CyberSEAS (Cyber Securing Energy dAta Services) ambition is to improve the resilience of energy supply chains, protecting them from disruptions that exploit the enhanced interactions and extended involvement models of stakeholders and consumers in complex attack scenarios, characterised by the presence of legacy systems and the increasing connectivity of data feeds. It has 3 strategic objectives: 1) countering the cyber risks related to highest impact attacks against EPES; 2) protecting consumers against personal data breaches and attacks; and 3) increasing the security of the Energy Common Data Space. All three objectives are equally important, since cyber-criminals are shifting tactics to favour multi-stage attacks in which stealing sensitive data is a precondition for the real attack, and enables them to maximise damage and profits (while traditionally infrastructure cyber-attacks used to be direct attacks to the machinery and typically targeted control systems, not data). Threat actors, especially large ones such as nation states, also carry out complex attacks that leverage supply chain dependencies, and this trend continues to grow, as highlighted in the July 2020 analysis by the Atlantic Council. Likewise, with the transition to scenarios where users are proactively involved, prosumer data is becoming more and more sensitive. To achieve these objectives, CyberSEAS delivers an open and extendable ecosystem of 30 customisable security solutions providing effective support for key activities, and in particular: risk assessment; interaction with end devices; secure development and deployment; real-time security monitoring; skills improvement and awareness; certification, governance and cooperation. CyberSEAS solutions are validated through experimental campaigns consisting of 100+ attack scenarios, tested in 3 labs before moving out to one of 6 piloting infrastructures across 6 European countries. Out of the 30 solutions, 20 will reach TRL8+ and 10 TRL7.

The overall objective is to ensure an efficient and sufficient level of system services are provided to facilitate meeting world leading levels of RES-E while maintaining the level of resilience that consumers and society have come to expect from the European electricity system. This requires defining the right amount of flexibility and system services to support transmission system operators using a threefold approach. Firstly, the technical needs of the pan-European system will be defined for scenarios with more than 50% RES-E in will be identified and translated to services and products to be delivered in an enhanced market design. Secondly, the electricity market design and regulation needs to be augmented to efficiently and effectively procure the appropriate combination of these system services. Thirdly, implicit and explicit barriers to competitive forces being applied need to be removed. This requires an in-depth understanding of all stakeholders’ roles (Generation and flexibility providers, Transmission system operators (TSO) and Distribution System Operators (DSO) and regulators) at all system levels (interconnected system, national transmission and distribution sub-systems and consumers). For doing so, EU-SysFlex joins a multidisciplinary team of 34 partners from 14 European countries, led by the (Transmission System Operators) TSOs representing four different synchronous systems that integrate the pan-European interconnected electricity system: EirGrid & SONI (Ireland), PSE (Poland), AST (Latvia), Elering (Estonia), supported by the necessary (Distribution System Operators) DSOs, technology providers, and research & experienced entities. In addition, a group of three other European TSOs: Fingrid (Finland), LitGrid (Lithuania) and Ceps (Czech Republic), will join the advisory board of the project, in addition to EDSO for Smart Grids and USEF, in order to help the project maximising its impact.

With the growth of renewables, the increased interconnection of European grids, the development of local energy initiatives, and the specific requirements on TSO – DSO cooperation as set forth in the different Network Codes and Guidelines, TSOs and DSOs face new challenges that will require greater coordination. The European Commission adopted legislative proposals on the energy market that promote cooperation among network operators as they procure balancing, congestion management and ancillary services. The measures encourage procurement of services at both the transmission and distribution level, recognizing that this will enable more efficient and effective network management, will increase the level of demand response and the capacity of renewable generation. TSOs and DSOs must now define the services they want to procure in collaboration with market participants, and must set up ways to procure them in a coordinated manner. Digitalisation is a key driver for coordination and active system management in the electricity grid, enabling TSOs and DSOs to optimise the use of distributed resources and ensure a cost-effective and secure supply of electricity but also empowers end-users to become active market participants, supporting self-generation and providing demand flexibility. To support the transformation, the INTERRFACE project will design, develop and exploit an Interoperable pan-European Grid Services Architecture to act as the interface between the power system (TSO and DSO) and the customers and allow the seamless and coordinated operation of all stakeholders to use and procure common services. State-of-the-art digital tools based on blockchains and big data management will provide new opportunities for electricity market participation and thus engage consumers into the INTERRFACE proposed market structures that will be designed to exploit Distributed Energy Resources.

While the electrical grid is moving from being a fully centralized to a highly decentralized system, grid operators have to change their operative business to accommodate for faster reactions and adaptive exploitation of flexibility. The topic has been subject of several research projects in the past years and reached a maturity that allows now the consideration of a final level, proposing an integrated view on the grid operations beyond the traditional barriers. OneNet aims at performing this critical step creating the conditions for a new generation of grid services able to fully exploit demand response, storage and distributed generation while creating fair, transparent and open conditions for the consumer. As result, while creating one network of Europe, the project aims to build a customer centric approach to grid operation. This ambitious view is achieved by proposing new markets, products and services and by creating a unique IT architecture. While a single platform for Europe is not thinkable, OneNet proposes innovative mechanisms of platform federation which are the key technical enablers for the proposed vision. The project has also very ambitious exploitation goals aiming at creating consensus on the solution far beyond the limits of the consortium partners thanks to a variety of actions including a large-scale forum for discussion within the international energy community. The complete concept is also proven in 4 cluster demos creating an involvement of an unprecedented number of countries and their grid operators in a single project. The consortium, in addition to a significant list of grid operators, includes also key IT players, leading research institutions and the two most relevant associations for grid operators, jointly providing a unique set of expertise in support to these challenging tasks.