Increase the Synergy among different ENERGY NETworkS

Project Information

SENERGY NETS

Grant agreement ID: 101075731

DOI

10.3030/101075731

EC signature date 29 July 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 9 938 450,75

EU contribution

€ 8 223 108,66

Coordinated by

EIFER EUROPAISCHES INSTITUT FUR ENERGIEFORSCHUNG EDF KIT EWIV
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SENERGY NETS (Increase the Synergy among different ENERGY NETworkS)

Reporting period: 2024-03-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

SENERGY NETS will demonstrate the benefits arising from integrating electricity, gas, heating and cooling carriers exploited in existing multi energy systems located in European urban areas, supplying residential, tertiary and industrial consumers, in order to decarbonize the following sectors:
- Heat and (indirectly) power: through grid services allowing a higher penetration of RES (PV, Wind) without high investment for dedicated flexible infrastructure,
- Gas: through a diminution of the needed consumption.

This demonstration will take place at three District and Cooling assets located in Milan-Italy, Ljubljana-Slovenia and Paris-France, involving several conversion and storage technologies and using improved planning and control algorithms, with the constraint of heating and cooling satisfaction. Energy markets will be the first driver for sector integration, along with the provision of smart and flexible services allowing for cost-effective energy transition to a near carbon neutral energy system. Transferability of the results will be tested with simulation on two additional case studies : an hospital energy system in Cordoba-Spain and a multi-energy power plant in Vasteras-Sweden. The replicability and impact analysis of the project's results will be assessed at the european scale, using GIS analysis and simulation of the european power system and markets.

To achieve its ambitious goal and address the aforementioned challenges, SENERGY NETS has set seven specific objectives:
1. Demonstrate the capability of MES to decarbonize the heating and cooling sector using local RES production and sector coupling
2. Demonstrate the capability of MES to decarbonize the power sector by providing cost efficient flexibility for energy markets and ancillary services to DSO and TSO
3. Enable MES to provide flexibility services by delivering a set of tools for planning and operation
4. Enable DSO to integrate flexibility services from MES by delivering a set of tools for planning and operation
5. Enable flexibility provision at local scale by defining market requirements for DSO ancillary services adapted to MES
6. Maximize the impact by developing and applying a consolidated method to evaluate the overall created value by sector integration
7. Maximize the impact and geographical reach of SENERGY NETS through the deployment of communication and dissemination channels and synergies with other HORIZON projects

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The second period of the SENERGY NETS project, focused on advancing the development and implementation of integrated tools across its demonstrators. A major achievement was the open-source release in 2 steps of the Pandaprosumer tools on GitHub, concluding a comprehensive webinar series on the "Panda" toolset designed for energy optimization.

Technical progress was solidified through the achievement of 3 different Milestones, thanks to the establishment of detailed functional requirements for tools dedicated to the three main demonstrators, to the consolidation of scenario framework as well as economic, environmental and social KPIs for value creation assessment, and the collection of all the available data for performing replicability studies for the three demonstrators and the two cast studies.

In the second period field activities intensified as the Milan demo site neared operational readiness for real-field optimization of district heating models, utilizing advanced forecasting and IT integration. It was possible to apply the developed model, and all the on-field activities have been concluded. Meanwhile in Ljubljana, simulation work progressed with the submission of scenarios for transitioning from existing to future energy networks (D5.1 D5.4) the preparation of the demonstrator is concluded, and the tests will start in the upcoming winter (December 2025 – February 2026). Finally, despite several unexpected events and issues that brought to several uncertainties, the Paris pilot completed the installation of hardware for the Energy Management System (EMS) and new control programs for thermal storage tanks.

Significant progresses were made in value creation analysis with the definition of the scenario frameworks (D7.1). The consortium identified social, environmental, and technical challenges for sector integration across five target EU countries, examining five distinct TSO-DSO interaction schemes.

Regarding the activities focused on transferability and replication through two follow-up case studies, the analysis of flexibility use cases based on the plant in Västerås has been accomplished (D8.2 while for the Spanish case study in Córdoba (Spain), the analysis of flexibility use cases the development of the model has progressed significantly; however, it has reached a standstill due to the lack of data from the analyzed case study, which has prevented the validation of the model itself.

The consortium also emphasized policy and knowledge sharing, organizing workshops on market flexibility and the decarbonization of peak heat loads. Research efforts resulted in innovative modeling of multi-energy systems using timed automata for ancillary services. Finally, the project strengthened its impact by joining the 2Cool2Waste cluster and participating in major industry events like ENLIT 2025.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The SENERGY NETS consortium is developing 11 digital solutions to allow the provision of flexibility services by Multi Energy Systems operators and use by grids operators with a focus of DSO. These digital solutions concern each phase of a sector integration project : design and planning, operation, replication of results.

During the second period, SENERGY NETS has progressed beyond the state of the art by releasing the open-source Pandaprosumer tool on GitHub and introducing innovative timed automata modeling to simulate real-time flexibility activation from Multi-Energy Systems (MES). This technological advancement is being applied to the full operational implementation of optimization algorithms at the Milan demo site to manage district heating in a live environment.

Expected results until the project's conclusion include the full operational implementation of optimization algorithms in the Ljubljana demonstrator, set to be completed by the first semester of 2026, establishing consistent scenarios for coupling different energy vectors.

The potential impacts of SENERGY NETS extend to the decarbonization of the heating and cooling sectors by enabling multi-energy systems to provide flexibility as a market service. Through its 12 High-Level Use Cases, the project addresses wider societal implications by analyzing territorial effects and informing policy on how to phase out fossil fuels during peak heat loads. Ultimately, the socio-economic impact is driven by new business models and TSO-DSO interaction schemes that enhance the economic feasibility of integrated, renewable-heavy energy networks.