In the duration of MERLON:
•The work regarding ethics management methodology and POPD rules within the project was completed
•MERLON's Management framework, innovation strategy and data handling were defined and updated throughout the project, along with the collaboration strategy for BRIDGE and on international level.
•In WP3, all activities setting the MERLON foundation were successfully completed including: use cases and requirements elicitation, analysis of socio-economic and regulatory obstacles towards the establishment of local energy communities at MERLON's pilot countries, performance, and measurement and verification methodology definition. Additionally, the pilot sites were defined through: (i) pilot surveys mapping all available resources on site, (ii) identification of required infrastructure and deployment plan definition, (iii) baseline definition. Last but not least, the MERLON framework architecture was defined.
•MERLON interoperability and data management framework was delivered, including an analysis of interoperability standards, along with MERLON CIM, and demonstrators of the MERLON data management platform, and MERLON Security Access Control framework.
•A complete work on simulation models and future energy scenarios was presented, along with an ILES reliability evaluation tool and the integrated “optimal planning and sizing” module, and an analysis on the optimal sizing of the BESS and ILES for the two MERLON pilots.
•The full suite of tools for flexibility extraction, aggregation, and control automation was delivered. Specifically, a flexibility resource analysis was completed, and tools were developed for: flexibility profiling and forecasting of prosumers and EVs, smart aggregation and clustering, virtual thermal energy storage modelling, and global flexibility management.
•MERLON's Integrated Local Energy System (ILES) was delivered including components for the network operation forecasting, operation optimization and emergency islanding through accurate flexibility scheduling, BESS management, user interfaces for the DSO & aggregator and prosumers, and a Market Place app.
•During RP2, the MERLON integrated solution was tested before being deployed at the two pilot sites. The necessary equipment including BESS and IoT equipment was deployed at both pilots. The demonstration activities evaluated MERLON solution based on the performance evaluation framework and validation scenarios defined. The results were reported along with the socio-techno-economical aspects of the solution.
•Dissemination/communication/recruitment activities were conducted in all project duration, along with living lab activities at the pilot sites and knowledge transfer activities within the frame of BRIDGE initiative. Based on the project experience a series of recommendations were formulated, on policy and market reform and standardization.
•Business models for ILES flexibility markets and network operation were defined and assessed, the MERLON system, and individual component exploitation strategy was defined, and market scanning was continuously conducted. By the end of the project a Business innovation plan was defined along with a Scaling-up & Replication roadmap.
