ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus: support deep knowledge sharing between regional and European Smart Grids initiatives

Project Information

ERANet SmartGridPlus

Grant agreement ID: 646039

DOI

10.3030/646039

Project closed

EC signature date 24 April 2015

Start date 30 January 2015

End date 29 April 2020

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 30 853 961,72

EU contribution

€ 9 149 908,26

Coordinated by

BUNDESMINISTERIUM FUER INNOVATION, MOBILITAET UND INFRASTRUKTUR
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ERANet SmartGridPlus (ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus: support deep knowledge sharing between regional and European Smart Grids initiatives)

Reporting period: 2016-01-30 to 2020-04-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

ERA-NET SMART GRIDS PLUS- From local trials towards a European Knowledge Community
ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus is a network of Program Owners and Program Managers of national and regional funding programs in the field of research, technical development and demonstration. The core goal of this initiative is to build up a sustainable cooperation structure between national and regional Smart Grids programs in Europe, organise the joint learning from national and regional smart grids demos as well as to enable the co-ordination with relevant initiatives and the knowledge base on a European level.
ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus is providing a hub for the collaboration of European member-states in the field of system integration of renewable energy as well as of new technolo-gies and services. It supports the coordination of funding partners, enables the joint funding of transnational RDD projects and supports the coordination of member states in the related European SET-Plan initiatives. Beyond that ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus builds up a knowledge community, involving key demo projects as well as experts and practitioners from all over Europe, to organise the learning between projects and programs from the local level up to the European level.
ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus by that will contribute to the validation, scaling-up and repli-cation of smart grids concepts and solutions. The initiative is committed to work on an integrated view on the levels of Stakeholder/Adoption, Marketplace and Technology

Main objectives
The main objectives of ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus can be summarised as follows:
• Expanding the existing network of national/regional funding agencies by substantially increased transnational Smart Grids funding, thereby strengthening cooperation on a European level.
• Coordinating during 2015-2020 national and regional RDD budgets according to the implementation of the relevant European RDD agendas.
• Enabling the sharing of already existing, national and regional key demo project knowledge and results and step-up the related funds already invested in Smart Grids development.
• Organising horizontal and vertical learning bottom-up from the regional and national level towards the European level.

See our public project website for further details: http://www.eranet-smartgridsplus.eu/about/our-objectives/

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

1 ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus Co-Funded Joint Call 2015
In 2015, ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus prepared and launched its First Joint Call for transna-tional RDD projects on Smart Grids in partnership with funding programs from 20 Euro-pean countries and regions. Projects are co-funded by the European Commission under H2020. Focus of the First Joint Call for transnational RDD projects was given to validation, scale-up and replication, and integration of Stakeholder/Adoption, Marketplace and Technology. The aim was to push solutions from Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs, see definitions in Annex C of the call text document at the public project website) 5-6 to TRLs 6-7.
As a result of the ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus First Joint Call,
• 50 full project proposals from 20 regions/countries with a total project budget of EUR 104 Mio. were submitted to the call in June 2015.
• 21 approved projects from 19 regions/countries with a total funding of EUR 31 Mio. (Total project budget of EUR 47. Mio.) were selected in December 2015.
• Funded projects will involve a total of 128 partners spread throughout Europe, 48,5 % of which are industry partners. The projects will start in 2016.

Further details
Further details can be read in the downloadable call text document, available at the public project website http://www.eranet-smartgridsplus.eu/research-calls/1st-joint-call-2015.

2 ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus Knowledge Community
In 2015, ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus worked on the preparation and implementation of a package of supportive measures to ERA-Net SG+ funded projects and the ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus Initiative, including various instruments:
• ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus Knowledge Community
As part of the ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus Knowledge Community, projects will have access to a large national and international knowledge base, including a set of “living documents” - a compilation of the current state of knowledge in the field of smart grids, continuously updated by experts in the field. At the same time as they develop their knowledge and contacts in the Knowledge Community, projects will support their learning and experience transfer activities within the network.
• expera | The Knowledge Sharing Platform of ERA-Net SG+
ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus projects will have access to expera - the Knowledge Sharing Platform. expera (“expera” = Experts of the ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus Knowledge Com-munity) links projects with all diverse services, including the knowledge base with the Living Documents, events calendar as well as the list of experts. expera was launched on April 18, 2016 and is available at http://www.smartgridsplus.eu. Initial versions of almost all Living Documents are already available on that platform.
• Working Groups and their topics
In the reporting period, the initiative initiated various Thematic Working Groups (TWG) which will meet at least once a year to discuss current questions and developments in the field of Smart Grids. TWGs allow for exchanging experience and learning from each other. Results usually feed into the knowledge base (e. g. the Living Documents) and are intended to make their way to policy, governance or standardisation bodies. A list of working group meetings that have been held can be found at the events page of our pub-lic website: http://www.eranet-smartgridsplus.eu/news-events/events

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 main progress beyond the state of the art that has been made so far is:
• Establishment of an effective and efficient coordination structure for member states collaboration in smart grids
• Increase volume of budget for joint calls by factor 2-3 according to former joint calls
• Initiate and finance transnational projects with significant participation of industry and grid operators
• Establish a knowledge sharing platform in order to support knowledge exchange from national and regional key demo projects and knowledge sharing among experts and practi-tioners, that enables to jointly work on living documents and exchange information in a structured and supported environment

Expected Impacts:
• Completion of the strong cooperation in Smart Grids devel-opment on the Pan-European level in the SET-Plan Initiative covering all levels: regional, national, transnational and European.
• Acceleration of shared Smart Grids development and imple-mentation in Europe by much deeper knowledge exchange within and between transnational projects.
• Efficiency of the transition process by furthering the broad implementation of interoperable best practise solutions based on common knowledge and understanding.
• Convergence of the development by accelerating the estab-lishment of standards as well as critical masses for technology and service markets.
• Strengthening of the path from electricity systems only to-wards holistic energy systems by considering cross energy carrier synergies for flexibility in the electricity system.

ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus Logo