The AHEAD (AI-informed Holistic Electric Vehicles Integration Approaches for Distribution Grids) project will create a simulation environment capable of predicting the most convenient location to place the electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and optimise both the usage of the power grid resources, and the charging stations located in urban and rural areas. This simulation environment will exploit the unique features of currently available AI models and include two layers: the spatial mapping one (placing the chargers where the people need them to be), and the power grid one (placing the chargers where the grid can support them). Innovative smart charging algorithms will be designed and tested in the model, to minimise the impact of EV charging pools on the network, and ensure the consumers have economic benefits. Moreover, these smart charging algorithms will be tested in three demonstration sites, dedicated to assessing the technical and economic feasibility of smart charging light and heavy-duty EVs, and boats. To this end, AHEAD gathered relevant partners from all the EV value-chain: technology providers who want to test their equipment in the real world, grid operators, who want to optimise the usage of the grid resources and mitigate the EV charging impact, and research institutions, who aim at advancing the knowledge on the topic and producing value for society. Particular attention is going to be placed on the user experience and cybersecurity part of the demonstrators, with specific partners who focus their efforts on understanding how to minimize the impact of smart charging on the user experience and on creating a model to represent cyber-attacks on the chargers to suggest efficient defensive mechanisms for system protection.

FLOW boosts and demonstrates multifaceted EV smart charging and V2X integration into energy systems thanks to a range of comprehensive solutions providing answers to the needs of all actors involved. These solutions include highly replicable user-centric products, concepts, configurations and mechanisms to optimise operation. Cross-sector harmonisation and standardisation is delivered to facilitate activities of stakeholders and EV users. Advanced interoperable solutions enhance planning, operation and assessment of EV charging for seamless integration into the energy system and identification of the most appropriate scenario based on a multi-criteria model, leveraging appropriate business models and tailored services. FLOW also delivers multi-actor orchestration to ensure data exchange and synchronisation across actors for VGI and EV flexibility services. These solutions are deployed in 5 demonstrations (including 2 testbeds and 3 large-scale demos) in CZ, IE, IT, DK, and ES covering a wide range of applications (e.g., V1G/V2B/V2H/V2G, public/private/semi-public, urban/rural/touristic, car/small- & medium commercial) to validate and quantify the benefits associated with enabling and valorising EV flexibility, alleviating grid challenges, and fostering mobility and energy decarbonization. Expected impacts include GHG emission reduction of 0.6MtCO2/y, grid reinforcement saving up to 1.3B€/country, increase local RES by 14% and avoid RES curtailment by 4TWh. The consortium includes 26 partners from 9 European countries covering the entire value chain, including OEM, technology providers, CPOs, aggregators, DSOs, TSO, ICT developers, RTOs experts in users, mobility, harmonisation, optimisation tools, energy integration and leveraging the networks of umbrella associations from the electromobility and the DSOs. These ensure replicability and scalability to foster the EV penetration trends, thanks also to comprehensive communication, dissemination and exploitation actions