• A Data Governance Middleware Tier, which brings in the system the content of multiple data sources, being generated, managed and stored in the data management systems and the data hubs of the different operators and energy actors in different regions, countries, etc. These data will be available to all involved (to a common service) actors to exploit it and create increased accuracy, transparency and flexibility on the grid. A hybrid Data Sharing model uses both a traditional distributed database system for speed and cost-effectiveness, anchored against a blockchain-based platform for timestamps, audit trails, reliability and critical availability. This “best of both worlds” approach will be architected in a technology agnostic manner, to allow protocol changes or even anchoring on multiple blockchains for increased security, thus guaranteeing confidentiality, as the different pieces of information that can be transferred and shared, without the fear of unlawful alteration, disclosure to non-involved actors, and based on a peer-to-peer distribution that overcomes limitations and security constraints of central repositories and intermediate institutions. This tier is also responsible for the semantic processing of the datasets from different organisations through the Semantics layer. The data governance middleware will include the mechanisms of increased computational intelligence, to further process the big volumes of datasets using big data analytics, to enable the creation of most valuable information out of raw data as being generated by the different assets of the grid. Improved analytics will “bring light” to new analytic insights at all stages of the energy industry value and will allow operators and other actors of the energy chain to better manage the performance of their assets, to permit the penetration of RES and distributed energy resources. They will be the core catalyst to achieve high performance, to overcome poor data quality and integration and to create value out of massive and diverse data.
  • The integrated platform will offer a “working space” for different tools/applications to be developed within the INTERRFACE project, to consume datasets through the data governance middleware tier and run according to their operation envisioned in the different demonstrators and the services expected by the involved actors each time. The platform will also handle data and interface with Data Management supporting tools and Data Hubs, such as balance management applications, data hubs for grid metering data (used by TSOs and DSOs), SCADA system (used by TSOs and DSOs), Energy Management Systems, etc. Special interfaces will be provided for the integration of aforementioned existing legacy systems of the partner organizations, necessary for the pilots.
  • A vertical Cyber-Security/ Data Privacy Layer, that assures end-to-end secure data exchange and manipulation from the moment the datasets leave the IT infrastructures of the different operators, during their processing and handling in the data governance tier, until they are promoted back to the tools and applications but also the involved stakeholders. This layer keeps all communications in encrypted channels, and supplemented by need-to-know basis data-encryption. This also manages the users’ authentication and authorization as well as keeps the audit trails and logs of all user and system actions.