Chair: Antonello Monti – RWTH Aachen University

This session is organized by the European project TwinEU and brings together researchers, system operators, and technology experts to discuss the role of digital twins in supporting the operation and planning of future power systems. The session highlighted ongoing developments in TwinEU towards a federated Pan-European digital twin of the electricity system, covering topics such as enhanced grid observability, data exchange and interoperability, advanced forecasting, and decision support for system operators.

TwinEU Session – Data Space Connector for Data Sovereignty

Speaker: Ferdinando Bosco – Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.a.

Within the TwinEU project, the Data Space Connector plays a pivotal role in enabling secure and sovereign exchange of data and digital twin models among a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders, including DSOs, TSOs, market operators, technology providers, and research organizations.This session explores how TwinEU extends established Data Space principles and technologies to support Digital Twin federation at a pan-European scale. Building upon the OneNet Data Space Framework and integrating the Data Space Protocol (DSP), the TwinEU Connector provides standardized mechanisms for data discovery, contract negotiation, secure data exchange, usage control, traceability, and semantic interoperability. These capabilities ensure that data providers retain sovereignty over their assets while enabling cross-organizational collaboration and innovation.

From Physical Digital Twins to Grid Foundation Models: Lessons from the Italian TwinEU Pilots

Speaker: Daniele Porcu – Enel Grids

The increasing complexity of power systems, driven by renewable integration, distributed flexibility, storage resources, and tighter TSO-DSO coordination requirements, is accelerating interest in Artificial Intelligence and Grid Foundation Models. However, the effectiveness of these technologies depends on the availability of trustworthy, structured, and interoperable data.
This presentation discusses the lessons learned from the Italian TwinEU pilots and their relevance for the future evolution of AI-enabled power systems. The first pilot focuses on the creation of a robust digital foundation through OpenBIM methodologies, machine-readable data models, validation rules, and automated quality assurance processes for grid assets. The second pilot demonstrates the use of Digital Twins for operational applications, including real-time simulation, transmission-distribution co-simulation, flexibility management, protection system validation, and resilience assessment under high renewable penetration scenarios.
Together, these experiences highlight a broader transition from today’s Physical Digital Twins, centered on accurate asset representation, towards Functional Digital Twins capable of integrating asset knowledge, grid behaviour, operational data, and AI-driven reasoning. The presentation will explore how such capabilities can become key building blocks for future Grid Foundation Models, supporting advanced planning, operation, coordination, and decision-support across the electricity value chain.

Iberian demo results in TwinEU

Speaker: Esteban Pastor Calatayud – ETRA

“The rapid deployment of renewable energy sources, distributed energy resources, energy storage systems, and electrified demand is transforming power system planning and operation across Europe. In this context, the Iberian Pilot of the TwinEU project has demonstrated how Digital Twins can support smarter and more coordinated grid planning by enabling advanced collaboration among transmission system operators (TSOs), distribution system operators (DSOs), market operators, and flexibility providers.

The pilot implemented and validated a portfolio of Digital Twin-based use cases addressing key challenges at transmission, distribution, and cross-border levels. Results show that Digital Twins provide a more accurate representation of network behaviour, improve situational awareness, support proactive decision-making, and enable the identification of cost-effective alternatives to conventional grid reinforcement.”

TwinEU Reference Architecture

Speaker: Apostolos Kapetanios – European Dynamics

This presentation will showcase the TwinEU Reference Architecture, providing an overview of its role in enabling a common, scalable, and interoperable framework for the development of Digital Twins across the European electricity system. The presentation will introduce the key architectural principles, components, interfaces, and layers that support the integration of heterogeneous data sources, models, services, and digital twin applications. Particular attention will be given to how the reference architecture builds upon dataspace architecture models in order to connect different system levels and stakeholders while supporting interoperability, flexibility, and the reuse of digital twin capabilities. Through this presentation participants will gain insight into how the architecture can facilitate collaboration between TSOs, DSOs, market actors, technology providers, and research organisations.

General Intro on TwinEU EU project

Speaker: Padraic McKeever – Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology

More than ever, Europe requires an electrical network that is resilient, cybersecure, adaptable, and dependable. Meeting this demand depends on virtualizing energy infrastructure through digital twin technology. The TwinEU project is developing a federated ecosystem of interoperable and adaptive Digital Twins of the European electricity system, supporting operation, control, planning and maintenance from high voltage transmission grids down to low voltage distribution networks. This is achieved by combining real-time data from the field, physics-based models and Artificial Intelligence models. The ecosystem is composed of local, regional and cross-border Digital Twins, interconnected through standardised interfaces and data spaces. This enables the seamless exchange of data and models between different actors and Digital Twins, realising the vision of a pan-European electricity system Digital Twin.