In order to make the smart energy transition a reality, 19 projects came together under the #SmartEnergyCluster to mutually support each other by building on and multiplying all their results.
The 19 projects have the common aim to develop, conceptualise and deploy new business models and concepts which fully tap the economic value and the wider benefits of integrated services. These combine different energy services, such as energy efficiency, distributed generation and flexibility, and/or which integrate energy services with non-energy benefits. Moreover, they aim to overcome the fragmentation of markets and segments and to enhance the cooperation and trust among different services providers and market actors, also across segments that so far do not have common business cases.
The cluster will work together in the framework of dissemination, communication and exploitation of the projects activities and results, aiming at engaging interested and common target groups. These collaborative actions will also aim to multiply the impacts of the benefits of each project, including for example, the integration of new and smart service offers, reduced energy costs for end-users and payback times of investments into sustainable energy.
The 19 projects are presented below:
- InEExS: The core concept of the LIFE project InEExS is the deployment of integrated energy services across sectors and carriers, and the tokenization of energy saving data in a public blockchain to facilitate cooperation among market segments and actors. InEExS improves the implementation of Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) Art7 and supports Obligated Parties to provide integrated service offers that enable energy savings, system efficiency and include non-energy benefits. Particular attention is placed on the development of business models and contractual schemes that facilitate the implementation of sector-integrating smart energy services and the deployment of a wide range of sustainable technologies, such as renewables (RES), electric vehicles (EVs), heat pumps, internet of things (IoT) controls and other energy efficiency (EE) measures.
- BD4NRG is evolving, upscaling and demonstrating an innovative energy-tailored Big Data Analytics Toolbox, which will contribute to achieve a techno-economic optimal management of EPES value chain.
- MATRYCS aims to capitalise and combine existing modern technological breakthroughs in the areas of ML / DL and big data, in order to develop a new decision-making and data analytics solution for energy-efficient buildings. MATRYCS will realise a holistic, state-of-the-art AI-empowered framework for decision-support models, data analytics and visualisations for Digital Building Twins and real-life applications. The overall vision of MATRYCS is to define and deploy a Reference Architecture for Buildings Data exchange, management and real-time processing, and to translate this reference architecture into an Open, Cloud-based Data Analytics Toolbox (MATRYCS Modular Toolbox).
- I-NERGY aims at evolving, scaling up and demonstrating AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) Energy Analytics Applications and digital twins services, spanning over the energy value chain. I-NΕRGΥ’s vision is summarised to reinforce the service layer of the AI-on-demand-platform, and reaching out to new user domains and boosting the use of the platform through use cases and small-scale experiments.
- BIGG will facilitate the adoption of Member States’ Action Plans by applying Big Data technologies and data analysis techniques to the complete life cycle of more than 4 000 buildings in Spain and Greece. Solutions include the Open Source BIGG Data Reference Architecture 4 Buildings; the BIGG Standard Data Model 4 Buildings to reach full building data interoperability; and the cloud-based BIGG Data Analytics Toolbox to support a wide range of services and new business models as well as reliable and effective policymaking.
- iFLEX aims to develop a digital agent to act between consumers, home or remote RES assets, and various stakeholders, enabling the consumers to achieve specific energy targets through local energy management and demand response opportunities. The proposed framework provides a common approach to enhance user experience, level of automation and personalization in a wide variety of demand response and energy services.
- InterConnect is the name of the project that gathers 50 European entities to develop and demonstrate advanced solutions for connecting and converging digital homes and buildings with the electricity sector. The main goal? Bringing efficient energy management within reach of the end-users by interoperable Solutions Connecting Smart Homes, Buildings and Grids. The project, which was approved by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme, places the foundation for the future of smart energy management solutions by seven connected large-scale test-sites in Portugal, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece and France.
- AUDIT-TO-MEASURE will help companies to uptake measures necessary to reduce their energy consumption, thus supporting their energy transition. It will develop and implement a new engagement strategy (called “Audit2Action”) to put into action the opportunities emerging from energy audits.
- ENERGATE aims to facilitate the creation of an effective, ICT-enabled, energy efficiency marketplace bringing together energy services and sustainable finance to accelerate the renovation rate of buildings by increasing the chances for projects to be financed. ENERGATE envisions to transform the complex set of decision-making actions for targeted groups, even to non-experts, into a user-friendly and single-entry service.
