MUSE GRIDS aims to demonstrate, in two weakly connected areas (a town on a top of a hill and a rural neighbourhood), a set of both technological and non-technological solutions targeting the interaction of local energy grids (electricity grids, district heating and cooling networks, water networks, gas grids, electromobility etc.) to enable maximization of local energy independency through optimized management of the production via end user-driven control strategies, smart grid functionality, storage, CHP and RES integration. Two large-scale pilot projects will be implemented in two different EU regions, in urban (Osimo) and rural (Oud-Heverlee) contexts with weak connections with national grids. These pilots will test and promote the main project concepts: Smart energy system and Local Energy Community. A Smart Energy System is defined as an approach in which smart electricity, thermal, water, gas grids etc are combined with storage technologies and coordinated to identify synergies between them towards maximization of energy independency and reduction of operation costs. The purpose is to reduce energy carbon footprint while meeting energy demands and creating real and sustainable energy islands. To achieve this both physical networks (electricity, natural gas, district heating and cooling, water) and non-physical networks (mobility and citizens/communities) have to interact in order to become a Local Energy Community where inhabitants can act and exchange energy to provide reliable and cheap energy in colaboration. MUSE GRIDS will promote these two concepts not only in pilot projects but also in virtual demo-sites in India, Israel and Spain. Social and environmental aspects of smart multi-energy system transition will be investigated Osimo and Oud Heverlee citizens will be directly involved.The project involves leading EU companies and energy utilites and will be a muse of inspiration for dedicated policy redaction also providing insights to the BRIDGE initiative

With the growth of renewables, the increased interconnection of European grids, the development of local energy initiatives, and the specific requirements on TSO – DSO cooperation as set forth in the different Network Codes and Guidelines, TSOs and DSOs face new challenges that will require greater coordination. The European Commission adopted legislative proposals on the energy market that promote cooperation among network operators as they procure balancing, congestion management and ancillary services. The measures encourage procurement of services at both the transmission and distribution level, recognizing that this will enable more efficient and effective network management, will increase the level of demand response and the capacity of renewable generation. TSOs and DSOs must now define the services they want to procure in collaboration with market participants, and must set up ways to procure them in a coordinated manner. Digitalisation is a key driver for coordination and active system management in the electricity grid, enabling TSOs and DSOs to optimise the use of distributed resources and ensure a cost-effective and secure supply of electricity but also empowers end-users to become active market participants, supporting self-generation and providing demand flexibility. To support the transformation, the INTERRFACE project will design, develop and exploit an Interoperable pan-European Grid Services Architecture to act as the interface between the power system (TSO and DSO) and the customers and allow the seamless and coordinated operation of all stakeholders to use and procure common services. State-of-the-art digital tools based on blockchains and big data management will provide new opportunities for electricity market participation and thus engage consumers into the INTERRFACE proposed market structures that will be designed to exploit Distributed Energy Resources.

Orchestrating an interoperable sovereign federated Multi-vector Energy data space built on open standards and ready for GAia-X The aim of OMEGA-X is to implement a data space (based on European common standards), including federated infrastructure, data marketplace and service marketplace, involving data sharing between different stakeholders and demonstrating its value for real and concrete Energy use cases and needs, while guaranteeing scalability and interoperability with other data space initiatives, not just for energy but also cross-sector. The proposed concept and architecture heavily rely on the approaches adopted by IDSA, GAIA-X, FIWARE, BDVA/DAIRO and SGAM as major EU references regarding data spaces. It will pursue the GAIA-X label, which ensures highest standards on protection, security, transparency, openess and trust, avoids vendor lock-in and restricted to EU countries. • Federated infrastructure for data ingestion. There are a lot of independent platforms for data ingestion/storage, open and private. The goal is to define the minimum interoperability and federation requirements needed for these platforms to adhere to the Energy Data Space and be able to share data in a trusted and secure way. • Data Space Marketplaces. This is the common ground where data, which is already harmonized semantically, is indexed, and referenced, maintaining always the required standards of identity, trust and sovereignty. Using the data space as baseline, a marketplace is implemented for stakeholders to share, use and monetize data and services. Data/service providers will be able to advertise their data/services, and data/service users will be able to discover multiple data sets and services. • Advanced Energy Use Case demonstration. Using all aforementioned layers underneath, 4 use cases families (Renewables, LEC, Electromobility and Flexibiilty) will showcased o prove the value of having a common data space for a particular problem identified by energy stakeholders.

LocalRES project will deploy innovative local energy systems driven by renewable energy communities for a socially fair energy transformation that puts renewable energy into the hands of communities and people. LocalRES will deliver new digital tools that will boost the expected structural change in the current energy system at different levels: 1) generation, increasing the number of small power producers of renewable energy; 2) market, creating local energy markets that enable prosumers to trade energy volumes of their choosing within local communities; 3) distribution, establishing a multidirectional energy flow and promoting REC driven energy services, and 4) consumers, empowering consumers to be active and participating in the energy system and the design of their own Renewable Energy Communities (REC). The main objective of LocalRES is to demonstrate at TRL8 innovative local energy systems in a sector coupling approach, which will be able to interconnect and optimise the joint operation of different energy vectors (electricity, heating, mobility, etc.) by maximising the RES contribution and enhancing the energy system flexibility and supply security. The focus is on the renewable energy communities as main actors for leading the structural change in the current energy system towards the decarbonisation of the local energy systems based on an integrated multidirectional flow approach and prosumers, allowing to maximize the replicability and upscale the potential of the decentralized solutions developed in the project. The LocalRES solutions promote a secure, sustainable, competitive and affordable energy supply for everyone.