The pilot project was launched in March 2019 by a consortium composed of the Azienda Elettrica di Massagno (AEM), SUPSI (Energy Systems Sector of the Institute of Applied Sustainability to the Built Environment and Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence) and Swiss companies Optimatik, Hive Power and Landis+Gyr, in collaboration with the Municipality of Capriasca, and enjoys the support of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, the Cantonal Renewable Energy Fund (FER) and the Ente Regionale per lo Sviluppo del Luganese (ERSL).

The project aims to promote an experimental self consumption energy community called “Lugaggia Innovation Community”, which connects the Lugaggia kindergarten with 18 neighbouring houses and 5 photovoltaic plants (with a total power of 64kWp). The exchange of energy within the community complies with existing laws governing self consumption communities.

The objective is to ensure that the electricity produced in the residential neighborhood is consumed within it as much as possible, i.e. that the model of clustering is optimized for own consumption (CPR).
This is achieved through two technological devices provided by the Swiss companies Optimatik and Hive Power: a 60kWh shared battery, which stores surplus energy rather than feeding it into the grid, and a supply demand management system based on artificial intelligence, which should benefit producers and consumers (also financially). The testing phase ended in December 2021.