Nowadays, the adoption of a single and unified electricity market [1] is one of the main challenges faced by Europe. Although the Western and Northern regions of Europe have been working for several years towards reaching such objective, the South-Eastern region of Europe has not followed the same roadmap and it not as advanced in this field as Western Europe. TRINITY will address this challenge in order to improve the current situation and facilitate the interconnection of South-Eastern electricity markets - among them and also within the current Multi Regional Coupling area (MRC). TRINITY will develop a set of solutions to enhance cooperation among the transmission system operators of SEE in order to support the integration of the electricity markets in the region, whilst promoting higher penetration of clean energies. This strategic goal will be driven by end-users (8 TSOs, 4 NEMOS and 1 RCC) and will be achieved through the deployment in the region of four independent, but complementary, products: T-Market Coupling Framework; T-Sentinel Toolset; T-RES Control Center and T-Coordination Platform.

FLEXITRANSTORE project shall develop a next generation of Flexible Energy Grid (FEG), which provides the technical basis to support the valorisation of flexibility services, enhancing the existing European Internal Energy Market (IEM). This FEG addresses the capability of a power system to maintain continuous service in the face of rapid and large swings in supply or demand, whatever the cause. Thus, a wholesale market infrastructure and new business models within this integrated FEG should be upgraded to network players, incentivize new ones to join, while demonstrating new business perspectives for cross border resources management and energy trading. The strategic objectives of FLEXITRANSTORE are: to enhance and accelerate the integration of renewables into European energy systems and to increase cross border electricity flows across Europe. Flexibility is one of the keys to meeting these strategic objectives. A range of state-of-the-art ICT technologies / control improvements will be exploited to enhance the flexibility of this novel energy grid while increasing the utility of the existing infrastructure by integrating storage and demand response management. From a market perspective, state-of-the-art ICT technologies / control improvements will be applied to develop an enhanced market model on an integrated platform, for flexibility services and to support cross border auctioning and trading of energy. The FEG components and the digital market infrastructure will be deployed in 8 Demonstrations which will take place in 6 countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain), focusing on illustrating specific functions and serving real needs and existing challenges.

To achieve its energy goals EU needs to establish a geographically large market by initially improving its cross-border electricity interconnections. A geographically large market, based on imports and exports of electricity, could increase the level of competition, boost the EU’s security of electricity supply and integrate more renewables into energy markets. Electricity should, as far as possible, flow between Member States as easily as it currently flows within Member States, so as to increase sustainability potential and real competition as well as to drive economic efficiency of the energy system. To this end, FARCROSS aims to address this challenge by connecting major stakeholders of the energy value chain and demonstrating integrated hardware and software solutions that will facilitate the “unlocking” of the resources for the cross-border electricity flows and regional cooperation. The project will promote state-of-the-art technologies to enhance the exploitation/capacity/efficiency of transmission grid assets, either on the generation or the transmission level. The hardware and software solutions will increase grid observability to facilitate system operations at a regional level, exploit the full potential of transmission corridors for increased electricity flows that will facilitate transition to flow-based regional market coupling, consider cross-border connections and their specific ICT and grid infrastructure, planning to use a wide-area protection approach to ensure the safe integration of renewable energy sources into the grid, mitigate disturbances, increase power system stability. An innovative regional forecasting platform will be demonstrated for improved prognosis of renewable generation and demand response and a capacity reserves optimization tool will be tested to maximize cross-border flows. The non-harmonization of national regulation will be studied and measures will be recommended to avoid distortion of the technology benefits.

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.