As Europe accelerates its transition to a low-carbon energy future, the complexity of smart energy systems continues to grow. The ERIGrid 2.0 project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, has played a pivotal role in addressing these challenges by advancing research, validation, and education in the field of smart grids and integrated energy systems. Building on the success of its predecessors DERri and ERIGrid, ERIGrid 2.0 (April 2020 – April 2025) significantly expanded access to European research infrastructures and developed innovative tools and methodologies for system-level validation. The project brought together 20 partners from 13 countries, integrating 21 leading laboratories and 10 virtual facilities into a single, coordinated research ecosystem.
The Final Public Report of the project presents a summary of these developments and achieved results. In particular, the report reflects the activities ERIGrid 2.0 performed to provide access to concentrated know-how and European research infrastructure to scientists and companies involved in the development of smart grids and energy systems.
The ERIGrid 2.0 activities covered in the report include:
- Supporting technology development and the roll-out of smart grid and energy systems solutions and concepts with a holistic, cyber-physical systems approach
- Developing a comprehensive validation methodology for smart energy systems, building on functional scenarios and test case profiles
- Advancing Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) techniques and co-simulation tools to enable realistic, reproducible testing of complex energy systems
- Fostering multi-laboratory testing procedures and enabling geographically distributed experimentation across Europe
- Providing open-access education and training materials, including online courses, virtual labs, and hands-on workshops for students, researchers, and professionals
- Offering free access to first-class European laboratories and virtual services, supporting over 100 user projects from academia and industry
Importantly, the access activities initiated under ERIGrid 2.0 continue through several partners in the follow-up RISEnergy project, ensuring ongoing support for researchers and innovators working on the future of smart energy systems.