Hive Power win 2023 Watt d'Or award

13-01-2023
Congratulations to NCCR PI Vasco Medici and his team for winning the Watt d'Or 2023 for their three year project that successfully demonstrated that an intelligently networked and controlled combination of electricity consumers and solar power producers can significantly increase self-sufficiency.
Photo of the award winners
Photo: ©BFE2023

In summer 2022, a pioneering three-year pilot project concluded in Lugaggia, a small village near Lugano. It successfully demonstrated that an intelligently networked and controlled combination of electricity consumers and solar power producers can significantly increase self-sufficiency. Behind this sunny alliance of the Lugaggia Innovation Community are the regional distribution system operator Azienda Elettrica di Massagno (AEM), the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), the companies Hive Power and Optimatik, and Landis & Gyr. They succeeded in connecting Lugaggia's pre-school, 18 residential buildings, 10 heat pumps, 6 electric boilers, a 60kWh community battery and six photovoltaic systems with a total output of around 70kW in such a way that 94 per cent of the solar electricity not used directly could be shared and consumed within the community.

(Text: Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE)