The main aim of the DRES2Market project is to develop a comprehensive and affordable approach to facilitate the effective participation of distributed generation based on renewable energies in the electricity markets, and enable to provide balancing and reserve services according to market criteria DRES2Market is focused on overcoming the existing barriers (technology and regulatory framework) for developing the integration of these technologies, based on the following issues: - The evaluation of the existing technologies (power generation, energy storage solutions, smart technologies, etc.) to design appropriate approaches for the effective integration of distributed generation in the electricity and ancillary services markets, propose the evolution of the technology to fulfil with the requirements to participate in these markets and recommend standards for these technologies. - The analysis of the existing grid codes and markets rules in the European markets to assess their capacity to enable the participation of variable renewable energy. - The identification of opportunities for the active participation of final consumers (based on distributed generation) in the penetration of these technologies, according to market criteria, proposing collaborative schemes. - The identification of arguments of the positive impact of these technologies, to obtain the social acceptance of these technologies. This initiative includes validation procedures based on computing and simulating processes based on real conditions. DRES2Market consortium includes the key players for the system integration of variable renewable energy: balance responsible parties; market operators, grid operator; providers of technology solutions; prosumers; retailers that can develop the aggregator role; renewable energy players; research and development (R&D) institutions and consultants with large expertise in renewable energy integration in electricity systems.

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.