Last December, the Big Data Value Association (BDVA) – from January 2021 onwards changing its name in Data, AI and Robotics Association (DAIRO) – officially launched its first Task Force (working group) focusing exclusively on the Energy application domain. The energy value chain involves a large diversity of actors who, in their activities and interactions of physical equipment and services that enable the functioning of this value chain, generate a huge amount of data. These data must be mobilised and exploited to respond to the socio-economic stakes of the energy transition and environmental challenges. Therefore, the establishment of an Energy Task Force is crucial for BDVA/DAIRO to cover an application domain for which Big Data and AI will play an increasingly important role in the future and to support European policy makers in delivering the promises of the European Green Deal.
The establishment of the Energy Task Force was made possible by the interest and investment of key partners of the PLATOON project. The EU-funded H2020 project PLATOON aims to digitalise the energy sector, enabling thus higher levels of operational excellence with the adoption of disrupting technologies. The project will develop and use the PLATOON reference architecture, which is COSMAG-compliant, for building and deploying scalable and replicable energy management solutions. Thus, PLATOON contributes to increased renewable energy consumption, smart grids management, increased energy efficiency and optimised energy asset management, addressing the needs of various stakeholders along the value chain of the energy sector.
Alexandra Garatzogianni, Coordinator of European Projects at the Leibniz University of Hannover and Head of Knowledge and Technology Transfer at TIB, as the Communication and Dissemination Lead for the PLATOON project was the initiator of the establishment of this energy sub-group within BDVA/DAIRO. As Alexandra Garatzogianni explained “The vision of the newly founded Energy Task Force is to help deliver the European Green Deal in alignment with the core values of the New European Bauhaus i.e. sustainability, aesthetics and inclusiveness. Together, we can turn climate and environmental challenges into opportunities, enabling an inclusive transition to a resource-efficient and competitive green economy. This task force is being initiated by the H2020 PLATOON project, which digitalises the energy sector with disruptive technologies, bringing a digital platform and analytics tools to the industry as well as the first IDS-compliant Data Marketplace for the Energy sector. I invite European stakeholders to join BDVA/DAIRO and our Energy Task Force, so that we tackle together the economic uncertainty caused by the pandemic and work towards economic recovery ensuring a just and inclusive zero-carbon transition for climate neutrality, circular economy, thus restoring biodiversity and reducing pollution. BDVA/DAIRO is the ideal community to collaborate and co-create innovative, environmentally-friendly, digital services and products for the energy domain, among the plethora of domains of activity that it entails.”
PLATOON’s project partners and notably ENGIE, the Vrije Universiteit Brussels and the Institute Mihajlo Pupin were keen on taking up this challenge and transforming this idea into a concrete project.The above-mentioned project members initiated and guided the discussions on the Task Force mandate. They played a key role in raising interest amongst BDVA/DAIRO members and mobilising the community around the Energy Task Force.
As the newly nominated Task Force leader, Philippe Calvez from ENGIE says: “it is very important for both BDVA members and H2020-funded projects like PLATOON to create a common understanding and share knowledge on how Big Data and Artificial Intelligence can be leveraged in the energy domain and to achieve our societal goals. Strengthening ties between communities (such as industries, academic institutions, SMEs, startups, among others) in this area can only bring to more innovation and greater benefits for the Big Data Value ecosystem overall.”
In the coming weeks and months, the BDVA/DAIRO Energy Task Force and the PLATOON project members involved in its activities will organise several meetings for the Big Data energy community and will closely cooperate with the other big data solutions for energy projects funded under Horizon 2020. The Task Force will also work on the release of a Position Paper on Big Data Challenges for Energy Domain and the organisation of discussions with the European Commission.
If you are interested in the work of this Task Force and you want to join forces, do not hesitate to contact BDVA/DAIRO at operations@core.bdva.eu and stay tuned for more!