Multidisciplinary Approaches and Software Technologies for Engagement, Recruitment and Participation in Innovative Energy Communities in Europe

MASTERPIECE aims at creating a digital coordination and cooperation arena that will facilitate the creation and operation of energy communities throughout Europe. The facilities given to members of the community to contribute to services and other developments will represent the distinction of the solution offered in this proposal, making it participative-by-design. The project's objectives are: i) to develop technical and social innovations to empower traditional energy consumers and to make them active agents of collaborative energy communities, paving the way towards a new energy market paradigm; ii) to create user-centric solutions that are based on participatory approaches such as co-creation and naturally accelerate citizens’ involvement; iii) to propose new business strategies and incentive mechanisms that activate the reactions of market participants craving for business opportunities that imply energy use and cost reduction; iv) to configure a standardised and sound cyber-security infrastructure so the active citizens are protected against cyber-attacks, at the same time that privacy is defended in accordance with the revised EPBD and the GDPR law; and v) to demonstrate the applicability and replicability of methodological, technical and business innovations in a variety of real life pilots in different geographical locations, with heterogeneous social and economic environments and different regulatory/administrative frameworks. MASTERPIECE will follow a staged implementation approach, utilizing use cases with different maturity and TRLs. To demonstrate and evaluate the proposed innovations, it will leverage 4 pilot cases in different geographical areas and within different operational/policy frameworks (France, Italy, Sweden and Turkey).