In order for Europe’s transition towards climate neutrality to succeed, cities need to be in the driving seat. European cities are at the forefront in addressing climate change, with many having committed to develop and implement SEAPs/SECAPs through initiatives such as the Covenant of Mayors. Many cities have also committed to become climate-neutral by 2050 or even earlier. Yet, despite ambitious short- and long-term commitments, only few cities have managed to translate plans into concrete implementation strategies with tangible decarbonisation pathways. In transitioning towards climate neutrality, cities have to overcome complex challenges that cannot be tackled with a business-as-usual approach. For this, cities need to be equipped with tools, information and skills that empower them to become local transition leaders. This is where EUCityCalc comes into play. Its objective is to support public authorities in planning towards climate neutrality through the prospective modelling approach of the European City Calculator webtool. The European City Calculator is an open-source, prospective modelling tool providing cities with a sectoral outlook on the type and ambition of measures they can take to achieve a transition towards climate neutrality. As a flexible model adapted to territorial specificities and reflecting the city governance, it supports cities in designing tailored transition pathways and policy scenarios. With the webtool at its core, EUCityCalc will support 10 pilot cities - Riga, Dijon Métropole, Mantova, Zdar, Palmela, Sesimbra, Setubal, Koprivnica, Varazdin, Virovitica - in developing and implementing scientifically robust, detailed and integrated pathways and scenarios towards climate neutrality. Through peer-to-peer learning, a multifaceted capacity-building and training programme and the engagement of local stakeholders in expert working groups, EUCityCalc will empower cities in devising a clear and concrete roadmap towards climate neutrality.

SMARTeeSTORY will propose an integrated building automation and control systems for monitoring and optimizing building energy performance according to an innovative multi-domain approach (integrating SRI domains: HVAC, Dynamic Faade, Lighting, EV), incorporating historical building requirements as well as human requirements by envisaging real-time and active user engagement. SMARTeeSTORY system will automatically detect (interacting with users via specific technologies identified in project early stages, e.g. smart home systems) the building users archetypes (via DRL algorithms) therefore specific preferences (SMARTeeSTORY database of users archetypes and preferences in smart buildings energy demand, comfort, etc.) informing the optimization and control services. Such a system will encompass interoperable and cyber-secure software (cloud-based middleware provided with multiple services for: monitoring & digital twin, analysis and prediction, optimization and control, embedding physics and data-based models for forecasting building energy performance and using Digital Building Logbook as a Common Data Environment) and hardware (advanced edge computers, multi-protocols data gateways, smart and automated sun blinds, smart sensors and actuators for Technical Building Systems integrated control according to occupancy and energy efficiency needs, smart products for user engagement) solutions fully enabling the three functionalities required for a building to become smart: i) optimization of operation of technical building systems, ii) adapting to the external environment (including energy grids), changing condition in relation to demands from building occupants. The system will be deployed at TRL 8 in three demo sites (non-residential historic buildings) identified in Latvia, Spain and The Netherlands to demonstrate buildings improved energy performance in correlation to the increased smartness rating.

INNOVATE will overcome market barriers to deep energy-efficient retrofits of private housing stock by developing and rolling out integrated energy efficiency (EE) service packages targeting homeowners in 11 target territories from 10 EU Member States (NL, DK, BE, LV, CZ, CY, SE, IT, ES and UK). An integrated EE service package includes: • Development of products adapted to consumers’ concerns • Marketing & communication • Independent advice and technical assistance. • Tailor-made financial advice • Coordination of a chain of suppliers / contractors • Ensuring high quality standards • Long-term and affordable financing The packages, developed by local and regional authorities and/or private sector stakeholders, in cooperation with financing institutions and investors, will be tested on 117 pilot buildings, aiming at min. 50% energy savings. These pilot projects are expected to mobilise 37.41 MEUR of private investments, trigger primary energy savings of 5.38 GWh/year and 3.14 GWh/year of renewable energy production. INNOVATE will widely disseminate successful business models and innovative financing schemes tested by project partners and those identified thanks to an extensive analysis of enabling conditions and EU best practices. 4,000 stakeholders and potential replicators will be reached via 61 EU and national capacity building events, policy meetings and communication/media tools. Recommendations on how to remove legal, financial, technical and organisational barriers hindering the implementation of the packages in target territories will influence 12 EU, national and regional policies in order to ensure the viability of these packages.

EnergyGuard aims to develop, kickstart and sustain an open, green and robust Testing Experimentation Facility operating under real-world conditions to empower innovators in bringing trustworthy AI products to the energy market in a cost-effective manner. It will integrate five significant European large-scale testing and experimentation facilities that cover the full energy value chain,supported by European’s greenest HPC infrastructure (Meluxina). This includes a digital twin (DT) of the Portuguese Transmission Network (RDN), the CEDER-CIEMAT Microgrid with its Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), the Hydrogen testing platforms at CEA LITEN, CARTIF, BER and CIEMAT, a high-fidelity local DT of Riga's multi-apartment residential buildings and the Antrodoco Renewable Energy Community. This includes a wide range of elements to cover diverse AI test needs,including wind power, photovoltaic systems, hydropower plant, AEM,PEM and SO eletrolysers, fuel cells, EV charging stations, electric and public buses and battery storage systems. The facilities will be accessible to EnergyGuard end-users through a set of properly configured Digital Twins (DTs) and curated assets, including data, models, inference APIs, services, and applications through a AI development Testing environment. It will enable easy seamless access to assets from the EU ecosystem including AIOD, Data Spaces, DIHs and other TEFs; Moreover, EnergyGuard facilitates users to validate their products with an Acceptance Environment and a common open AI risks database for a wide range of cybersecurity and trustworthy AI assessments. The TEF will serve as full infrastructure to support national AI regulatory sandbox initiatives and deliver 5 pilot cases for the private and public sector. EnergyGuard will build upon a long-term, self-sustainable business model driven by a new entity, incorporating market-ready features early in the design, such as a subscription/plan framework, billing, and professional support

AI spreading in the energy sector is expected to dramatically reshape energy value chain in the next years, by improving business processes performance, while increasing environmental sustainability, strengthening social relationships and propagating high social value among citizens. However, uncertain business cases, fragmented regulations, standards immaturity and low-technical SMEs workforce skills barriers are actually hampering the full exploitation of AI along the energy value chain. I-NERGY will deliver: (i) Financing support through Open Calls to third parties SMEs for new energy use cases and technology building blocks validation, as well as for developing new AI-based energy services, while fully aligning to AI4EU service requirements and strengthening the SME competitiveness on AI for energy; (b) An open modular framework for supporting AI-on-Demand in the energy sector by capitalising on state-of-the-art AI, IoT, semantics, federated learning, analytics tools, which leverage on edge-level AI-based cross-sector multi-stakeholder sovereignty and regulatory preserving interoperable data handling. I-NERGY aims at evolving, scaling up and demonstrating innovative AI-as-a-Service (AIaaS) Energy Analytics Applications and digital twins services that will be validated along 9 pilots, which: (a) Span over the full energy value chain, ranging from optimised management of grid and non-grid RES assets, improved efficiency and reliability of electricity networks operation, optimal risk assessment for energy efficiency investments planning, optimising local and virtual energy communities involvement in flexibility and green energy marketplaces; (b) Delivers other energy and non-energy services to realise synergies among energy commodities (district heating, buildings) and with non-energy sectors (i.e. e-mobility, personal safety/security, AAL), and with non- or low-technical domains end users (i.e. elderly people).