The ETIP SNET and BRIDGE held the successful Key Results and Steps Forward event

Smart grids are at the forefront of the energy transition, playing a leading role in the shift towards cleaner and more sustainable energy sources. They enable the seamless integration of renewable energy into our power grid, making it more efficient and effective. Using advanced digital technologies, smart grids manage the flow of electricity and information between power generators, consumers/prosumers, and the grid itself. This brings numerous benefits, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting the use of electric vehicles and smart homes, and even lowering consumer bills. By embracing smart grids, we can create a resilient energy system that supports a greener future for all.

This has been the cornerstone of the ETIP SNET and BRIDGE – Key Results and Steps Forward event that Brussels witnessed on 20 June 2023, where the two European Commission's initiatives at the forefront of Smart energy systems research and innovation (R&I) showcased their progress and prospects. The event encompassed a presentation and panel discussion with high-level EC officials from CINEA and DG ENER, the ETIP SNET Chairmanship, and the BRIDGE Working Group. Several key stakeholders in the energy field gathered at the event to champion the energy transition. The event was a Sustainable Energy Day within the framework of the European Sustainable Energy Week 2023 (EUSEW).

By bringing together a multitude of stakeholders and experts from the energy sector, the ETIP SNET assists the EC in identifying R&I priorities to support Europe's energy transition towards low carbon-neutral energy. The Platform fosters extensive collaboration among its various and diverse stakeholders, leading to significant advancements in renewable energy integration, grid optimisation, and innovative energy management systems.

Another fertile soil from where to harvest precious experience and information for a better energy future is the sibling EC initiative BRIDGE, which brings together various Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects in smart grids, energy storage, islands, and digitalisation. BRIDGE pursues a structured approach to address cross-cutting challenges encountered in the project demonstration phase, which may constitute an obstacle to innovation. The initiative is among the most robust pillars at the European Commission's disposal to contribute to the implementation of the roadmaps and actions drawn by the ETIP SNET. It started with 17 projects, now unites 98, and is set to continue expanding.

 Throughout the event, speakers outlined that the contributions and scope of the two initiatives continue evolving and serve as a guiding light for our endeavours. Step by step, they help expand our focus to include emerging energy sectors, recognising the ever-increasing importance of integrating renewables and actively involving consumers and prosumers in this transformative process. Nonetheless, while significant progress has been made, much work is still ahead of us.

Only by continuing to collaborate, engage in meaningful dialogue, and foster exchanges among the various stakeholders part of the two initiatives can we effectively address the challenges associated with the energy transition. We must unite the efforts of industries, universities, research centres, and other key players in this journey. Indeed, it is only through collective action and cooperation that we can navigate the complex path toward a sustainable energy future. Here lies the very critical contribution that the two EC initiatives can give.

The ETIP SNET, BRIDGE and the ETIPs FORUM took part to EUSEW 2023

The European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) 2023 is the biggest annual event dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe and comprises a series of activities aimed at building a secure and clean energy future for Europe. It brings together public authorities, private companies, NGOs, EU project partners, researchers and consumers to promote initiatives to go green and digital for Europe's energy transition. Launched in 2007 by the European Commission, EUSEW is organised by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), in close cooperation with Directorate-General for Energy.

Similar to last year's edition, the ETIP SNET, BRIDGE and the ETIPs FORUM took an actively part in the event, participating in two sessions within the Policy Conference.

Maria Laura Trifiletti, in the role of facilitator of the ETIPs FORUM, participated in the session "Revision of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan: boosting skills and competitiveness in clean energy technologies", which aimed at raising awareness about the need to accelerate R&I n energy and thus inform the audience about the revised SET Plan. The session was divided into two separate panel discussions, the first titled "Announcement and discussions about the SET Plan revision" and the second "Zooming-into SET Plan new activities on skills".

The other session, "Empowering energy communities: building capacity for social innovation", received the contribution of Marialaura di Somma, coordinator of the BRIDGE project eNeuron. The session focused on the social innovation aspects of energy communities, touching on the next steps envisioned through Fit for 55, the ways in which energy communities help respond to the energy crisis, and inform the National Energy and Climate Plans updates, which will provide a useful monitoring tool in this context for EU Member States. To this end, the session explored non-regulatory issues and barriers related to social innovation, project design, development and implementation, as well as the design of suitable policy measures to help overcome these barriers.

Furthermore, the ETIP SNET, BRIDGE and the ETIPs FORUM shared a stand at the Energy Fair, where members from the joined Secretariat showcased the latest achievements and results of the three initiatives.

