Call: Tools and technologies for coordination and integration of the European energy system

• Health, demographic change and wellbeing;
• Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy;
• Secure, clean and efficient energy;
• Smart, green and integrated transport;
• Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials;
• Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies;
• Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

• Reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint
• Low-cost, low-carbon electricity supply
• Alternative fuels and mobile energy sources
• A single, smart European electricity grid
• New knowledge and technologies
• Robust decision making and public engagement
• Market uptake of energy and ICT innovation.

The increasing share of variable renewable energy sources and the 2020 and 2030 targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emission in the EU are calling for important changes in our energy system: more flexibility, more active involvement of all stakeholders and more collaboration. If no actions are taken, the power system will face several risks such as, poor quality of the electricity supply, congestion, lack of stability, excessive levels or curtailments, impossibility to cope with electro mobility demand, etc. The challenge is therefore to create and deploy common tools for planning, integration and operation across the energy system and its actors.

Proposals must target the development of technologies, tools and systems in one or several of the listed five areas:

• Novel European grid and end-to-end energy system planning tools, including foreseeable features such as storage, aggregation, demand-response and integrating cost aspects;
• Enhanced TSO / DSO collaboration and coordination tools, secure data exchange across networks along whole the value chain, ICT tools for cross-border trading for nearly real-time balancing; definition of minimum set of specifications to allow automated digital cross-border electricity market;
• Solutions for the deployment of neutral data access points ensuring a fair and transparent data access to all energy actors (TSOs, DSOs, ESCOs, Telcos, ICT companies, consumers, etc.); validation of new business models resulting from the cooperation between them; investigation of incentives and possible commercial arrangements with a fair share of benefits across actors;
• Synergies between electricity, gas and heat networks, associated business and market mechanisms and analysis of existing regulatory aspects; technologies for hydrogen production and storage are addressed in the frame of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen JU and are therefore excluded from this call;
• Socio-economic aspects and environmental aspects related to large scale infrastructures relevant to renewable generation and changes to transmission infrastructure need for their integration; socioeconomic aspects of consumer behaviours in demand-response mechanisms, consumer engagement.

At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other. 

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU between 2 and 4 million € would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately and between 0.5 and 1 million € for proposals addressing area 5 only. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

EU funding rate: 100%.

Electronic application here.