What is your organisation’s role?

EDP NEW is the project coordinator being responsible for the overall project management, including the interactions with the European Commission. Besides this, EDP leads the Work Package 2 dealing with the definition of the requirements and specification of the use cases. We also have a strong involvement in Work Package 6 working closely with EDA on the coordination of the demonstration in Terceira, one of our lighthouses.

How is your organisation contributing to achieve IANOS’ goals?

EDP group is fully engaged with the energy transition. As announced in its strategic plan for 2021-2025, EDP is committed to accelerate its growth in renewables building on its track record as a leader in the energy transition, focusing not only on technology but also empowering communities to live green and sustainable lives. This is completely aligned with the goals of IANOS project and having the opportunity to contribute to the decarbonization of geographical islands will allow EDP to gain more knowledge to become carbon neutral by 2030.

How does IANOS relate with you and your team’s background and interests?

I feel privileged to be able to be work on an area in which I’m passionate about. I’ve always been researching on projects at the frontier of power systems and economics, so it is really exciting to be able to participate in a project that combine these two while a great impact into peoples lives. Also, I have the privilege to have by my side a team of talented professionals also committed with the energy transition and passionate about their work, which makes the work a lot easier.

What are the main challenges that you expect to face in the project? How can it become an opportunity?

To be successful, besides the technical achievements, IANOS must be able to fully engage the local communities and bring them onboard this energy transition. This can be quite challenging as it requires people to change long time habits and look at its different energy uses in a different way. Nevertheless, this is a great opportunity for IANOS to start promoting a new culture of decarbonization in these communities. Besides the sessions more targeted to adults where the project and its objectives are explained, we will also target the youth population in a more broad approach to raise awareness to the importance of climate change and how we can all make a difference in this  enormous challenge.

What positive impacts will the projects have once completed? 

I believe that IANOS will have important results in terms of demonstration of the different innovative solutions implemented in the different islands that will pave the way for the decarbonization of other geographical islands in Europe. But I would like to stress once again the importance that the project can have by empowering the local communities to be more sustainable. Not only the communities of the lighthouses but also of our fellow islands and more broadly people all over Europe. Bringing this mindset to the local communities is the first step to bring the attention of policy makers to the challenges and importance of decarbonization.