ECLIPSE PROJECT GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Last October, R&D Nester participated in the 2^nd ECLIPSE General Assembly hosted by E-Redes at EDP (Lisbon), bringing together project partners to review progress across all 12 pilot sites and work packages, align on delivery timelines, and plan the next implementation and demonstration steps for the Common European Reference Framework (CERF) for energy saving applications for consumers represents an opportunity to promote actions based on recommendations and tips that allow them to make voluntary reductions in their energy consumption and help them in reducing their energy costs.

Across its 12 pilot sites, ECLIPSE is testing how CERF-based energy apps can work in very different real-world contexts:

1. France/Estonia/Finland/Denmark/Belgium scale up smart-home demand response and monitoring (Voltalis Smart Energy Box; Digital4Grids Home Living Lab) including trials with home energy stations/digital-twin apps and replication across markets;

2. Austria deploys and evaluates the ECLIPSE solution with ~100 residents across multiple towns to stress-test interoperability and performance;

3. Spain (Madrid) focuses on EV flexibility - Smart Charging and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) at charging points in an urban office setting;

4. Bulgaria pilots a new digital platform spanning the electricity market in West Bulgaria with TSO involvement to improve distribution management at scale;

5. Slovenia targets behaviour-based energy reductions while preserving comfort, engaging domestic users and prosumers;

6. Cyprus addresses the needs of an isolated island grid by engaging large numbers of consumers in energy-saving actions;

7. Greece (Aspra Spitia) demonstrates integrated residential solutions combining PV + batteries + IoT monitoring in a managed settlement;

8. Sweden leverages CheckWatt's large prosumer base (PV/wind/batteries) to showcase real-time monitoring, reporting, and grid-interaction insights;

9. Portugal (Porto/Braga/Guarda) runs the ECLIPSE app with ~50 LV participants equipped with demand response resources under the DSO (E-REDES), with active participation in SO flexibility market using R&D Nester's market simulator along with exploitation of such flexibility under grid emergency conditions;

10. Croatia (TSO) strengthens demand response using existing aggregator/industrial frameworks plus an open call for wider voluntary participation;

11. Czech Republic uses CEZ's large service area as a representative testbed for demonstrating new consumer-facing energy solutions;

12. Poland (TAURON) focus on prosumers/energy communities in high-activity areas to validate engagement and scalability under incentivized and non-incentivized demand response schemes.

R&D Nester has contributed across multiple streams of the project, combining technical, pilot, and project-support responsibilities.

For the current reporting period, R&D Nester has been involved in Work Package (WP) 3 as a peer reviewer for two key deliverables (D3.1 "CERF architecture specification and ECLIPSE interoperability profiles" and D3.2 "Specific Data Protection Analysis"), supporting quality assurance of the CERF architecture/interoperability profiles and the specific data protection analysis.

R&D Nester has also been active in Work Package (WP) 5 "Deployment & Demonstrations" as part of the Portugal pilot, contributing to the pilot definition and progress reporting, which is presented in Deliverable D5.1 "Integration, Deployment and Stakeholder Engagement Results".

In addition, R&D Nester completed the internal six-monthly financial reporting required at consortium level, ensuring project governance remains on track.

R&D Nester's demonstration activities in the Portuguese pilot (WP5) focus on implementing and validating the operational logic that turns grid flexibility needs into participant actions under both normal and extreme operating conditions.

Within the end-to-end pilot flow, R&D Nester provides the grid simulations that generate/justify grid needs and supports the TSO-DSO interaction layer, while E-REDES leverages smart meter data and the "Balcão Digital" app to communicate flexibility requests and feedback to LV participants in Porto, Braga, and Guarda.

R&D Nester has completed the core components required for the demonstrations:

* the Market Simulator, which under normal conditions validates bids, performs selection and clearing, issues activation instructions, and records activated power as the basis for post-event calculation and reporting;

* the Emergency (extreme conditions) model, which generates events, quantifies and communicates needs, and coordinates the communication flow from the R&D Nester perspective, with participation handled via the dedicated emergency request/response handshake. These modules are now undergoing final integration testing and fine-tuning with E-REDES, to ensure the complete chain from request intake and bid/participation handling through activation and calculation/consultation operates reliably for the live demonstrations planned in the next project phase.

ECLIPSE NEXT PHASE

During the Lisbon meeting, partners aligned on the next project phase moving from preparation toward live demonstration and data collection.

The discussions focused on keeping pilots aligned with the project timeline and ensuring readiness for upcoming project completion at the end of August 2026, continuing integration and deployment activities so pilots can progressively demonstrate real operational value, and strengthening the connection between technical developments (architecture, interoperability, and data protection) and the practical needs of pilot implementation.

Final updates included an ongoing online campaign focused on ECLIPSE pilot sites (with recorded videos to be published), plus external outreach and coordination discussions on privacy/security alignment with related initiatives.

ECLIPSE PROJECT 1^ST REVIEW MEETING

Building on the alignment achieved in Lisbon, the consortium reconvened for the ECLIPSE 1^st Review Meeting in Valencia (January 2026).

The review meeting enabled the European Commission Project Officer and invited experts to assess progress from the first reporting period (month 1 until month 15).

WORKSHOP "FROM DATA TO ACTION: HOW DIGITALIZATION ACCELERATES THE ENERGY TRANSITION"

In the same venue in Valencia was held the workshop "From Data to Action: How Digitalization Accelerates the Energy Transition" in the scope of ECLIPSE project.

This Workshop brought together projects (OPENTUNITY, ODEON, BEGONIA, and INSIEME) working on the "digital backbone of the energy system" to share implementation experiences and lessons learned.

R&D Nester delivered a status update on the Portuguese pilot, including pilot progress, the number of customers currently onboarded and planned for deployment and testing, and the current development and integration status between R&D Nester and E‑REDES.

This included a short demo of the TSO-DSO coordination and workflow for showcasing the complete (simulated) value chain from flexibility needs to bids consumer activation and post-delivery analysis.

ECLIPSE NEXT STEPS

A key expert question (RTE) focused on whether the end‑to‑end communication pipeline effectively reaches low‑voltage residential customers; this was confirmed as a central design objective and will be demonstrated once integration is finalized.

In the panel discussion, participants highlighted the need to move beyond siloed approaches in the energy sector and accelerate practical interoperability, drawing a relatable comparison with the seamless experience of telecommunications across Europe and noting that EU innovation is increasingly shifting from defining standards to implementing them at scale.

For more information:

ECLIPSE Project @ R&D Nester website

ECLIPSE Project website