The general objective of the project is the development of an integrated planning tool for multi-energy systems on a European scale. To reach the COP21 goals concerning a stepwise reduction of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a cost effective way, the decarbonisation of multiple energy sectors is necessary. Therefore, the model considers the coupling of different energy sectors (electricity, heat, mobility and gas) and calculates the cost-optimal energy mix for the future European energy system (e. g. up to 2050) that is compliant with the climate goals. Besides generation and storage systems, also transmission and distribution grids are considered in the planning and operation stage in an integrated way. These modeling requirements lead to both a large mixed-integer (non-linear) optimization problem and new solution methods that will be developed within the course of the project. This will be achieved by solving both mathematical and computational challenges in the field of energy system modeling. Thereby, novel mathematical formulations of energy system modeling problems will be proposed, e. g. by combining diverse mathematical decomposition methods. The goal is to strive towards a system, where a multiplicity of models for single energy system aspects all synergistically contribute to the optimal planning of such a complex system. The project will provide a new energy system planning tool for different stakeholders of the energy system, which promotes optimal development and operation of the system. This includes European system planners, regulators and national authorities as well as technology companies, grid operators and utilities. To ensure the applicability of the developed tools, an advisory board will review the intermediate and final results of the project. Finally, two case studies with European scope will be performed to show the adequacy and relevance of the developed modelling framework.

FLEXI-GRID will demonstrate cutting-edge technologies and innovative flexible markets enabled by advanced cross-platforms for local energy exchanges and providing flexibility to distribution system operators in order to ensure a secure, stable and affordable operations of electrical distribution grids for de-carbonising energy systems with high shares of renewables (up to and beyond 100%). By leveraging digital, smart grid technologies, IoT, blockchain, FLEXI-GRID will provide a transparent data management platform by broadcasting real-time information on the conditions of the network to optimise the observability of the grid and market functioning. The project’s geographical coverage, with four test sites in Bulgaria, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey, allows validating solutions in multiple market conditions, and ensures post project scalability, knowledge transfer, scaling and replication. The key demonstration activities include i) grid monitoring, control and flexibility intervention; ii) local energy exchanges and provision of grid services; iii) blockchain based energy exchange and provision of grid services; iv) flexibility measures and grid services provided by local energy storage, Power to Gas, Vehicle to Grid, and local renewable resources. It is the first time that small and medium size DSOs show interest to test innovative tools and solutions. The project is strengthened by collaborating with Canada and backed by financial institutions to ensure successful commercial paths of innovative solutions.

The rising decentralization of the energy system is unveiling an enormous opportunity for energy stakeholders to leverage on big data & AI technologies to improve decision making. There are however some barriers hampering the exploitation of this potential, such as the lack of standardized big data architectures for smart grids and regulatory frameworks not enabling data sharing. In that respect BD4NRG will i) deliver a reference architecture for Smart Energy, which aligns BDVA SRIA, IDSA and FIWARE architectures, SAREF standard and extend COSMAG specification to enable B2B multi-party data exchange, while providing full interoperability of leading-edge big data technologies with smart grid standards and operational frameworks ii) evolve and upscale a number of TRL 5-6 technology enablers, such as scalable sovereignty-preserving hybrid DLT/off-chain data governance, big data elastic pipeline orchestration, IoT/edge AI-based federated learning and multi-resource sharing tokenized marketplace, loosely integrate and deploy them within the TRL 7-8 BD4NRG framework iii) deliver a TRL8 open modular big data analytic toolbox as front-end for one-stop-shop analytics services development by orchestrating legacy and/or third party assets (data, computing resources, models, algorithms) iv) validate such framework through the delivery of predictive and prescriptive edge AI-based big data analytics on 13 large scale pilots, deployed by different energy stakeholders (TSOs and DSOs power network operators, aggregators, storage/renewable assets operators, local energy communities, ESCOs, power market operators, municipalities, financial institutions and ENTSO-E), fully covering the energy value chain v) setup a vibrant data-driven ecosystem through the SGBDAA Alliance, which will federate new energy data providers, attract SMEs for novel energy services provisioning through cascading funding and validate a hybrid energy/industry value chain supporting B2B joint digital platforms.

Energy power systems face big challenges to cope with grid integration demands of an ever-increasing number of distributed generation and consumption devices in an interconnected world. Technology offers a huge range of opportunities to develop solutions in the uncertain current and upcoming Energy market situation. This proposal considers Open Innovation as a natural solution to create a seamless link and balance between energy stakeholders needs and the solutions to be developed. Nowadays, old metering, operation and control devices are combined with smart systems with a huge amount of data being available yet unused or underused. This data offers a wide range of possibilities to improve existing energy services and creating new ones, all available in an Open Innovation Marketplace, and processed through an Analytic Toolbox. BD4OPEM will develop this Analytic Toolbox, based on Big data techniques, providing tools for enabling efficient business processes in the energy sector. By extracting more value from available data, a range of innovative services will be created in the fields of grid monitoring, operation and maintenance, network planning, fraud detection, smart houses/buildings/industries energy management, blockchain transactions and flexibility aggregation for demand-response. The Open Innovation Marketplace will ensure secure data flows from data providers to solution providers, always compliant with GDPR requirements, so that asset management is enhanced, consumer participation in energy balancing is promoted and new data-driven business models are created through innovative energy services. The project will demonstrate the above features in four large scale pilots with diverse distributed energy sources (e.g. PV, wind, hydro, EV, storage…), while promoting the competitiveness and synergies of Sustainable innovations and IT Ecosystems in Europe.