The WeForming project aims to change the paradigm of efficiently managing energy in buildings, paying special attention to their interaction with the energy ecosystem (energy networks and markets) by developing, deploying and demonstrating innovative solutions addressing (i) digital operation, management and maintenance and (ii) efficient and interactive energy processing for Intelligent Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings (iGEBs), able to operate intelligently in a multi-energy, multi-user, multi-sector, multi-market, and multi-objective environment, without forgetting quality, comfort, health and acceptation. The WeForming Framework will deploy an umbrella framework covering all aspects around the establishment and adoption of iGEBs in cities, which consists of (i) a Building Operational Pillar encompassing all assets of iGEBs, including the energy management systems and the different platforms, aiming towards the building operational optimization, the actors and the actual flexibility resources, generation and storage components; (ii) a novel Interoperability Assurance Pillar which leverages on, adapts, evolves, and specifically validates leading-edge interoperable architectures; (iii) a Business Pillar including all necessary processes to bring the proposed solutions to the market, through the design and validation of sustainable and competitive business models, ensuring the economic viability of the investments needed for the establishment of smart cities featuring new and refurbished iGEBs; (iv) a Smart-city enabling Pillar integrating iGEBs as modular units addressing all different non-technical barriers and limitations for the widespread deployment of the proposed solutions that will create a stock of active buildings acting as active utility nodes within cities.

The Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) model has been successful in attracting investments in energy efficiency, but mainly for single, large projects. Energy efficiency programs, on the other hand, constitute an alternative path to scaling up the number of buildings that implement energy efficiency interventions, but the practice of rebates and incentives that are paid up front creates a need to rely on deemed energy savings and on complex and costly regulations that hinder innovation. SENSEI will propose a solution to this deadlock. Building on earlier successful experimentation outside of the EU, we will design concepts and business models that will help: (a) generate new sources of benefits that increase the value of an energy retrofit project by enabling the compensation of energy efficiency as an energy resource, and (b) turn the project’s value into an investable asset to attract private financing. The main concept underlying the SENSEI business models is pay-for-performance (P4P), which offers an effective way to engage both energy providers and third-party investorsin energy efficiency. SENSEI will first elaborate P4P schemes for financing energy efficiency that can be implemented across the EU, and then integrate these P4P schemes with the preparation and implementation stages of the EPC model, with the intention of increasing and/or financing the gains in a building’s value that are produced by energy efficiency improvements. The developed concepts will utilize actual building data and the consortium’s competences to carry out a series of negotiation games among all SENSEI parties – representing all links in the EPC and P4P chain. The project has planned a series of activities to both disseminate the insights from these games and to support stakeholders in using our recommendations with the goal of rolling out the first P4P pilots in the EU.

ENSMOV will support public authorities and key stakeholders in 14 Member States represented by its consortium (NL, BE, IT, FR, GR, AT, DE, PL, RO, UK, HR, BG, HU, LT) in implementing the Article 7 EED requirements. More specifically it will assist them to monitor, improve and complement the design and implementation of their energy efficiency policies by developing resources on practical issues they face. As the implementation of the Article 7 EED has shown, public authorities have limited time and resources to share experiences at the EU level and, as previous projects (EC IEE ENSPOL, EC H2020 MULTEE, PUBLENEF, EPATEE) demonstrated, the opportunity to share experiences is very welcome by public authorities. To find implementation challenges and solutions for energy efficiency obligations (EEOs) and alternative measures and monitoring and verification (MRV) schemes, ENSMOV has designed an experience sharing programme with a structured set of national, regional and EU workshops to address Article 7 EED requirements. These exchanges are underpinned by technical support to ensure that experience sharing results in positive impacts and actual improvements of policy implementation and monitoring. An important tool for active engagement of public authorities will be the Knowledge Transfer Platform, designed to enable discussion on Article 7 EED implementation issues (updated ENSPOL platform www.article7eed.eu). This programme will cover up to 10 crucial MRV and policy implementation topics and is expected to result in improved capacity of 150 unique participants (at least 45 public officers), at least 30 policies influenced through the action, 14 MS with improved implementation of Article 7 and improved and consistent MRV systems. These will all lead to a smoother transition in the new Article 7 EED era.

ENPOWER will design, develop and demonstrate SSH-driven methodologies, interactive and closed-loop tools, and data-driven services for energy-activated citizens and energy-secure cross-sector communities towards a citizen-centric energy system. We combine leading-edge ICTs with social/behavioural dimensions and with sharing economy and value stacking business models to deploy: 1) a Social Science Framework for energy citizens activation and innovative multi-dimensional incentives for citizens’ participation in energy markets; 2) AI-based consumers clustering and segmentation algorithms; 3) interactive tools and facilitation services for energy community planning; 4) Energy Data Space adaptation to support community-level data-driven activation and interoperable automated privacy and sovereignty-preserving Demand Response (DR); 5) P2P DLT/Blockchain digital marketplace for tokenized energy and non-energy assets reciprocal compensation; 6) data-driven services and apps for energy efficiency and activation performance management; 7) ICT services and Digital Twins for community-level energy optimization and aggregated flexibility management to trade off local self-consumption against grid service provisioning, while boosting a beyond-energy community social welfare; 8) Edge monitoring hubs for automated DR; 9) Business Sandbox for novel sharing economy and social innovation-based business models; 10) methodologies for evaluating different energy community setups, upscaling and replication. ENPOWER framework will be validated along 4 Front Runners energy communities pilots and further replicated in 2 Early Adopters, covering different levels of maturity of communities, to demonstrate increased RES local self-consumption and consumers participation to the energy markets, while nurturing increased local security of supply. ENPOWER Leadership Programme and blueprints will support EU-wide replication and advice regulatory bodies on communities-friendly enabling frameworks.

SocialWatt aims to support obligated parties under Article 7 of the Energy Efficiency Directive to develop, adopt, test and spread innovative energy poverty schemes across Europe. Utilities and energy suppliers will be able to build their capacity and exploit the SocialWatt tools developed for effectively engaging with their customers and implementing schemes that aim to alleviate energy poverty. Energy efficiency interventions at the household level and the increased use of renewable energy will be triggered, by promoting innovative financing options, such as Energy Performance Contracts, Energy Saving Agreements or on-bill repayment. SocialWatt will contribute to the following 3 main pillars: - Supporting utilities and energy suppliers contribute to the fight against energy poverty through the use of the SocialWatt decision support tools. They will be able to identify energy poverty among their clients, elaborate Energy Poverty Action Plans after having evaluated and selected energy poverty schemes, as well as monitor and assess the overall procedure. - Bridging the gap between energy companies and social services by promoting collaboration and implementing knowledge transfer and capacity building activities. - Implementing and replicating innovative schemes to alleviate energy poverty. Participating utilities and energy suppliers, operate in 26 European countries, with primary markets in Croatia, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Romania and Spain. The latter will be the focus of the pilot cases for developing and implementing energy poverty schemes, whilst the replication of SocialWatt across Europe will be pursued. Energy poor citizens are the main target group that will benefit from the innovative schemes. SocialWatt will support energy companies to fulfil their energy efficiency obligations, as well as improve public relations, promote Corporate Social Responsibility strategies, reduce debt and overhead in managing debt and enhance their public image.