UTILITY MODERNISATION The eBADGE project – and Final key outcomes messages The overall objective of the three-year eBADGE European project is to propose an optimal pan-European intelligent balancing mechanism that is able to integrate VPP systems by means of an integrated ICT that can assist in the management of the electricity transmission and distribution grids in an optimized, controlled and secure manner. To achieve these objectives the developed components like the balancing market simulator tool, Message Bus communication protocol, Home Energy Cloud (HEC), Home Energy Hub (HEH) and Business Energy Hub (BEH), VPP system integration, optimisation and forecasting module, have been integrated into a single system. The system performance has been validated and tested in laboratory and field trials in order to evaluate its impact. been accomplished and explored. Key achievements are presented herein. For the evaluation and study of the economic and operational impact of a cross-border balancing mechanism on the transmission capacities between Austria, Slovenia and Italy, the simulator and modelling tool of a trans-national balancing market has been developed and connected into the eBAGDE cloud. The economic feasibility and performance of a cross- border balancing energy exchange has been evaluated based on a set of various long-term fully automatic scenarios. The results show that economic savings are possible by integrating balancing markets across borders. In order to support cross-border balancing mechanisms and enable balancing/ reserve entities like VPPs to participate on the market, appropriate eBADGE cloud based communication infrastructure was developed. To connect residential and C&I (commercial and industrial) customers into Slovenian and Austrian eBADGE pilots respectively, the HEHs (Home Energy Hub) and BEHs (Business Energy Hub) were developed and installed. What are the contributions of the eBADGE project? The eBADGE is a smart grids project covering cross-border balancing and demand response and founded by the European Commission under the FP7 framework. According to the goals that have been set within the project’s scope most of them have already METERING INTERNATIONAL ISSUE – 4 | 2015 The eBADGE is a smart grids project covering cross-border balancing and demand response...” 27