INTERRFACE is an EU funded project under the Horizon 2020 framework. Its core objective is to facilitate the coordination between TSOs and DSOs. And in order to achieve that, it will create a common architecture that connects market platforms, links wholesale and retail markets and allows transparent and non-discriminatory trading and procurement.

And in addition, as Nikos Bilidis, coordinator of the INTERRFACE project, says in this episode of The EU Projects Zone Podcast “in a nutshell, the project is an open architecture for sharing data among all participants in the electricity system value chain, from local to European level”.

Emphasis on the European level and its peculiarities. So, how possible is the creation of a pan European grid architecture to be applied? “Yes, it is possible,” says Nikos “but of course, there are certain restrictions to take into consideration”.

This is why the team of the INTERRFACE project “tried to develop a platform that would be as modular as possible and to develop a system that would follow a plug and play manner”, adds Nikos. And that was made by design.

The platform supports the formulation of different products and services and the implementation of different and versatile coordination schemes based on the study of active system management that was published by ENTSO-E and E.DSO.

Listen to the full discussion and find out also how Nikos describes the ways that blockchain and smart contracts can help promote the participation of individual consumers in the energy sector.