Tech Talk – A framework for a European energy data space

Energy data spaces present specific requirements and challenges different from other sector data spaces.

A data space for energy in Europe is a key element of the EU’s digitalisation action plan and indeed the concept of open data and the platform or ‘space’ to deliver it is gathering momentum in other sectors and countries.

The energy sector presents specific considerations. The sector is largely regulated but non-discriminatory access to the grid and to markets is a key principle that needs to be maintained in a data space setting.

Moreover, European and national regulatory bodies are imposing rules and guidelines that impact data management and exchange, which also must feed into the design and governance.

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In practice, there will be a multiplicity of data spaces and there will be need for alignment with other data spaces such as mobility – another requirement set out in the digitalisation action plan – and thus interoperability will be key.

Interoperability approaches in data spaces

The EC states that “a common European data space brings together relevant data infrastructures and governance frameworks, in order to facilitate data pooling and sharing. It will include the deployment of data sharing means and services, data governance structures, and will improve the availability, quality and interoperability of data.“

Several initiatives are approaching interoperability from different angles, which form the focus of a new position paper from the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA).

The IDSA itself has defined and developed mechanisms focussed strongly on technical and semantic interoperability and, with the IDS Rulebook, offers guidance on how to achieve organisational interoperability.

Technical interoperability deals with the applications and infrastructures linking systems and services in the data space, while semantic interoperability guarantees the preservation and understanding of the precise format and meaning of the data and information exchanged.

Organisational interoperability, in practice, involves documenting, integrating or aligning business processes and the pertinent information exchanged.

The approach of FIWARE is to foster interoperability with the use of defined open APIs and a growing set of open standard-based so-called ‘smart data models’.

The Gaia-X initiative has defined the Gaia-X Trust Framework to provide a worldwide set of rules and specifications to support data space authorities and federations seeking interoperability.

Reference architectures

Alongside these, a number of reference architectures are being developed with EU project funding support.

The OMEGA-X architecture, for example, is comprised of four main components – a marketplace, federated infrastructure, connectors enabling the flow of data and services and compliance services.

The ENERSHARE architecture draws a distinction between ‘local’ and ‘horizontal’, with the local building blocks facilitating the functionalities local to a use case and the horizontal building blocks allowing participation in the data space.

Others are the Data Cellar architecture, with similarities conceptually to OMEGA-X and the SYNERGIES architecture with two main conceptual layers comprised of an energy data space ecosystem and energy services marketplace.

The EDDIE architecture is prioritising an overlying data sharing interface with the first use case focussed on in-house smart meter data.

Policy issues

In a separate policy paper, ETIP SNET addresses energy data space policy, reviewing specific use cases including the optimisation of transmission and distribution systems operations, the instantiation and operation of energy communities and inter-border EV services.

These are considered as depicting precise situations in which data sharing allows, on one hand, to generate value without necessarily exchanging the data itself and, on the other hand, to foster optimisation via data-enabled analytics solutions.

Several key challenges are identified, with technical challenges including the accessibility of data from smart meters and DER devices, the role of the identity management component and the harmonisation of data models and components.

As these challenges are strictly related to the need of create the conditions for a wider customer involvement, data spaces are in this respect a great opportunity to make clear the central role of the customers in terms of data provisions, the paper points out.

Challenges

The ETIP SNET paper states that in general, regulatory and technical challenges have to be addressed together to avoid further late issues.

From the organisational viewpoint, the measures to federate different initiatives in the ecosystem and its long-term maintenance have the foremost importance to avoid the possibility of data silos.

Another challenge corresponds to the entire re-thinking of business processes in the energy sector, with generation and grid control having both decentralised and centralised aspects and to ensure interoperability, regulation must be effective.

The IDSA paper points to the “fundamental” role of standards for interoperability to avoid vendor lock-in, enhance scalability and ensure data protection and cybersecurity.

Regarding technical interoperability, for successful federation of different data spaces, compatibility among different data connectors, services and trust frameworks must have the highest priority.

For semantic interoperability, the main challenge for the energy domain is the enormous variety of devices, assets and applications. It is therefore necessary to place additional effort on the harmonisation of ontologies and data models.

Next steps

The various architectures being demonstrated open the way for sharing of experiences and both papers call for collaboration with the potential to identify common ground for use cases for a European data space and to guide regulation.

The development and rollout of a common European energy data space is in the hands of the European Commission, with the digitalisation action plan stating that deployment starts no later than 2024.

However, it is likely to be potentially delayed. Key industry development input, including a portfolio of high-level use cases and their implementing details and deliverables needed for data exchanges to deliver on the objectives of the Green Deal and the Digital Decade, are expected from a ‘Data for Energy’ sub-group of the new still to be formed Smart Energy Expert Group.

In the plan, the Smart Energy Expert Group was scheduled for set up by March 2023, but was delayed until the second half of the year with nominations closing in November 2023.

In the meantime, the Commission has awarded a contract to a consortium led by digital solution company Eviden Belgium to develop ‘Simpl’ – a middleware platform to enable cloud-to-edge federations and support data access and interoperability among the European data spaces.

Simpl is planned to be an open source stack with modular structure and a secure approach to give data providers full control over who accesses their data in such data spaces.

While the contract runs over three years, to end of 2026, a proof-of-concept is expected to be released by summer 2024 and a minimum viable platform released by the end of 2024.