Lastly, two recent events organised by the EC initiatives were acknowledged as Sustainable Energy Days. The first is the ETIP SNET & BRIDGE Key results and steps forward that took place on 20 June. The second is the webinar ETIP SNET-RHC ETIP Sustainable Energy Day Joint webinar – Coupling of Heating/Cooling and Electricity sectors in a renewable energy-driven Europe that took place on on 29 June. 

ETIP SNET, BRIDGE and 8 projects took part in the EM-Power Europe Conference

From 14 to 16 June 2023, the ETIP SNET and BRIDGE took part in the EM-Power Europe Conference, the International Exhibition for energy management and integrated energy solutions held every year in Munich. The two European Commission’s initiatives shared a stand with eight BRIDGE projects they facilitated the attendance of and organised a panel session with them.

The EM-Power Europe Conference is part of the wider event, smarter E Europe, the largest European platform for the energy industry. The event is widely attended, with more than 85,000 attendees that took part this year. Within this framework, three other energy exhibitions – Intersolar Europe, ees Europe and Power2Drive Europe – are organised in parallel to EM-Power Europe, providing the framework for exchange between the solar, storage and e-mobility sectors. 

 The BRIDGE projects that joined the ETIP SNET and BRIDGE were:

• Iflex;
• RESONANCE;
• GIFT;
• ebalance-plus;
• InterConnect;
• SENDER;
• RENergetic;
• EUniversal.

 The panel session, “The Latest from EU Innovation: BRIDGE Projects, Activities and Outcomes” the ETIIP SNET and BRIDGE organised, saw the participation of all Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects. The panel has been divided into two separate breakout sessions moderated respectively by the coordinator Maria Laura Trifiletti and the communication manager, Edoardo Genova. The topics of the two breakouts were:

1. Flexibility and retail market options for DSO - Replicable solutions for a cross-sector compliant energy ecosystem;
2. Consumer engagement and demand response (including interoperable smart homes and grids) and decarbonising systems in energy and geographical Islands.

In each of them, panellists took part in an interactive discussion along the driving questions, which was later followed by a Q&A session.

15th, 16th and 17th ETIP SNET Regional Workshops: Read the proceedings, conclusions and recommendations

As part of its mission of fostering Research, Development and Innovation activities to support Europe’s energy transition, the ETIP SNET organises Regional Workshops with the aim to identify unsolved research and innovation (R&I) topics and monitor the implementation of R&I activities at national and regional levels within the EU, ensuring consistency between national and European views and stimulating knowledge-sharing between stakeholders and among Member States and associated countries.

After each Regional Workshop, the proceedings, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of each workshop, are compiled and published on the ETIP SNET website. They serve as a base for further analysis and discussion with policymakers at European, national and regional levels. Such documents for the latest 3 Regional Workshops have now been published and are available on the pages below:

• 15^th ETIP SNET Regional Workshop at Enlit Europe 2022 in Frankfurt, Germany – South-Eastern Europe
• 16^th ETIP SNET Regional Workshop at Iberdrola Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub, Bilbao, Spain – Western Europe
• 17^th ETIP SNET Regional Workshop at Vaasa EnergyWeek in Vaasa, Finland – Northern Europe

 The ETIP SNET implements these workshops in close cooperation with experts of the European Commission, and many relevant institutions. It liaises with national and transnational and international initiatives such as BRIDGE, various ERA-Nets (e.g. JPP SES) and the recently started Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETPartnership). The workshops are called “regional” because they bring together representatives of Member States in 4 Macro “Regions”. The gathering is mainly based on criteria of neighbourhood and common geographic characteristics and priorities. 

• Western Region: France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom
• Central Region: Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Poland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia
• South-Eastern Region: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Romania and Slovenia
• Northern Region: Finland, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia 

 A specific exercise is carried out to map the R&I priorities at national and regional levels and align them with the 9 High Level Use Cases (HLUCs) introduced in the ETIP SNET R&I Implementation Plan 2021-2025, and further developed in the ETIP SNET Roadmap 2022-2031.

Open Call for Applications to Chair board positions of the ETIP SNET WGs

The ETIP SNET has 5 Working Groups (each lead by 1 Chair and 2 Co-Chairs) that cover several key sectors toward the energy transition. 

Every year the ETIP SNET proceeds to the renewal of Working Groups (WG) Chairs and Co-Chairs positions.

After the first internal call for candidatures by the current WGs members for the opened positions, the ETIP SNET is now launching an OPEN CALL FOR CHAIR & CO-CHAIRS and inviting any stakeholders interested and experiences in the WGs topics to apply for any open position by 19 July 2023.

