On December 17th and 18th, the TwinEU partners gathered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, for the third General Assembly (GA) meeting, marking a milestone in the project’s first year. This two-day event provided an excellent opportunity for partners to review progress, exchange ideas, and align strategies for the next phases of the project.

Key discussions spun around the development of the Digital Twins across TwinEU’s demonstration cases. Through five engaging workshops, the GA participants had the opportunity to explore ways to create impactful, EU-wide use cases and assess strategies for effective collaboration as a federation of Digital Twins. These efforts play a crucial role in advancing TwinEU’s core objectives of innovation and ensuring scalability across the EU.

 

UBITECH ENERGY, serving as the project’s technical coordinator, delivered a comprehensive overview of the technical progress achieved during the first year and outlined the roadmap for future development.

In addition, as the leader of WP2 named “Digital Twins EU-level cross stakeholder use-cases capitalization and preparation”, UBITECH ENERGY highlighted significant achievements under this core WP, including the completion of deliverable D2.1, the progress on TwinEU Business Use Cases and the achievement of the relevant milestone. UBITECH ENERGY also shared updates on the pan-EU scenarios under development, and the forthcoming deliverable D2.2.

ENFLATE partners met for the 4th plenary meeting in Paris, France, on November 19th and 20th to discuss the progress of the project and the next steps. The meeting was hosted by EPEX SPOT and resulted in two days of fruitful discussions between experts of different fields.

UBITECH ENERGY, as the technical coordinator of the project, presented the progress of the project and the way forward. Also, UBITECH ENERGY presented the progress on the definition of the ENFLATE data management platform architecture and its interconnection to other EU platforms, as well as the progress on the implementation activities from the demos side.

Moreover, UBITECH ENERGY co-organised with ARTELYS and CERTH in the context of the meeting a workshop with the demonstration partners discussing the strategy that will be followed for assessing the demos impact and evaluate the overall project results.

D-HYDROFLEX partners met for the third plenary meeting in Wroclaw, Poland, on October 2nd and 3rd to discuss the progress of the project and exchange more ideas on different topics related to hydropower flexibility and digitalization. The meeting was hosted by the University of Wroclaw and resulted in two days of fruitful discussions between experts of different fields.

UBITECH ENERGY, as the technical coordinator of the project, presented an overview of the technical progress of the project for the second semester and the way forward. The main project achievements for this semester included:

  • Analysis of HPP digitalization trends and challenges and regulatory landscape in demo countries
  • Initial mapping of relevant stakeholders for D-HYDROFLEX solutions
  • Initiation of the design of the D-HYDROFLEX use cases
  • Extraction of functional & non-functional requirements of the D-HYDROFLEX 4.0 toolkit
  • Progress on the prototypes’ development

Moreover, UBITECH ENERGY presented the progress of the D-HYDROFELX Hydropower 4.0 toolkit development and kicked-off the work related to the demonstrators’ characterization and the demonstrations’ deployment plans definition.

UBITECH ENERGY attended this year’s ENLIT Europe that was held in Milan, Italy from October 22 to 24. ENLIT Europe is a leading event in the energy sector, bringing together experts and innovators from across the energy ecosystem to shape the future of sustainable energy. In this context, UBITECH ENERGY showcased some of their key initiatives aimed at revolutionizing energy markets, enhancing grid flexibility, and driving sustainability.

More specifically, UBITECH ENERGY presented a range of innovative projects that contribute to the global energy transition, namely TwinEU, D-HYDROFLEX, ENFLATE,  and Thumbs Up.

Ilias Zafeiropoulos, Technology Director of UBITECH ENERGY participated in Enlit podcast episode: Adaptability is key

This episode was recorded in the media studio at Enlit Europe in Milan, where energy projects where at the heart of the event.

 

Alongside promoting trust among end-users, other key topics include scalability of solutions, interoperability, and the role of digital twins in enhancing the European electricity grid. Emphasis is placed on collaboration, leveraging open-source tools, and aligning efforts with EU regulations.

The discussion featured:
Laurent Schmitt – Use Case Coordinator, EDDIE project
Stratis Kanarachos – Project cordinator, DECODIT project
Ilias Zafeiropoulos – Technical coordinator, TwinEU project

Katerina Drivakou, Energy Systems Researcher UBITECH ENERGY, participated in two panel discussions representing the ENFLATE and D-HYDROFLEX projects:

  • ENFLATE Project session “Rethinking Flexibility Markets – What’s the Secret to Navigating Regulatory Challenges and Customer Needs?”

This session featured the associated projects BeFlexible and Stream, as well as Charles Esser, Secretary General of the E.DSO distribution operators’ association. The session focused on how flexibility markets can adapt to new regulatory challenges and consumer needs, addressing topics such as smart grid connectivity, consumer participation, and the necessary incentives to encourage their involvement in the transition to a more flexible and dynamic energy market.

  • D-HYDROFLEX Project session “New Projects in the Spotlight”.

This session focused on the newly approved by the EU Commission energy projects, and their plans. Projects participating in the discussion included Di-Hydro, MISSION, REFORMERS, D-HYDROFLEX and Battery2Life.

Magda Zafeiropoulou, Energy Systems Researcher in UBITECH ENERGY, represented Thumbs Up project, that boosts renewable energy storage and heat pump integration in EU buildings.

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UBITECH ENERGY ‘s participation at ENLIT Europe 2024 emphasizes its role in facilitating the energy transition through cutting-edge research, collaborative projects, and scalable technologies.

