With the dramatic growth of renewables, now is the time to revise the VPP concept. VPPs need to support not only the promotion of intermittent renewables (RES) but also the integration of all Distributed Energy Resources (DER) into the full scope of grid operations. Such a leap raises challenges: optimal combination of DER and RES in a new generation of VPPs is needed to jointly provide grid supportive flexibility with slow reaction time known from day-head and intra-day markets, as well as real-time reaction to provide fast frequency and inertial response and dynamic-phasor driven voltage control ancillary services. In a nutshell, in a DER-based power electronics-driven network VPPs need to play all the roles that synchronous machines play in a traditional system. Flexibility can be provided by going beyond electrochemical storage and exploring opportunities offered by Power2X or inverters. Demand Side Management or low-cost solutions such as Power2Heat could be deployed in a neighbourhood expanding the concept of VPPs to the concept of a Local Energy Communities. EdgeFLEX links technical solutions to societal expectations. Short reaction times can be addressed by 5G-powered edge clouds linking dispersed devices in near real-time. In this respect, a new concept of VPPs, with communications corresponding to multiple layers of dynamics, becomes possible. EdgeFLEX proposes a new architecture for VPPs deploying such a multi-layer solution, paving the way for a fully renewable energy system. VPPs are brought to a new level, enabling them to interact on markets offering various ancillary services to System Operators. EdgeFLEX will develop this next generation VPP concept and demonstrate it in the context of 3 field trials and lab tests. It will explore innovative optimisations, financial tools and business scenarios for VPPs and assess the economic and societal impact. It will actively work to remove barriers by contributing to standards and European level regulation.

The energy systems of 2025 will be based on increasing levels of RES penetration and DSO’s will need new insight into how their networks are performing to optimise their operations financially. At the same time, the 5G mobile networks will be deployed by 2025 offering low latency, high availability services enabling data driven control. The evolution of the energy sector is increasingly focused on energy as a service. What DSOs now need is to accelerate their ability to introduce innovations, such as those based on the sharing economy, by themselves using services increasing their flexibility to adapt and reducing their need for fixed investments. SOGNO will address this challenge by combining the application of deep intelligence techniques, industry grade data analysis and visualisation tools, advanced sensors, an advanced power measurement unit and 5G based ICT to provide fine grained visibility and control of both MV and LV power networks using end to end automation in a virtualised environment. Our results are provided as turnkey services, validated in DSO field trials (to TRL level 6) preparing them for market introduction beginning shortly after the project ends. An Open API will be provided to enable third parties to market their services in our eco-system creating further market growth. Regulatory and standards changes needed to enable the deployment of advanced techniques will be prepared by the project. Ethical business models will support the market introduction of turnkey services. Commercialisation of the project results, as energy services, will result in disruptive change in the DSO energy market enabling breakthroughs in the speed and cost effectiveness of DSO large scale roll out of automation and growth in the energy services market in Europe and beyond. The SOGNO vision will unlock a new service-oriented market making Europe’s energy sector the most advanced and open in the world.