Aiming to gather support from stakeholders and other Commission services on its work in the energy sector, the Commission set up a workshop on best practices for energy data sharing that took place on 16 February 2022. This was the first of a six-part series of workshops on the digitalisation of the energy system, co-organised by the Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) and the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CNECT), and discussed the potential of energy in the context of the digitisation of our economy and society. The following event took place on 18 February, covering efficient integration of electric vehicles to the electricity system and data sharing framework.
The twin green and digital transition calls for a better-functioning, smart, integrated and interconnected energy system, where new business models can emerge in a fast-changing market. The July 2020 Communication on powering a climate-neutral economy proposed the adoption of a system-wide Digitalisation of Energy Action Plan as one of the key actions to accelerate the implementation of digital solutions.
The goal of the Action Plan is to contribute to the implementation of the Clean Energy Package, as well as Europe’s Digital Decade targets. It will provide solutions on how to overcome challenges related to cybersecurity, data access governance, data protection and privacy, and the growing energy consumption of ICT, while putting EU citizens at the centre of the energy system and benefitting the environment. Building a common European energy data space will create a single market for energy data and support the energy transition. It will help connect existing projects, like Open DEI, and benefit from synergies with other data spaces, notably with the mobility data space to support the electrification of transport. The data spaces will be supported under Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme.
The Commission paid special attention to aligning the Digital and Energy Strategies, while bringing together stakeholders from different domains (electricity grids, charging electric vehicles, energy efficient buildings) and ensures that EU policies create a momentum on the market rather than become a burden and delay the digital transformation of industry.
In the context of a common European energy data space, design principles and building blocks for a data exchange infrastructure were presented at the workshop, but these still need to be aligned with the existing work done by the Commission. To successfully connect the necessary building blocks, each of the vertical data spaces would require a baseline achieved through sector-specific use cases, and allow cross-sector data exchange. There is also a need for an economic and legal framework to be established around three use cases in the area of digitalisation – electric vehicles, smart grids and smart buildings – to foster investment and nurture innovation from new market entrants.
In future, grid operation control should allow a local energy flow. As decentralisation towards a local market design emerges, trust in decentralised systems needs to be promoted. This should be supported by digitalisation, from high-level control to low-level functions, from central control to local decision making, from transmission operation to distribution, and behind-the-meter applications.