To make the European Union (EU) a global leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI), the European Commission designed the AI Continent Action Plan, shaping the EU digital future.
The EU AI Continent Action Plan leverages on the EU’s large single market, with harmonised safety rules under the AI Act; the Apply AI strategy, to develop world class EU AI models and foster integration of AI in strategic sectors; the AI innovation package, strengthen EU’s generative AI talent pool and its integration in Europe’s strategic sectors through the GenAI4EU and accelerate the deployment of Common European Data Spaces, as well as AI factories; and the InvestAI Facility propelling public and private partnerships to create AI Gigafactories.
The role of Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs)
An important building block of the Europe’s AI ecosystem of excellence and trust are the AI Testing and Experimentation Facilities (TEFs). TEFs are specialised and sector specific large-scale reference sites open to all technology providers across Europe to test and experiment at scale state-of-the art AI solutions, including both soft-and hardware products and services.
Therefore, the TEFs foster the adoption of AI in key sectors of our economy, contributing to close the Innovation Gap: they support AI developers to bring trustworthy AI to the market more efficiently and facilitate its uptake in Europe. Under the Digital Europe Programme, the sectorial TEF projects were deployed in the Agri-Food, Smart Cities & Communities, Healthcare and Manufacturing sectors. To stimulate the development of TEF projects in the energy sector, the HORIZON EUROPE Programme called for activities to develop Energy AI TEFs.
Creating Energy AI TEFs through EU co-funded projects
The Energy AI TEF is an infrastructure for testing AI in real-world energy conditions. It aims at testing AI–based technologies and solutions that have already been tested in the labs and have to be tested in operational environments, hence promoting the uptake of AI-based solutions for a greener, smarter, more resilient, and more flexible energy system.
The Energy AI TEF makes use of Digital Twins of the electricity grid to investigate how electricity grids respond to the integration of Renewable Energy Sources assets, microgrids or distributed energy resources in general. It leverages digital twins from other energy sectors to investigate efficient coupling with gas, hydrogen, heat and transportation networks, as well as the response of the energy system to cyber-attacks.
Furthermore, the Energy AI TEF supports regulatory sandboxes and the development of new standards and ontologies for AI applications for energy sector and common interoperability framework.
There are currently three EU co-funded projects developing Energy AI TEFs: the EnerTEF develops a common European scale energy federated AI testing and experimental facility; the AI-EFFECT develops an AI experimentation facility for the energy sector; and the EnergyGuard develops an Energy AI TEF for assessing, validating and enhancing AI-powered solutions to the energy sector.
The role of EnergyGuard TEF project
The EnergyGuard TEF, in particular, aims to create a disruptive enabler of AI-supported solutions for the energy sector with a cost-effective, open testing experimentation facility that leverages Europe’s greenest high-performance computing infrastructure, Meluxina.
The EnergyGuard TEF provides access to five distinct TEFs to accelerate the development and deployment of trustworthy AI solutions in the energy sector. Supported by MeluXina supercomputer, these TEFs provide a real-world testing ground for innovators, entrepreneurs, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) or start-ups. It means access to large-scale physical and virtual reference sites open to all developers across Europe.
The SMEs, start-ups and entrepreneurs get all resources and assistance necessary to incorporate AI solutions into existing energy market systems and infrastructure, building trust and show effective contribution to accelerate the energy transition. This includes a common foundation for detecting and mitigating AI risks for the energy sector.
The benefits of using EnergyGuard TEF
With the different TEFs across Europe addressing electricity, heating/cooling and hydrogen energy vectors, the EnergyGuard TEF mission is to build a shared space where companies and entrepreneurs can test and improve their AI solutions for multiple energy vectors, ensuring these AI tools are reliable, safe, and useful for the energy sector and the decarbonisation process.
The EnergyGuard TEF provides access to Digital Twins (DTs) of large-scale electricity networks with high share of renewables, microgrids, hydrogen systems (CARTIF, CEA Liten, Bluenergy Revolution) , residential buildings and renewable energy communities. It facilitates the application of digital and AI solutions in electricity grid optimisation, energy efficiency in buildings and demand-side flexibility, aligned with the strategic roadmap for digitalisation and AI in the energy sector.
The DTs represent facilities with a wide range of elements to cover diverse AI testing needs, including wind power, photovoltaic systems, hydropower plant, AEM, PEM and SO electrolysers, fuel cells, EV charging stations, electric and public buses, and battery storage systems. Besides the properly configured DTs, the EnergyGuard TEF curated assets include data, models, inference APIs, services, and applications accessible through an AI development testing environment.
What to expect from the EnergyGuard TEF project
The EnergyGuard TEF offers seamless access to a wide range of assets and services including DTs for testing and validation in real conditions. Through its AI Sandbox, users can develop, test and benchmark their AI solutions in realistic settings before moving to the Acceptance Environment, where a structured scoring framework supports the trustworthy AI assessment. The EnergyGuard TEF enables easy and seamless access to assets from the EU ecosystem including AI on Demand, Data Spaces, Digital Innovation Hubs and other TEFs.
The ongoing development of Energy AI TEFs will cultivate innovative energy systems across the entire energy value chain and different energy vectors, involving cross-stakeholder co-creation of trustworthy AI solutions for the energy sector.
To take a deep dive into how EnergyGuard is testing and validating AI solutions for the energy sector, please visit https://energy-guard.eu
Article produced by Nuno Pinho da Silva, Senior Researcher, R&D Nester
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