Community of practice - Data-Driven Decision-Making in Energy

This Destination includes activities targeting a sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply. In line with the scope of cluster 5, this includes activities in the areas of renewable energy; energy system, grids and storage; as well as Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS).

This Destination contributes directly to the Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations ‘Green transition’, ‘Digital transition’ and ‘A more resilient, competitive, inclusive and democratic Europe’.

In line with the Strategic Plan, the overall expected impact of this Destination is to contribute to the ‘Ensuring more sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply through solutions for smart energy systems based on renewable energy solutions’.

This destination contributes to the activities of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) and its implementation working groups.

The main impacts to be generated by topics under this Destination are:

Renewable energy

1. Energy producers have access to efficient and competitive European renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies with a solid knowledge base and are able to deploy them to enhance the EU’s energy security and reach its climate neutrality objectives, in a sustainable way in environmental (e.g., biodiversity, multiple uses of land and water, natural resources, pollution) and socioeconomic terms, and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
2. Technology providers have access to European, competitive, resilient, reliable, sustainable, and affordable value chains of renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies including emerging ones, and with strong export potential to supply both the EU internal and global markets. They benefit also from circular renewable energy technologies that are safe and sustainable by design with reduced and diversified external dependence on critical raw materials^[1].
3. Economic sectors benefit from better integration of renewable energy and renewable fuel-based solutions that are, among others, competitive, cost-effective, efficient, flexible, reliable, and sustainable. Such integration is facilitated through digitalisation and integration of artificial intelligence of renewable energy technologies that provide network stability and reliability.
4. European industries benefit from a reinforced export potential of renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies, also through international partnerships, and become more competitive in innovative renewable energy technologies in Europe and globally.
5. European researchers benefit from a stronger community and from a reinforced scientific basis on renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies including emerging ones, also through international collaborations.
6. European citizens have access to an energy market that is fair and equitable, more resilient, uses all different types of local renewable energy resources, and is less dependent on fossil fuels imports. Citizens experience less fuel and energy poverty, and also benefit from new employment and upskilling opportunities. Local communities benefit from a more decentralized, affordable, and secure energy system and from multiple uses of land and water.

Energy systems, grids and storage

1. R&I actions will support the just digital and green transformation of the energy system through advanced solutions for accelerating the energy systems integration and decarbonisation. The developed clean, sustainable solutions will contribute to making the energy system work better for actors and supply more reliable, resilient and secure energy – even under increasingly more frequent extreme climate events.
2. The solutions developed will contribute to increase flexibility and grid hosting capacity for renewables through optimizing cross sector integration and grid scale storage as well as cover off-grid situations. They will improve the preparedness of the electricity system to support the EU's binding target for 2030 of minimum of 42.5% renewables in the gross final energy consumption (with the aspiration to reach 45%), and full decarbonisation by 2050. They will enable further electrification of demand and will enhance the competitiveness of the European value chain, reduce pressure on resources (also by making technologies ‘circular by design’) and decrease dependencies. Such solutions would also enable a better EU resilience to climate risks.
3. The solutions will improve consumer awareness and engagement in the energy transition, via innovative offers and services (e.g. demand response, energy communities) and will target different types of consumers, including “hard to reach” population groups (such as energy poor or low-income households). This will result in increased trust in, and uptake of the new products and services entering the energy system.

Carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR)

1. Accelerated deployment of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) as a CO2 emission mitigation option in electricity generation and/or in industry applications, as well as carbon dioxide removal for negative emissions.

Legal entities established in China are not eligible to participate in both Research and Innovation Actions (RIAs) and Innovation Actions (IAs) falling under this destination. For additional information please see “Restrictions on the participation of legal entities established in China” found in General Annex B of the General Annexes.

[1] For an example of a methodology for the assessment of sustainability, circularity and contribution to EU resilience and technological autonomy of clean energy technology in the R&I pipeline, please see Study on circular approaches for a sustainable and affordable clean energy transition

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Enhanced EU cooperation to generate knowledge sharing on data and analytics used for the planning and operation of European grids, and market integration;
• Better EU coordination with regard to planning and simulation tools to support the development of electricity grids and integration of RES are made available to the research, academia, grid operators, and key actors in the energy value chains;
• Coordinated processes to generate new and innovative open-source solutions, software modules etc. that are added to the existing and/or new repositories that support the development of grids and integration of high shares of RES;
• Improved EU-wide cooperation and coordination of actions on developing and utilising innovative data-driven solutions for energy, including AI-powered tools.
• Support to researchers and research organizations to maintain their research results FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) beyond research project ending and accommodating for technology evolution.
• Promotion of opensource practices and collaboration across the energy sector value chain to foster the industrialization of shared methods and standards in and by the energy industry.

Scope:

Projects are expected to:

• Facilitate the coordination and cooperation of key actors in the energy value chains (e.g. grid operators, research and academia, providers of technologies and solutions, energy suppliers, providers of energy services traded on energy markets, representatives of consumers) to build a community of practice focused on developing and maintaining key tools and technologies for using data and analytics in planning, operating and maintaining the European electricity grids, while actively managing high shares of RES in the system;
• Involve, cooperate with, and/or build synergies with major European and international initiatives and groupings that are active in this field;
• Create a European ecosystem of innovation hubs that bring together key stakeholders in the energy sector to collaborate on digitalization projects, providing a space for experimentation and agile innovation;
• Showcase targeted cooperation between grid operators and research & academia for implementing specific projects and/or programmes;
• Build blueprints, methodologies, and repositories of open-source solutions for enhanced simulations, observation, forecasting, infrastructure asset management, and decision-making in energy with a view to reduce the overall costs of system operation;
• Promote the use of modern solutions, such as digital twins and AI-enabled systems.

Selected projects are expected to contribute to the BRIDGE initiative^[1] and actively participate in its activities.

[1] https://bridge-smart-grid-storage-systems-digital-projects.ec.europa.eu/