InterConnect brings interoperable solutions to connect homes and buildings to the grid

The InterConnect project has closed with the delivery of a set of solutions aimed at providing interoperability for devices, systems and users to interact with the grid.

InterConnect, a €36 million ($39 million) 54-month project delivered with Horizon 2020 support, had as its main goal to bring efficient energy management within the reach of end users.

Led by Portugal’s Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) with a total of 50 partners, it was developed through seven large-scale pilots in Portugal, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and the Netherlands.

With interoperability as its foundation, the focus of the InterConnect project was on enabling different technologies to support services, both energy such as electric vehicles and appliances and non-energy such as data exchange and convenience, connecting buildings and the grids.

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As such it forms part of the ongoing digitalisation of the energy system.

David Rua, INESC TEC researcher and project coordinator, says in a statement that consumers in the EU are already benefiting from the results of the InterConnect project.

“Our results grant them access to new features, provided in a simple and direct way by manufacturers, integrators, and service providers, which facilitate the optimised energy management of their devices and systems.”

The starting point for the project, as outlined, was the development of a semantic interoperability framework with semantic data exchange, i.e. the exchange of data with ‘meaning’, according to the Smart Applications REFerence (SAREF) model.

With this, the seven pilots were able to test interoperability in integrating technologies and solutions from different manufacturers in both residential and commercial settings.

Among the outcomes of the project that are highlighted are a distribution system operator interface (DSOi) and a recommendation system for European consumers to manage energy use in their buildings.

The DSOi is a cloud-hosted platform that enables access to the provisioning of flexibility services, ensuring new data-driven products to smart energy homes, buildings and citizen communities through a fully interoperable and replicable interface.

The Interoperable Recommender (IR) emerged from the need to address the current energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and to ensure a consumer-centred solution that places them at the forefront of supporting the efficiency and resilience of the EU power grid.

Three energy apps are also developed as part of the project.

The Wattch.r app from the Portuguese pilot, available on the Google and Apple app stores to selected participants, provides daily suggestions that help consumers reduce their carbon footprint and recommendations to increase/reduce electricity consumption based on security of supply at EU level.

The Portuguese market also offers an improved Continente Plug&Charge app, with new features like a ‘Happy Hour’ with different discounts for consumers to charge their EVs while in the supermarket.

The other apps are the Flexi from Italy and the InterConnectGR from Greece.