The ESTELAR project is dedicated to modernizing power grids to accommodate renewable energy sources and enhance energy efficiency, focusing specifically on the virtualization of substations to improve the grid's sustainability and resilience. By redefining the operation and concept of substations—key components within the power grid infrastructure—ESTELAR aims to facilitate the energy transition towards carbon neutrality. ESTELAR is based on three innovative pillars: advanced communication strategies, a robust computational framework, and the transformative Digital Substation of the Future architecture. The first pillar focuses on enhancing substation communication systems to facilitate seamless and real-time integration of physical and virtual components. The second pillar aims to boost the processing and data handling capabilities of substations across both cloud and edge computing platforms for future computational demands. The third pillar is centered on developing a modular and scalable substation architecture that incorporates advanced monitoring, protection, and control through digital twinning. To ensure the efficacy and readiness of these technologies, ESTELAR will conduct rigorous validations in two Virtualization Testing Laboratories located in Spain and The Netherlands. These facilities will allow for realistic, controlled testing environments to refine and perfect the technologies prior to widespread implementation. The project unites nine partners from four EU countries, combining expertise from research centers, technology providers, and distribution system operators to comprehensively approach substation virtualization. ESTELAR facilitates renewable energy integration, bolsters grid resilience, and supports wider electrification. This positions it as a key player in accelerating the EU's transition to a climate-neutral economy.

Building on results of recently (or soon to be) concluded EU projects, FEDECOM aims to enable integrated local energy systems through sector coupling and cross-energy vector integration, increasing RES penetration via optimal utilisation of energy dispatch, storage and conversion assets. FEDECOM pursues the idea of electricity becoming the leading energy carrier, with power grids as the backbone for the decarbonisation of all energy sectors and aggregators as the cornerstone enabler of the potential exploitation. FEDECOM adopts and maximizes the potential synergies of two complementary deployment strategies: (i) direct electrification (e.g. via demand electrification), and (ii) indirect electrification (with power-to-X technology). FEDECOM will deliver a scalable and adaptable cloud-based platform composed of analytical, modelling and optimization services for planning, supervision and control of integrated local energy systems (power, gas, heating and cooling, industry, electric and hydrogen mobility). Optimized operations of the integrated systems will be demonstrated as part of hybrid RES/storage infrastructures, while enabling a holistic cooperative demand response (DR) strategy across federation of energy communities. With a concept of federated energy communities, FEDECOM unlocks the flexibility potential, enable energy exchange, and provide coordinated actions across near and remote sites, while maximizing the positive impact on grid transmission level. FEDECOM’s integrated package will be verified on three real large-scale pilots, each composed of multiple (federated) demo sites (communities): Spanish Virtual Green H2 Federation, Swiss Residential Hydropower Federation and BENElux cross-country e-Mobility Federation. After FEDECOM, local energy communities and service providers will be fully trained and upskilled via dissemination and engagement activities to take full ownership of FEDECOM solution and its business ecosystem.

While building on results of recently (or soon to be) concluded EU projects, NEON will undertake coordination and support activities to advance the leveraging technologies and concepts in order to deliver the next-generation integrated energy services for communities, targeted to enhance the life quality of European citizens, while improving the performance of energy system. In this endeavour, NEON will exploit building energy efficiency, renewable energy generation and storage, and demand flexibility to increase energy savings, reduce CO2 emissions, and provide cost savings across sectors. NEON will engage grid stakeholders, service providers and final consumers to establish, in co-creation, the cross-sectoral arrangements and underlying service concepts. NEON will join multi-measure energy efficiency interventions and advanced control capabilities to maximize the positive impact of energy efficiency by improving the building operation performance and make the demand-side flexibility as manageable and procurable resource. NEON will advance the energy efficiency services already available on the market and couple them with other energy services and non-energy benefits, providing an integrated approach to energy generation, storage and consumption management. To enable servitization of proposed concepts, NEON will bring innovative business and contracting models by integrating EPC with P4P schemes, and establish innovative M&V methodology. The concept of Citizen Energy Communities (CECs), as introduced by Directive (EU) 2019/944, will be leveraged to set the legal and business foundations to enable faster market uptake, and facilitate communities, both residential and non-residential, in becoming energy-efficient. The proposed service concepts and business models will be showcased in 4 CEC setups (residential, non-residential and mixed) serving as early adopters, whereby follow-up replication plans across 7 “follower” communities will be developed during the project.

CHRONICLE will deliver a holistic, life-cycle performance assessment framework and tool-suite for different building variants, supporting sustainable design, construction and/or efficient renovation and investment decision making. It will be methodologically integrate ongoing initiatives, like EPCs, Level(s), SRI, under the umbrella of the Digital Building Logbook concept. Performance will be assessed by means of well-defined KPIs, based on both static (by design) as well as dynamic information (sensor measurements) appropriately tailored to different types of use and building life-cycle phases (new or existing buildings under refurbishment). Continuous monitoring and analysis of the actual building performance over its lifetime, will be based on a powerful digital twin framework. The proposed data availability and accessibility within CHRONICLE will extend the limits of the EU energy related policies while the aggregated EPC advanced information will facilitate efficient energy planning. To this end, CHRONICLE will allow all stakeholders to realize in quantified terms the short- and long-term impact of the project activities, from policy to practice, and across the whole building life cycle. It will therefore promote evidence-based impact assessment practices to support policy coherence, design of smart penalties and reward schemes towards motivating energy consciousness, while also paying attention to the voice of market stakeholders (AECs, ESCOs, FMs) but also building owners and tenants/occupants, who are directly impacted by future regulatory decisions. CHRONICLE’s building performance assessment framework and tool-set will be demonstrated and validated in five pilot sites spanning the geographic diversity of Europe, namely in Spain, Ireland, Denmark, Greece and Switzerland.

LIGHTNESS will increase the Renewable Energy hosting capacity, to securely achieve the EU target for 2030, by supporting the market uptake of Citizen Energy Communities through a turnkey social engagement, regulatory roadmap, low-cost technological package and innovative business models to unlock the full flexibility potential, reduce the final energy consumption and CO2 emissions and bring economic, social and environmental benefits to the communities and across the energy value chain. LIGHTNESS solution will elaborate and execute ambitious end users engagement plans for the involved sites with continuous iterations and solution adaptation to achieve a direct engagement of +500 households and +30 tertiary buildings and an immediate replication potential to over 70.000 persons. LIGHTNESS solution will create digital twins for holistic assessment of 5 CECs case studies across 5 countries to be then deployed and monitored. Case studies consist in an energy cooperative (ES), a social housing building (PL), a private multi-apartment building (IT), a business park (FR) and 2 CECs to uphold the interaction among them (NL). The different regulatory and policy frameworks will allow to exchange best practices and providing road maps for the authorities. Overall, LIGHTNESS will engage +3000 end users, professionals, policy makers in EU, will consent a minimum 25% increase of renewable hosting capacity by making available up to 20% of flexibility in peak times from residential and tertiary buildings, will reduce up to 30% the Prosumers and CECs energy cost and up to 30% of CAPEX and OPEX costs for DSOs. LIGHTNESS has received the support from 59 organisations from which we can highlight EPEX-Spot, STEDIN, LIANDER, ACCIONA, VEOLIA, BAM, 10 EU cities, 9 energy agencies, 9 energy cooperatives, and 3 extra EU replicators from India, Turkey and Africa/America.The project management structure is gender balanced with two women and two men serving in the positions of responsibility.