For years, the primary obstacle to moving toward the clean energy transition and ultimately climate neutrality has been the cost-competitiveness of renewable energy sources. Today, the challenge of the clean energy transition is no longer about the investment costs in new renewable generation assets but about how to complete system integration of these assets and manage in a cost-effective way the increasingly variable energy system. The fast deployment of renewables in the power system inevitably increases the system flexibility needs. This is where European energy users will have to play a crucial role by unleashing their demand-side flexibility, meaning their ability to flexibly adapt their energy consumption, storage and on-site generation to external signals.
smartEn urges EU policy makers to take into account our recommendations in the definition and establishment of a digital technical framework and data spaces supporting demand-side flexibility and prosumer business models in order to increase system efficiency and reach climate neutrality in the most-cost effective way.
This Position Paper identifies key recommendations around the three pillars of the digital ecosystem needed for the activation of demand-side flexibility and connecting all layers of the energy system from system operators to grid edge:
- Prosumer data
- Grid and markets data
- Cybersecurity
