Penetration of renewables is a no-regrets option for energy system decarbonization. Despite their benefits for the energy system, the grid integration of variable RES presents major challenges in matching their non-deterministic output to electricity demand. Resolving this necessitates the deployment and penetration of several solutions, a key on being demand response, which in turn depends on the role of prosumers with regards to their engagement with the energy system. Demand flexibility from residential buildings is the main untapped source of flexibility currently in the market and promises significant flexibility potential, especially taking into account the electrification of heat and transport mega-trends. Energy communities are a promising organizational vehicle for involving citizens – who directly control residential demand - in the energy transition, but currently lack the necessary tools to exploit the available opportunities and create financially viable operations based on the provision of services that citizens want. ACCEPT aims to fill this gap by delivering a digital toolbox that energy communities can use to: i) offer innovative and desired digital services, complementing their existing non-digital services to their members and customers, and ii) gain access to revenue streams that can financially support their operations and ensure longevity and well-functioning of the community itself. To achieve this, the ACCEPT consortium is framing the citizen engagement and business modelling activities in the same priority as the technical development ones. Their intertwined implementation will be the critical success factor for the delivery of the ACCEPT solution as a Minimum Viable Product that has already passed preliminary market testing and financial viability checks. The ACCEPT outcomes will be demonstrated and validated in four pilot sites in the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and Greece, directly involving more than 750 residences and 3000 citizens.

The energy transition of homes toward the EU decarbonisation targets involves many options and choices, the average citizens cannot navigate this maze and identify the best solutions for them. Professionals providing relevant services encounter substantial costs in tailoring their services to individual potential customers due to unavailability of essential data from actual households. DECODIT will develop digital services to support citizens on decision making for participated in the energy transition through co-created services and customer journeys. DECODIT will deliver tools that clearly present concrete, personalised & comparable propositions to citizens for future-proofing their homes based on federated, data-driven services from multiple, diverse service providers. Thus, citizens will be able to compare and select the options that best fit their specific situation and personal needs via apps supporting natural language interfaces, so that citizens with low energy or digital literacy can benefit. Also, DECODIT will facilitate financing for the selected interventions through cross-sector, data-driven loan underwriting approaches to reduce entry barriers for capital providers, hence unlocking consumer investment in home upgrades. DECODIT will contribute in shaping the smart energy landscape with critical enablers, such as enabling business models and market & regulatory conditions. Project results will be demonstrated in four European countries (Latvia, Spain, Greece, Switzerland) that are very diverse in terms of building characteristics, cultural and regulatory frameworks, climate conditions, economic capabilities, etc. Piloting activities will be held under the supervision of market actors that span the value chain needed for exploitation (energy suppliers, ESCO, DSO, energy communities).

The large scale integration of renewable energy sources (RES) has introduced a new operating paradigm. Renewable energy sources are characterized by uncertainty and volatility. Moreover, overloading of transmission and distribution feeders have become more frequent. The curtailment of renewable power generation has thus increased, contradicting the goals for high shares of RES. A valuable solution to these challenges is the introduction of flexibility from flexible resources and loads. In this context, FlexCHESS project proposes cutting-edge solutions based on digital twin concept, Virtual energy storage systems (VESS) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to revolutionize the existing practices. Based on the aggregation of Connected Hybrid Energy Storage System (CHESS), FlexCHESS improves the grid stability while increasing the profitability of its installations by guaranteeing various ancillary services at the distribution and transmission network levels. FlexCHESS will also ensure the highest level of interoperability of the proposed solutions and enhance the innovation capacity and competitiveness of SMEs and Startups in Europe by unlocking access to meaningful information and co-creating new business opportunities. This will be achieved by the appropriate promoting of open innovation and making smart technologies an asset for intelligent business. In order to validate and evaluate the proposed solutions, five pilot sites demonstrations with diverse assets in different European countries are planned. The aggregation and optimization of different resources will be extended to take into account not only electrical energy storage systems (ESS), but also multi-ESSs. Thus, FlexCHESS project will define different scenarios allowing to evaluate the performances and flexibility capability of CHESS. FlexCHESS project Consortium gathers 3 universities, 2 large companies, 3DSOs, 4 SMEs, and 2 NGO.