CONSENSUS Project, to govern the complexity of energy communities
New rules and algorithms to guide the communities of the future, already among us, towards shared, sustainable and technically reliable solutions.
18 March 2026
Let us imagine a community in which homes generate energy with photovoltaic panels, batteries store excess electricity, electric cars become mobile energy reserves and buildings communicate with each other to reduce waste and costs. Is this a vision of a distant future? No: this is the reality of the new energy communities and distributed energy systems that are emerging in Europe and around the world. Making these systems work effectively, however, is not simple. Each user has different needs, each renewable system produces in a variable way, energy markets change rapidly and users do not always behave predictably. Governing this complexity means bringing together different interests and sometimes conflicting objectives.
It is in this scenario that the CONSENSUS project was born “Control and Optimization of Networked Smart Energy Systems through User-driven and Sustainability-oriented Strategies.”
The project idea is to develop control architectures capable of building “consensus” among the different components of the energy system: between production and consumption, between economic convenience and environmental sustainability, between local autonomy and coordination with the electricity grid. In this context, consensus is not only a social concept but also an engineering principle indicating the ability of a set of autonomous units to reach, through local and distributed interaction rules, an agreement on specific variables of interest (exchanged power, prices, load levels, etc.), ensuring the overall coherence of the system without relying on a single command centre. In other words, it means designing rules and algorithms that guide the system towards shared, sustainable and technically robust solutions.
CONSENSUS was funded by the Ministry of University and Research as part of the third edition of the Italian Science Fund (FIS 3), one of the most competitive national programmes dedicated to fundamental research. The project will be coordinated by Raffaele Carli, recipient of a Consolidator Grant, and will benefit from funding of 1.53 million euros. Carli is Associate Professor of “Automatic Control” in the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering at Poliba. The project, which will last five years (2026–2031), represents the first funding obtained by the Politecnico di Bari within the Italian Science Fund (FIS).
“It is not just a matter of optimising energy flows – says Raffaele Carli – but of designing decision-making mechanisms that enable different actors, citizens, businesses and operators, to cooperate in an intelligent way. To do this, CONSENSUS will integrate advanced mathematical models, mechanisms inspired by game theory and machine-learning tools. The goal is to foster local energy exchange, enhance the flexibility of consumption, optimise the use of renewable resources and maximise self-consumption, reducing costs and emissions. A distinctive element of the project will be its attention to the human dimension. Users’ preferences, habits and behaviours will become an integral part of the decision-making models. Energy will no longer be managed as a purely technical system, but as an ecosystem in which technology and people interact continuously. The project – concludes – stems from the need to address, in a scientific manner, the growing complexity of new distributed energy systems.”
CONSENSUS includes the development of a simulation platform that will make it possible to test scenarios and strategies before their real-world application, supporting administrators and stakeholders in designing more efficient and sustainable energy communities. It will represent an important step in further strengthening Poliba’s “Decision and Control Laboratory” as a centre of excellence in the development of control architectures for complex systems, particularly smart energy systems.
Raffaele Carli, is Associate Professor of Automatic Control at the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Bari. He earned a degree in Electronic Engineering with honors in 2002 and a PhD in Electrical and Information Engineering in 2016 from the same university, after professional experience in the space and defense sector. He conducts research at the “Decision and Control Laboratory” of Poliba. His research focuses on modeling, optimization, and control of large-scale complex systems, with particular attention to smart and sustainable energy systems. He is the author of over 140 international scientific publications.
The Italian Fund for Science (FIS) is a national programme promoted by the Ministry of University and Research (MUR) to support excellent fundamental research in Italy. The FIS funds highly innovative projects proposed by researchers working at Italian universities and research bodies, selected through highly competitive procedures based exclusively on the scientific quality of the proposals and the profile of the Principal Investigator. The resources assigned enable the winners to develop their project with full scientific autonomy, setting up research groups and equipping themselves with the necessary infrastructure. The FIS now represents one of the most prestigious and selective national instruments for funding basic research.
The article CONSENSUS Project, to govern the complexity of energy communities comes from Poliba Chronicle.
