BD4NRG envisions to confront big data management challenges for the energy sector, giving a competitive edge to the European stakeholders to improve decision making and at the same time to open new market opportunities.

MATRYCS works for a holistic, state-of-the-art AI-powered framework for decision-support models, data analytics and visualisations in real-life applications. Building energy management will be elevated to a new level through improved data processing, analysis and aggregation.

I-NERGY aims at evolving, scaling up and demonstrating innovative AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) Energy Analytics Applications and digital twins services that will be validated along 9 pilots, which will span over the full energy value chain, ranging from optimised management of grid and non-grid RES assets, improved efficiency and reliability of electricity networks operation, optimal risk assessment for energy efficiency investments planning, optimising local and virtual energy communities involvement in flexibility and green energy marketplaces. It will also delivers other energy and non-energy services to realise synergies among energy commodities (district heating, buildings) and with nonenergy sectors (i.e., e-mobility, personal safety/security, AAL), and with non- or low-technical domains end users (i.e., elderly people).

The increasing electrification of heat and transport coupled with larger deployment of decentralized renewable energy resources is disclosing new additional opportunities for Demand Response (DR). However, DR potential has been exploited so far to a very limited extent at end consumer residential level, due to technologies immaturity, regulatory fuzziness, distorted business framework preventing end consumers to capture an appropriate value.

To cope with the above challenges, BRIGHT will leverage a participatory co-creation process where the consumers will play a central role. As a result, it will be created a framework for promoting an adaptable multi-timescale DR (different flexible consumptions at different times) in a multi-layer community centered cross-domain.

The BIGG project will analyse the complete building life-cycle using big data technologies and data analytic techniques. More than 4000 buildings at 6 pilot sites in Spain and Greece will be analysed during the project. Ultimately, BIGG aims to increase the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in buildings by providing an estimate of the expected energy savings that will result from renovations.

In the green energy transition, we as energy consumers play a key role in the balance between power generation and demand. Due to the fluctuating and unreliable nature of renewable sources such as sun and wind, the need is for flexible energy consumers who can adjust their consumption patterns accordingly, which means continuously and close to real-time.

The aim of the iFLEX project is to empower energy consumers by making it as easy as possible for them to participate in demand response programs, in which they adjust their energy consumption in response to signals or incentives coming from energy actors, such as price signals or bonuses.

The EU energy market is conditioned by digitalisation. New rules and technological developments allow the proliferation of energy service providers in the EU member states with users having full knowledge and control over their appliances. However, interoperability represents a serious problem as a change of provider could mean the replacement of installations. The EU-funded InterConnect project proposes effective energy management using a resilient and practical ecosystem that is user-centric and market-driven. The project involves a range of specialised stakeholders, including advanced technology actors, manufacturers, providers and energy users. Via seven pilots, they will showcase an effective digital market for ensuring energy-efficiency at reduced costs that is beneficial to end-users.

AUDIT-TO-MEASURE (Leading business towards climate neutrality by speeding up the uptake of energy efficiency measures from the energy audits) will help companies to uptake measures necessary to reduce their energy consumption, thus supporting their energy transition. AUDIT-TO-MEASURE will develop and implement a new engagement strategy (called “Audit2Action”) to put into action the opportunities emerging from energy audits.

The core concept of the LIFE project InEExS is the deployment of integrated energy services across sectors and carriers, and the tokenization of energy saving data in a public blockchain to facilitate cooperation among market segments and actors. InEExS improves the implementation of Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) Art7 and supports Obligated Parties to provide integrated service offers that enable energy savings, system efficiency and include non-energy benefits.

This LIFE-Project targets an early replacement of old electric motors that remain in service in industry and in the tertiary sector. Electric motors have long lifetimes (30-40 year), which means that their replacement rate is slow.

As a result of these excessive lifetimes, the actual savings of energy efficiency regulations are lower than the projections calculated by the impact assessments. By taking swift action, at least part of this lost savings potential could be recuperated, with all the associated benefits.

Achieving the full energy transition potential calls for a paradigm shift, and many solutions are investigated to involve many people and support them in reducing their energy consumption.

NUDGE will implement and evaluate different behavioral interventions for energy efficiency, paving the way for new policies and human behavior.

The designed interventions are compared against traditional ones in pilots in Greece, Belgium, Germany, Portugal and Croatia.

SmartSPIN is an innovative business model to unleash the energy efficiency and flexibility potential in the commercial buildings.