The WG5: Innovation implementation in the business environment has opened a position for Co-Chair. You can find the vacancy here

The roles of the WG Chairs and Co-chairs are to

• Represent the WG internally with respect to the overall ETIP SNET governance
• Represent the WG externally with respect to participation in external events
• Coordinate the WG`s activities

These activities will be closely supported by an assigned WG Supporting Manager.

 If you are interested to apply (and/or you need any further info), please send the filled in the application form & CV to etipsnetworkinggroups@etip-snet.eu and m.bracken@clerens.eu.

ETIP SNET-RHC ETIP Sustainable Energy Day Joint webinar – Coupling of Heating/Cooling and electricity sectors in a renewable energy-driven Europe

On 29 June 2023, the ETIP SNET and RHC ETIP hosted the joint webinar “Coupling of Heating/Cooling and electricity sectors in a renewable energy-driven Europe”. The event is a Sustainable Energy Day within the framework of the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW).

This online conference focuses on the implications of coupling the electricity, heating and cooling vectors as a vital part of efficiently decarbonising the whole European energy sector. The joint White Paper between ETIP SNET and ETIP RHC, "Coupling of Heating/Cooling and Electricity Sectors in a Renewable Energy-Driven Europe", will lay the ground for the panel and interactive discussion highlighting the actions needed to keep the timeline for decarbonisation that the Green Deal and Fit­for-55 packages prescribe. The study is available on the Publications Office of the EU.

The slides of the presentation will be made available on the ETIP SNET website.

News from EIRIE platform: the platform’s vision for partnership for researchers and entrepreneurs

Dr Venizelos Efthymiou from the FOSS Research Centre at the University of Cyprus discusses the vision of partnership for researchers and entrepreneurs in the EIRIE platform.

The article can be found here

Working Groups updates

WG1

The White Paper on “E-mobility deployment and impact on grids” is published and can be found here.

The Hydrogen’s Impact on Grids Task Force has finalised and submitted its draft to the Governing Board for comments

The TF on Energy Communities’ Impact on Grids, drafted in cooperation with ISGAN,  has faced some unexpected delays as it pertains to key contributors and foresees the drafting to be finalised by Q3 of 2023.

A kick-off meeting for the upcoming white paper for Energy Infrastructure Planning has taken place on the 31st of May and is in the phase of collecting reference material and talking to other WGs to identify synergies.

WG2

The paper for TF KPI on Energy Storage Applications paper has been published and can be found here.

Furthermore, the WG2 has mapped the activities of its next TF; Development of Circular Economy Approach to Energy Storage Value Chains and expects to kick off this TF in the coming months as the Chair Team seeks to establish an architecture of contributors necessary to establish the WG. Talks between the WG2 and Chair Team are taking place to see what specific papers can be put forward by the WG2.  

Furthermore, The Secretariat would like to thank Javier Olarte for his valuable time in the WG2 Chair team and the Secretariat has initiated the renewal procedure.

WG3

The White Paper “Coupling of Heat/Cooling and Electricity Sectors in a Renewable Energy Driven Europe”, released at the beginning of this year, will be discussed during a webinar, entitled: Coupling of Heating/Cooling and electricity sectors in a renewable energy-driven Europe.  The webinar will take place on Thursday 29^th of June at 9:30am CEST. 

The WG3 is currently working on two position papers: "Hydrogen Ramp-up" position paper led by Peter Johnson with a deadline for June 2023. And a second position paper on “Ramp-up of renewable generation and its effects on system level” led by Thai Phuong Do with a deadline for June 2023 as well.

WG4

Many contributions and inputs to the policy paper on Energy Data Spaces have been collected and integrated into the shared version of the paper, which has been circulated among the ETIP SNET Ex-Co and WGs to gather comments and feedback. The document is also being revised and cleaned up before the first version is sent to the EC at the end of June. On the other hand, TF2, after the meeting with Cristiana Marchitelli from DG ENER and the representatives of BRIDGE Consumer and Citizen Engagement, is processing the feedback received on the first structure of the Playbook on Consumers' and Citizens' Engagement and starting to collect input and contributions. Finally, a new Task Force has been created within the Skills Workstream to continue the elaboration of the white paper on Digital Skills, and to keep working in the context of the Pact for Skills and Large-Scale and Regional Skills Partnerships launched by the EC.

WG5

The final version of the policy paper on Regulatory Sandboxes is ready to be submitted. Compared to the previous versions, this one also includes the DSO of Greece through EDSO, the review of the members of the association EUREC, the outcome of the approval process within the Governing Board of ETIP SNET and the consultation of all Working Groups, as well as some final noncritical corrections to the script. The paper should be approved by the governing board by the end of June 2023.

The Secretariat would like to thank Mahboubeh Hortamani for her valuable time in the WG5 Chair team and currently has a co-chair position open.