FLEXITRANSTORE project shall develop a next generation of Flexible Energy Grid (FEG), which provides the technical basis to support the valorisation of flexibility services, enhancing the existing European Internal Energy Market (IEM). This FEG addresses the capability of a power system to maintain continuous service in the face of rapid and large swings in supply or demand, whatever the cause. Thus, a wholesale market infrastructure and new business models within this integrated FEG should be upgraded to network players, incentivize new ones to join, while demonstrating new business perspectives for cross border resources management and energy trading. The strategic objectives of FLEXITRANSTORE are: to enhance and accelerate the integration of renewables into European energy systems and to increase cross border electricity flows across Europe. Flexibility is one of the keys to meeting these strategic objectives. A range of state-of-the-art ICT technologies / control improvements will be exploited to enhance the flexibility of this novel energy grid while increasing the utility of the existing infrastructure by integrating storage and demand response management. From a market perspective, state-of-the-art ICT technologies / control improvements will be applied to develop an enhanced market model on an integrated platform, for flexibility services and to support cross border auctioning and trading of energy. The FEG components and the digital market infrastructure will be deployed in 8 Demonstrations which will take place in 6 countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain), focusing on illustrating specific functions and serving real needs and existing challenges.

In recent years, Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) technologies have become a game changer in strategic sectors such as Automotive, Energy and Industry Automation, where Europe is a world leader. In fact, CPS is a key driver for the innovation capacity of European industries, large and small, generating economic growth and supporting meaningful jobs for citizens. CPS4EU aims to arm Europe with extensive value chain across key sectors by: 1. Strengthening CPS Technology providers, mainly European SMEs, to increase their market share and their competitiveness to become world leaders 2. Improve design efficiency and productivity and enable secure certification 3. Enabling the creation of innovative European CPS products that will strengthen the leadership and competitiveness of Europe by both large groups and SMEs 4. Large Dissemination of CPS technologies. To achieve these goals CPS4EU will: 1. Develop 4 key enabling technologies (computing, connectivity, sensing, cooperative systems) 2. Incorporate these CPS modules through pre-integrated architectures and design tools 3. Instantiate these architectures in dedicated use cases from strategic application: automotive, smart grid and industry automation 4. Improve CPS awareness and usage for all industrial sectors CPS4EU gathers major large companies (BMW, VALEO, THALES, TRUMPF, RTE, ABENGOA, LEONARDO, and SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC), a large set of innovative SMEs and world-class research centres (FHG, CEA, DLR, INRIA, KIT, CNRS) to significantly reduce the development time and certification efforts through pan European collaboration, knowledge exchange and access to the strong value chain in strategic markets, CPS4EU builds on a strong foundation in European and national initiatives. It will enable the European industry to lead strategic markets thanks to high level sharing of CPS technologies across sectors all along the value chain.

In ZAS the topic NMP-13-2014: "Storage of energy produced by decentralised sources" will be addressed in order to improve the performance of rechargeable zinc-air batteries as a promising option for stationary energy storage. The overall objective of ZAS is to enable the use of distributed and intermittent renewable energy sources by further developing this type of battery technology. The new battery is expected to have an energy density higher than 250 Wh/kg and 300 Wh/L, and reversibility of more than 1000 cycles at 80 % DOD, good safety performance and a cost lower than 300 €/kWh. Through close interaction between computer simulations and experimental testing, ZAS will select and develop nanostructured electrode and electrolyte materials used in an innovative cell design. Modelling materials, structures, and dynamics on different length scales will contribute to a rational cell. After generation of the materials and validation of our full cell model, we will predict cell performance for a variety of cell designs and operating conditions, providing data into the technology validation by simulating different scenarios including hybrid systems in which zinc-air batteries are used as storage devices. The synergy with other technologies will be obtained through the strong experience the members of the consortium possess towards other types of metal-air batteries and in related technologies e.g. hydrogen fuel cells and water electrolyzers. The involvement of an end user in the consortium will ensure that the developed technology meets the requirements for hybrid constellations of energy storage. The exploitation and business plan developed in ZAS will be based explicitly on energy system simulation and validation of the feasibility of using zinc-air batteries for energy storage by performing life cycle assessment (LCA). Material selection, up-scalability, and innovative design will be crucial for identifying how any follow-up should be organized and financed.