The system introduced by the Flex4Grid activity used results from preceding research projects as baseline to transfer the results into the market and followed a business-driven approach by exploring new value-generating service offerings for customers. As a result the project has contributed to the state-of-the-art in several ways:
1) Smart energy management systems: The integrated Flex4Grid system has been produced. This system provides the following combination of key features, which makes it distinctively innovative compared to state-of-art: a) Integrated end-to-end solution for active control of energy system by DSO through managing prosumer flexibility, b) Extending the visibility and control into prosumers’ homes (appliances), i.e. utilization of existing smart grid infrastructure for flexibility services, and c) New experimental evidence on flexibility management (dynamic tariffs) events in the residential sector collected from large scale pilots in real-world environments.
2) Open interoperable middleware for secure smart grid systems: Flex4Grid middleware for prosumer premises in secure smart grid systems used to collect / transfer data from / to different types of prosumers with the following features: a) To be usable on cheap commodity hardware to be able to deploy it economically efficiently by a big number of home prosumers, b) To be easily personalized, deployed and maintained also in big number of local gateway nodes, c) Extendable also for prosumers with big amount of data points, and d) Covering a high heterogeneity of devices by different types of prosumers.
3) Security and privacy: Holistically addressed security and privacy in the system design and implementation, addressing not only the system operation but end user enrolment and privacy data flow as well. Dynamic identity management system allowing generation of identities on the fly under end user control. Trust and key management supports extended stakeholders view and allows for further federation of the systems. Secure and privacy aware cloud storage for smart grid data with advanced access control bridging the gaps between cloud and IoT ecosystems.
4) Data management: Advancing from high-level models to an innovative cloud-based data management and analytics service, which a) in a unified manner collects, aggregates, manages, and analyses relevant energy data from different sources and at various levels (appliance, Smart Meter, and substation level), b) security and privacy from the start, c) manages prosumer as a single entity, i.e. addresses its consumption and generation as a “single package”, d) features a semi-automated load balancing service based on dynamic energy pricing, and e) is applicable in the field.
Active demand response has been demonstrated in the life electricity networks of all three pilot locations. New business models have been deployed where DSOs, prosumers and the third party hosting the data manager acted as marketer. Participating companies rolled out new services to the market place to prove business viability of the project. The Flex4Grid system opened new markets for third parties via cloud-based services, going beyond smart meters. Applying cloud solutions (security, privacy, analytics, predictions for the customer) in the context of smart grids strengthened the competitiveness in this sector.