The 3rd General Assembly Meeting of EVELIXIA HORIZON EU funded project was held on 15 and 16 October 2024, at Cluj-Napoca, Romania, hosted by TUCN (Technical University).

Nena Apostolidou, Task 4.4 Leader and Eleni Kotali, Task 4.6 Leader, presenting tasks’ progress and next steps, focusing on the innovative solutions for Grid to Building Flexibility Services developed by UBE and EVELIXIA Services’ Broker developed and managed by UBE.

 

UBITECH ENERGY participates at the kick-off meeting hosted by ETRA (September 25 & 26, 2024) in Valencia, Spain of the ECLIPSE Innovation Action, officially started on September 1st, 2024. The project is funded by the European Commission (Grant Agreement No. 101158494) and spans on the period September 2024 – August 2026. ECLIPSE main objective is the implementation and demonstration of the Common European Reference Framework (CERF) for energy consumers applications across the EU, enabling voluntary energy consumption reductions and load shifting, based on recommendations, strategies, and incentives, promoting sustainable energy consumption behaviour and empowerment of final consumers.

ECLIPSE project will define a set of rules and conditions for the development of new energy consumers applications and to improve of existing ones. These applications will provide to the final consumers with simple, useful and user-friendly information on energy savings, and broader benefits (such as a reduction in CO2 and other financial and social incentives) and at the same time reinforcing the stability and resilience of electricity grids, by means of consumer flexibility (e.g., through smart EV-charging, shifting heating loads, self-consumption, etc).

The project solutions will be deployed and demonstrated in 16 EU countries, being potentially replicated across the whole European Union, ensuring interoperability with third-party systems, while respecting the current regulatory framework and any existing competitive application offerings.

Within ECLIPSE, UBITECH ENERGY undertakes the preparation, coordination and monitoring of deployment and demonstration activities. In particular, UBITECH ENERGY will guide and monitor the deployment and demonstration activities in the 12 project pilot sites, while ensuring the timely implementation of the CERF developed, based on the requirements and use cases. Also, UBE will facilitate know-how exchange across the pilot sites and monitor the stakeholders’ active involvement at the ECLIPSE pilot sites.

The two days meeting was held on 4th and 5th of June in Thessaloniki, Greece hosted by CERTH. During the meeting we had intresting discsussions about the use cases, status updates for all active WPs and the work plan for upcoming months.

UBITECH ENERGY’s Magda Zafeiropoulou presented the updates on the clustering activities as well as the progress on BRIDGE various Working Groups that ELECTRON is participating.

UBITECH ENERGY attended this year’s European Sustainable Energy Week that was held in Brussels, Belgium from June 11 to 13, representing the ENFLATE project. The EUSEW Policy conference is the biggest conference dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe. This year, the conference focused on Net-zero energy solutions for a competitive Europe.

Within EUSEW 2024, UBITECH ENERGY in collaboration with partners from BeFlexible and STREAM projects participated in a session titled “Unlocking local energy flexibility potential: are customers ready to embrace innovation?” that attracted over 60 attendees sparking discussions on customer engagement. Within this session and across two panels, participants explored how adopting customer-centric approaches can greatly enhance Europe’s energy flexibility and support its broader transition efforts, while also discussing the potential and challenges of integrating this customer-driven flexibility.

The first panel discussion was moderated by Ms. Tzeni Varfi (E.DSO) and featured as speakers:

  • Katerina Drivakou, UBITECH ENERGY and ENFLATE project.
  • Fernando David Martin Utrilla, i-DE (Iberdrola) and BeFlexible project.
  • Tomi Medved, University of Ljubljana and STREAM project.
  • Veli-Pekka Saajo, Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER).
  • Josh Roberts, REScoop.eu.
  • Rose Matthews, Smart Innovation Norway.

The panel delved into the readiness of customers to adopt innovative solutions for local flexibility. It was emphasized that the energy transition requires putting customers at the center of flexibility efforts. Developing platforms that facilitate data exchange across the value chain to activate various flexibility mechanisms is essential. However, reaching and engaging the final customer remains a significant challenge.

Another key point was the need to design flexibility markets that integrate energy-related services. Engaging local authorities is crucial for connecting with customers and bringing them closer to these initiatives. The panel also highlighted the necessity to revisit the basics of how flexibility can be promoted, indicating that issues like competition and pricing need fundamental reevaluation.

The second panel discussion was moderated by Ms. Marion Malafosse (SmartEn) and featured as speakers:

  • Thomas Bobinger, Federation of German Consumer Organisations, VZBV.
  • Sebastien Condom, Voltalis.
  • Lindsay Sugden, NIBE.
  • Charles Verhaeghe, Compass Lexecon.
  • Olivia Sicurani, Sympower.

The second panel focused on scaling demand response across Europe by learning from existing solutions. It was noted that while Europe has a strong framework for demand response, there are still technical barriers to overcome. Demand response is not a future concept but a present reality, and it is advocated to start with non-core processes in industries to build familiarity and confidence before scaling up.

The importance of avoiding past mistakes in new markets, such as billing issues and data protection concerns, was underscored. Raising consumer awareness and ensuring regulatory policies protect consumers are essential. Business models need to be developed to turn energy flexibility markets into profitable ventures, offering consumers a range of choices.

Watch the full video of the session:

UBITECH ENERGY, as the technical coordinator of the project, presented the progress of the project and the way forward.