The STEESMAT project aims to develop a set of technologies and methodologies that will enable the deployment of onboard DC grids for large vessels. These solutions are urgently needed to transform the waterborne transport by reducing GHG emissions and allow Europe to reach the environmental targets established for 2030 and 2050. STEESMAT project proposes the design, development, demonstration, and approval of a highly efficient plug& play power electronic system based on solid state-transformer technology, a secondary low voltage DC grid architecture and components for integration of fuel cells and batteries as well as a new smart management and control system based on Artificial Intelligence to increase energy efficiency of large ships. New standards will be established for the DC grid. The system developed will be validated (DNV approved) for market deployment as well as fully tested in lab (individual elements) and then integrated for testing and validation in a relevant environment at the Energy House (a full-scale onshore test centre for testing future fuels for maritime applications) and demonstrated in a real environment through integration in the RV NorthStar Research ship that will operate in real conditions over 30 days. The STEESMAT consortium’s goal is to bring to the market the first power electronic system based on SST that completely meets the needs and expectations of large-scale (high powered) ships. The STEESMAT consortium is composed by companies with industrial/commercial interest in the project results: Wärtsilä (NO), Eaton (DE, CZ), Danfoss (FI), The Switch Engineering (FI) and DNV (DE), supported by research institutions (Fraunhofer (DE), Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard (FR), Lappeenranta – Lahti University of Technology (FI), Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet (NO)) and other non-profit organizations like Maritime Cleantech (NO), Sustainable Energy (NO) and Open Direct Current Alliance (DE).

Storage is becoming one of the most critical assets for modern energy systems. At the same time storage is a very diverse universe of solutions and technologies with very different characteristics. InterSTORE plans to address this complexity by developing an innovative middleware that, while virtualising the storage technology, will simplify its use from the point of view of integration platform thanks to a technology agnostic approach.The middleware will facilitate the integration of storage creating an independence from hardware solutions which are critical from customer perspectives to avoid vendor lock-in solutions. It will also facilitate its use from a monetisation perspective making sure that more investments in storage are enabled. InterSTORE middleware will be released as a full open-source product integrating a set of already available standards and protocols in a coherent and advanced architecture.The new InterSTORE solution will be tested and validated in a laboratory environment with the goal to develop testing software to be adopted in the future for interoperability certification. The middleware solution will also be integrated both in open source and commercial platforms that will be integrated in 4 real life demos to enhance the flexibility platforms and analyze the user acceptance and economic value of the new solution. Moreover, new and legacy systems will be taken into account. InterSTORE also has a strong focus towards impact. The solution will become part of existing commercial platforms ensuring that a real adoption will be deployed beyond the end of the project. The consortium will ensure that software maintenance will continue beyond the end of the project with the support of Linux Foundation Energy and that the work done will be considered by on-going standardization activities. SSH experts will perform an impact analysis to maximize the economic impact adopting innovative approaches to data monetization in the context of data spaces.

SHIFT2DC project aims to propose and implement a top-down application-agnostic approach for the design, simulation, test, validation, and application of both medium (MV) and low voltage (LV) direct current (DC) solutions. Thirty-two partners, including affiliated and associated partners, from twelve countries, will join expertise to develop, test and demonstrate the technical feasibility, cost-benefit, life cycle and environmental impact of the proposed DC solutions in Data centres, Buildings, Industry and Ports across Europe (Germany, France, and Portugal). The field-tests and demonstrators will allow an evaluation of the advanced control methodologies and tools, the definition of the appropriate implementation conditions, and a consolidation of the most promising solutions and corresponding business models for MV and LV DC systems. Beyond the DC solutions that will be tested and demonstrated, SHIFT2DC will also evaluate the consumers´perspective regarding DC solutions and propose new tools that promote the faster adoption of DC solutions. All the solutions and tools that will be developed in the SHIFT2DC project will be case-agnostic allowing the use of its results in most applications. In a second stage of the development, specific libraries for buildings, datacentres, industry and ports will be proposed allowing a better and more detailed simulation of the mentioned environments. The DC solutions proposed and developed in the SHIFT2DC project will be designed taking into consideration the interoperability requirements, the scalability opportunities and the security and privacy needs. In addition, the project results will contribute to the development of standards in compliance with the needs of DC solutions. Finally, a regulatory framework that promotes the adoption of MVDC and LVDC solutions and assures secure and economic power systems management under hybrid AC/DC grids will be proposed.