The main aim of the DRES2Market project is to develop a comprehensive and affordable approach to facilitate the effective participation of distributed generation based on renewable energies in the electricity markets, and enable to provide balancing and reserve services according to market criteria DRES2Market is focused on overcoming the existing barriers (technology and regulatory framework) for developing the integration of these technologies, based on the following issues: - The evaluation of the existing technologies (power generation, energy storage solutions, smart technologies, etc.) to design appropriate approaches for the effective integration of distributed generation in the electricity and ancillary services markets, propose the evolution of the technology to fulfil with the requirements to participate in these markets and recommend standards for these technologies. - The analysis of the existing grid codes and markets rules in the European markets to assess their capacity to enable the participation of variable renewable energy. - The identification of opportunities for the active participation of final consumers (based on distributed generation) in the penetration of these technologies, according to market criteria, proposing collaborative schemes. - The identification of arguments of the positive impact of these technologies, to obtain the social acceptance of these technologies. This initiative includes validation procedures based on computing and simulating processes based on real conditions. DRES2Market consortium includes the key players for the system integration of variable renewable energy: balance responsible parties; market operators, grid operator; providers of technology solutions; prosumers; retailers that can develop the aggregator role; renewable energy players; research and development (R&D) institutions and consultants with large expertise in renewable energy integration in electricity systems.

V2Market is an innovative service to incorporate the Electric Vehicles’ (EV) batteries into the electricity system as storage and flexibility capacity, using Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) technology combined with energy efficiency (EE) and price forecasting ICT tools. V2Market puts together all the relevant actors in the value chain to work on the definition of the role and the contractual arrangements of a new business case, the aggregator, and its different possibilities with the other key stakeholders: the EV owners, and the flexibility buyers (DSO, TSO, BRP). V2Market will tackle energy efficiency at different levels: - Efficiency at the system level, by providing flexibility services to the grid. - Efficiency at the building/end user level, by optimising energy management thanks to the incorporation of the EV battery, which will also facilitate an optimisation of the energy produced by local RES. - Efficiency resulting from the substitution of older fossil-fuel based vehicles for electric vehicles. - It will make the EV battery an independent asset (as a major cost item that needs to be managed separately). This will result in measurable energy savings and performance improvements for the overall energy system. To respond to these EE needs, V2Market will develop a comprehensive business case for aggregators based on two types of service: A – Provision of ancillary services to the grid (frequency regulation, spinning reserves, peak shifting). B – Integration of flexibility services with EE at buildings’ level. V2Market will help the aggregator to develop its business model, and use big data to tailor its services to the patterns of its pool of EV owners. This is intended to consolidate a more predictable pool of EV batteries, which can be useful to develop also contractual arrangements with the flexibility buyers and provide stability to all the transactions within the value chain.

The current international situation makes the process of energy transition more critical for Europe than ever before. It is a key requirement to increase the penetration of renewables while aiming at making the infrastructure more resilient and cost-effective. In this context, digital twins (DT) build a key asset to facilitate all aspects of business and operational coordination for system operators and market parties. It is of fundamental importance to now start a process of agreement at European level so not to develop isolated instances but a federated ecosystem of DT solutions. Each operator should be able to make its own implementation decisions while preserving and supporting interoperability and exchange with the remaining ecosystem. Exactly this is the vision of the TwinEU consortium: enabling new technologies to foster an advanced concept of DT while determining the conditions for interoperability, data and model exchanges through standard interfaces and open APIs to external actors. The envisioned DT will build the kernel of European data exchange supported by interfaces to the Energy Data Space under development. Advanced modeling supported by AI tools and able to exploit High Performance Computing infrastructure will deliver an unprecedented capability to observe, test and activate a pan-European digital replica of the European energy infrastructure. In this process, reaching consensus is crucial: the consortium therefore gathers an unprecedented number of actors committed to achieving this common goal. The concepts developed by TwinEU span over 15 different European countries with a continuous coverage of the continental map. Demos will encompass key players at every level from transmission to distribution and market operators, while also testing the coordinated cross-area data exchange. The consortium also includes relevant industry players, research institutions and associations with a clear record in developing innovative solutions for Europe.

Within the Energy Union framework, the European Union (EU) is aiming at transforming the energy systems towards a sustainable, low-carbon and climate-friendly economy, putting consumers at its centre. Buildings play a key role in this transition as, on one hand they are responsible for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions in the EU and, on the other hand, the potential engagement of consumers through the demand-response mechanisms. To enable this transformation, distribution grids will face news paradigms in the ways they operate relying more on flexibility smart grids with capacity to safely host more renewable energy sources (RES) and integrate new loads, such as power to heat/cold, power to gas/liquid and new technologies, as well as electric vehicles (EVs) while advancing in security of supply and affordability. Therefore, this global picture will demand the generation of a new concept of connected ecosystem between energy system players and consumers. Under this scenario, the project consortium accepted this challenge and offers to develop the “REDREAM Project”, which not only will enable the effective participation of the consumers/prosumers in the energy market, but also will drive a profound change turning traditional company’s value chain into value generation chain, based on a revolutionary Service Dominant Logic paradigm. The main objective of the REDREAM project is to effectively move the consumer (as a residential, industrial and tertiary consumer) participation to the centre of the energy market through an open and co-creative ecosystem where all stakeholders will actively interact. This ambitious challenge will require the collection of demand response tools and services (energy and non-energy) capable of enabling the capacity for the consumers of participating in the energy market through an improvement of predictability of consumption patterns and consumer behaviour.

While the electrical grid is moving from being a fully centralized to a highly decentralized system, grid operators have to change their operative business to accommodate for faster reactions and adaptive exploitation of flexibility. The topic has been subject of several research projects in the past years and reached a maturity that allows now the consideration of a final level, proposing an integrated view on the grid operations beyond the traditional barriers. OneNet aims at performing this critical step creating the conditions for a new generation of grid services able to fully exploit demand response, storage and distributed generation while creating fair, transparent and open conditions for the consumer. As result, while creating one network of Europe, the project aims to build a customer centric approach to grid operation. This ambitious view is achieved by proposing new markets, products and services and by creating a unique IT architecture. While a single platform for Europe is not thinkable, OneNet proposes innovative mechanisms of platform federation which are the key technical enablers for the proposed vision. The project has also very ambitious exploitation goals aiming at creating consensus on the solution far beyond the limits of the consortium partners thanks to a variety of actions including a large-scale forum for discussion within the international energy community. The complete concept is also proven in 4 cluster demos creating an involvement of an unprecedented number of countries and their grid operators in a single project. The consortium, in addition to a significant list of grid operators, includes also key IT players, leading research institutions and the two most relevant associations for grid operators, jointly providing a unique set of expertise in support to these challenging tasks.