- EU-MORE targets an early replacement of old electric motors that remain in service in industry and in the tertiary sector. Electric motors have long lifetimes (30-40 year), which means that their replacement rate is slow. As a result of these excessive lifetimes, the actual savings of energy efficiency regulations are lower than the projections calculated by the impact assessments. By taking swift action, at least part of this lost savings potential could be recuperated, with all the associated benefits.
- NUDGE will design behavioural interventions that will result in lasting energy efficiency behaviour. NUDGE will apply an approach combining the analysis of consumer psychology and intervention design tasks based on tests and field trials. Behavioural science methods will be used to study the bases of individual behaviour and to tailor interventions for them. New interventions will be tested in five different EU states, presenting targeted variables, involved demographics and intervention forms.
- BungEES will develop an integrated package (a one-stop-shop package) of novel smart energy efficiency services (EES) integrating energy efficiency and distributed generation, demand response, e-mobility, energy storage/hybrid energy systems and integrating different energy sectors (e.g., electricity with heating and cooling), and to develop innovative financing and rewarding solutions. In addition, the integration of non-energy benefits and non-energy services will be investigated.
- FrESCO will engage with ESCOs and aggregators in the co-creation of innovative and viable energy service offerings with the use of ICT technologies, ensure objective measurement and verification of the performance of the new hybrid energy service offerings, towards facilitating transparent share of benefits between all involved parties, integrate existing big data technologies, tools and libraries, with energy-relevant legacy systems and ICT-enabled assets and components to accelerate the data management and analysis cycle for powering the frESCO innovative services.
- SmartSPIN: Split incentives present a key challenge to the deployment of energy efficiency measures in buildings. This is because those who pay the energy bills are different from those who make investment decisions. With a focus on commercial buildings, the EU-funded SmartSPIN project will develop a new business model to improve their energy efficiency and flexibility. More specifically, the model will result in a greater uptake of smart energy services deployed via performance-based contracting in the sector. A SmartSPIN business model toolkit consisting of resources for stakeholders will also be created.
- V2Market is an innovative service to incorporate EV batteries into the electricity system as storage and flexibility capacity using Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) technology. V2Market tackles system efficiency and uses big data and price forecasting ICT tools to extract the maximum value from pools of EVs. V2Market puts together all the relevant actors in the value chain to create new business models for aggregators, EV owners and flexibility buyers.
- Neon will deliver next-generation integrated energy services for citizen energy communities to enhance the quality of life of building occupants, save energy along the value chain, and improve grid operation. The concept maximises the impact of traditional energy efficiency services through holistic optimisation of building operation and energy asset utilisation. NEON aims to enable integration of energy efficiency services for multi-measure building efficiency improvement; optimal energy asset scheduling for improved self-sufficiency, virtual power plant/virtual energy storage; advanced building control for optimal operation of heating/cooling systems, lighting, smart appliances, etc.; demand response services for grid flexibility improvement via explicit and implicit mechanisms; and use-tailored services for ensuring comfort, health and safety requirements.
- BRIGHT will work to maximise the potential of DR at the consumer level, harnessing the potential of blockchain technology to deliver data-driven cross-stakeholder and cross-domain energy fingerprinting services. It will also combine user experience design driven by social science for user behaviour motivations that may include monetary and non-monetary incentives. Moreover, BRIGHT is focused on the use of digital twins for improved consumer predictability as well as artificial intelligence data-driven energy and non-energy services.
- EaaS creates conditions for SMEs to access new climate-friendlier technologies without the need to provide up-front capital investment for more efficient and more expensive equipment. Thus, EaaS project removes market barriers by shifting the energy efficiency costs from an expensive, high-capital expenditure to a transparent, lower-risk operating expenditure, freeing up capital to other investment priorities. The model also creates an alignment of incentives: it reduces the perceived technology risk for the customers and gives technology providers the chance to optimise the operation of the equipment to reduce running costs by giving the customer the most energy efficient technologies on the market. In addition, the EaaS model also supports a circular-economy model, by incentivising technology providers to make their equipment modular, with parts being reusable/recyclable.
- PROBONO envisions to establish a people-focused European construction industry, by working in harmony with the broader community of stakeholders, to deliver scalable, sustainable, and viable energy-positive and zero-carbon Green Buildings and Neighbourhoods (GBN). PROBONO will provide strong examples of how Green Building Neighbourhoods’ technological and social innovations can be applied, with a vision focused on building infrastructure and a renewed focus on people and sustainability, taking full advantage of digitalization and smart technologies for the benefit of society.
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