It integrates energy smart services with other non-energy services along with advanced technologies. Thus, creating clear value and benefits for all parties involved in a fair and transparent environment. Moreover, SmartSPIN contributes to maximising energy savings, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions and triggering business investments. To maximise impact and market uptake, SmartSPIN provides training for all actors in the value chain on the key features of the novel business model.

Moving forward the Next Generation Integrated Energy Services! NEON project will exploit building energy efficiency, renewable energy generation and storage, and demand flexibility to increase energy savings, reduce CO2 emissions, and provide cost savings across sectors. The Citizen Energy Communities (CECs) enable faster uptake of the proposed services, and facilitate European communities, both residential and nonresidential, in becoming energy efficient. Services that become reality.Through cocreation process with the engage grid stakeholders, service providers and final consumers it is going to be establish the cross-sectoral arrangements and underlying service concepts.

EaaS is a pay-per-use model where the end-customers only pay for the service they receive, rather than the physical product or infrastructure that delivers the service.The EaaS model creates conditions for SMEs to access new climate-friendlier technologies without the need to provide up-front capital investment for more efficient and more expensive equipment. Thus, EaaS project removes market barriers by shifting the energy efficiency costs from an expensive, high-capital expenditure to a transparent, lower-risk operating expenditure, freeing up capital to other investment priorities.

The model also creates an alignment of incentives: it reduces the perceived technology risk for the customers as they are not required to invest in the technologies, while they are also incentivised to cut unnecessary consumption as they are charged per usage; and it gives technology providers the chance to optimise the operation of the equipment to reduce running costs by giving the customer the most energy efficient technologies on the market. In addition, the EaaS model also supports a circular-economy model, by incentivising technology providers to make their equipment modular, with parts being reusable/recyclable.

The EU is committed to curbing increasing energy demand and controlling CO2 emissions. Energy service companies (ESCOs) can play a key role by promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and smartness in buildings. Despite the large economic energy saving potential, very few ESCOs operate in the residential market that requires further development to overcome current limitations. The EU-funded frESCO project will deploy innovative business models by engaging with ESCOs and aggregators. The goal is to integrate energy service bundles that properly combine and remunerate local flexibility for optimising local energy performance, both in the form of energy efficiency and in demand-side management. The project’s new business models will be tested in Spain, France, Croatia and Greece.

V2Market is an innovative service to incorporate EV batteries into the electricity system as storage and flexibility capacity using Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) and Vehicle-to-Building (V2B) technology. It tackles system efficiency and uses big data and price forecasting ICT tools to extract the maximum value from pools of EVs.V2Market puts together all the relevant actors in the value chain to create new business models for aggregators, EV owners and flexibility buyers.

Effective and de-risked energy efficiency investments require cooperation and interactions between multiple ranges of stakeholders: from the highest administrative level to homeowners and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The EU-funded SMAFIN project will create permanent discussion forums between government, regional and local administration, industry, energy service companies and construction on the one hand, and SMEs and homeowners on the other, aiming to detect best practices and improve national policies on energy efficiency investments. These forums will assess and upgrade existing practices, develop strategies, follow their implementation and jointly establish template documents and contracts for better functioning of the market. They will also act as a permanent interaction and experience exchange between all stakeholders.

The PROBONO project envisions to establish a people-focused European construction industry, by working in harmony with the broader community of stakeholders, to deliver scalable, sustainable, and viable energy-positive and zero-carbon Green Buildings and Neighbourhoods (GBN).

The goal of the RENergetic project is to demonstrate the improvement of efficiency and energy autarky, the community involvement in and the socio-economic viability of three urban energy islands: The New Docks in Ghent (BE), the Warta Campus in Poznan (PL) and the Hospital and Research campus in Segrate-Milan (Italy). RENergetic empowers Renewable Energy Communities to inhabit Energy Islands based on an Economy of Quality (quality attributed to the value of living and working in a clean energy society), fueling their involvement in processes traditionally hidden for local communities such as heat supply.

MODERATE aims to connect data providers with other building stakeholders by improving interoperability between datasets, by making use of data from different providers and aims to develop services based on data analytics that can transform raw data into knowledge for end-users.

DEESME 2050 builds on the developed DEESME multiple benefits approach to capacitate, assist and motivate companies to overcome the obstacles in energy efficiency measures uptake in the furniture sector and its value chain, mainly in Bulgaria, France, Italy and Poland. In order to achieve this, DEESME 2050 involves, supports and accompanies companies in the implementation of energy efficiency measures based on their level of readiness. The project also builds capacities of the companies’ staff on all working levels and endorses sustainability through the preparation of financing, standardisation and replication in cooperation with associations and policymakers.