected to the public power grid.
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Amperix, the integrated energy management system used at Schoonschip, was developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM. Since its introduction, the technology has helped optimise self-consumption and reduce peak loads from the grid. Each house is equipped with a control panel that records electricity demand and production, battery state of charge, and the internal temperature of the buffer storage tank. A central Amperix system monitors the three-phase grid connection and uses decentralised control units to adjust settings such as charging or discharging batteries, or directing heat pumps to store surplus electricity as heat. The connection point’s maximum capacity is the key factor in system control, enabling the community to use as much locally produced power as possible.
The technology:
• 516 solar modules and 60 solar thermal collectors in total
• Battery storage, heat pump and central energy management with grid control in every house
• Low-voltage power grid connection rated at 135 kVA
Dynamic electricity prices on the day-ahead market
Since January 2025, the energy community has been linked to energy and flexibility markets, transforming it into a virtual power plant able to supply and store energy. Trading on the energy exchange uses real-time forecasts of residents’ and heat pumps’ electricity demand, along with local power generation. This data enables Fraunhofer ITWM’s control system to create price-optimised battery schedules, making use of day-ahead market price fluctuations. When prices are low, grid electricity is stored in batteries and sold back to the grid at a profit when prices rise. Heat pumps have recently been integrated into the flexible control system.
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n parallel, a trader is marketing the 30 battery storage units on the Dutch imbalance market, where prices are updated every 15 minutes. The storage systems can quickly absorb excess grid power and feed it back during high demand, helping to stabilise the grid.
A vision for the future: access for everyone
The energy community can provide up to 100 kW of flexibility. And it pays off: according to Matthias Klein-Schlößl, head of the “Green by IT” team at Fraunhofer ITWM, this flexibility can generate several thousand euros per quarter for the community. Fraunhofer ITWM views Schoonschip as a blueprint for wider adoption of this technology. All private households and companies with PV, battery storage or other flexible assets such as heat pumps or electric vehicles should have the opportunity to participate actively in energy and flexibility markets, Klein-Schlößl emphasises. (hcn)
This project first appeared in The smarter E Europe’s “Learning from Europe” series. pv Europe is a media partner.
