Entitled "GLACIPTO Hop-On: Bridging the Gap in Energy Management," this proposal underscores a strategic partnership between the GLACIATION project and the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO). Our shared objective is to enhance the energy sector by integrating intelligent Internet of Things (IoT) devices into vital energy infrastructure, including power plants, pipelines, and wind turbines. Through this collaboration, we aim to improve the efficiency and resilience of the Electrical Power and Energy System (EPES) while minimizing operational redundancies and errors. A key focus of our partnership is the establishment of a unified and sustainable OT/IT ecosystem. This entails effectively merging various datasets, energy consumption insights, and computing capabilities to support advanced analytics. This represents a significant step toward bridging the divide between Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT), resulting in a more robust energy system poised for efficiency gains. IPTO's contribution to this initiative is instrumental. As an experienced energy operator, they provide valuable insights and expertise, ensuring that the solutions developed within the GLACIATION project are not only theoretically sound but also practical and effective in real-world energy operations. In return, IPTO gains access to cutting-edge research and technology, aligning with their mission to advance smarter substations and data-driven energy management capabilities. In summary, the "GLACIPTO Hop-On" proposal signifies a joint commitment to improve the energy sector, fostering innovation, operational excellence, and sustainable energy management.

The transition to the smart grid era is associated with the creation of a meshed network of data contributors that necessitates for the transformation of the traditional top-down business model, where power system optimization relied on centralized decisions based on data silos preserved by stakeholders, to a more horizontal one in which optimization decisions are based on interconnected data assets and collective intelligence. Consequently, the need for “end-to-end” coordination between the electricity stakeholders, not only in business terms but also in exchanging information is becoming a necessity to enable the enhancement of electricity networks’ stability and resilience, while satisfying individual business process optimization targets of all stakeholders involved in the value chain. SYNERGY introduces a novel reference big data architecture and platform that leverages data, primary or secondarily related to the electricity domain, coming from diverse sources (APIs, historical data, statistics, sensors/ IoT, weather, energy markets and various other open data sources) to help electricity stakeholders to simultaneously enhance their data reach, improve their internal intelligence on electricity-related optimization functions, while getting involved in novel data (intelligence) sharing/trading models, in order to shift individual decision-making at a collective intelligence level. To this end SYNERGY will develop a highly effective a Big Energy Data Platform and AI Analytics Marketplace, accompanied by big data-enabled applications for the totality of electricity value chain stakeholders (altogether integrated in the SYNERGY Big Data-driven EaaS Framework). SYNERGY will be validated in 5 large-scale demonstrators, in Greece, Spain, Austria, Finland and Croatia involving diverse actors and data sources, heterogeneous energy assets, varied voltage levels and network conditions and spanning different climatic, demographic and cultural characteristics.

Gathering 22 partners from the EU, Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine, iDesignRES aims to provide public authorities and network operators with open-source toolboxes allowing to plan and to optimise the uptake of low and zero emission energy sources at regional, national and European scales. With these open-source tools, iDesignRES provides latest multi-physics component energy models, comprehensive energy system modelling (in particular assembling of component models), long-term multi-carrier grid planning and optimisation of investment and operation. iDesignRES embraces a new degree of openness, transparency and accessibility to use energy system models and their components. It delivers a harmonized data structure compatible with all modelling approaches (i.e., standardized in a common modelling language). iDesignRES relies on an already built database compliant with these standardized data formats. Based on this modelling and data infrastructure, iDesignRES will develop a unique and innovative cloud-hub platform to run any energy system model online. This will facilitate research collaboration (easier software testing and version control), and increase computational performance (open licenses, cloud services and supercomputing) for average users. To demonstrate and validate the tools, iDesignRES has five real-life cases: two macro region cases (North Sea area and South East Europe), two industrial clusters (Basque and Lombardy regions), and one expansion case in Ukraine. The models and scenario results are combined in the final iDesignRES visualisation tools aimed to inform policy makers and grid operators. The outcome is that the public and relevant authorities can design a renewable energy system entirely online with easily accessible suite of tools, capable to: model at high spatial-temporal resolutions (sub-hourly NUTS level2 regions), to represent detail energy system physics, and to assemble models with a high degree of modularity.

The smart energy ecosystem constitutes the next technological leap of the conventional electrical grid, providing multiple benefits such as increased reliability, better service quality and efficient utilization of the existing infrastructures. However, despite the fact that it brings beneficial environmental, economic and social changes, it also generates significant security and privacy challenges, as it includes a combination of heterogeneous, co-existing smart and legacy technologies. Based on this reality, the SDN-microSENSE project intends to provide a set of secure, privacy-enabled and resilient to cyberattacks tools, thus ensuring the normal operation of EPES as well as the integrity and the confidentiality of communications. In particular, adopting an SDN-based technology, SDN-microSENSE will develop a three-layer security architecture, by deploying and implementing risk assessment processes, self-healing capabilities, large-scale distributed detection and prevention mechanisms, as well as an overlay privacy protection framework. Firstly, the risk assessment framework will identify the risk level of each component of EPES, identifying the possible threats and vulnerabilities. Accordingly, in the context of self-healing, islanding schemes and energy management processes will be deployed, isolating the critical parts of the network in the case of emergency. Furthermore, collaborative intrusion detection tools will be capable of detecting and preventing possible threats and anomalies timely. Finally, the overlay privacy protection framework will focus on the privacy issues, including homomorphic encryption and anonymity processes