In the context of decarbonizing the electric energy system, the digitization of systems and the integration of various energy sectors (gas, heat, electricity, etc.) are critically important topics. The experience gained in the field of system interoperability within the electrical sector provides a strong foundation for achieving integration across different energy carriers, thanks to the use of ontologies and techniques typical of the Semantic Web.

This document describes the activities undertaken in these areas, focusing on the improvement and enhancement of the Smart Grid Semantic Platform (SGSP) demonstration platform. This was achieved by integrating new microservices, particularly some functions of the Multi Agent for Power Systems (MAPS) software and the Active Network Analysis Tool (SARA), both developed by RSE. This demonstrates the platform’s ability to easily integrate even non-native (legacy) services, thanks to the standard semantic model on which it is based.

To increase the portability of the SGSP platform and enable its use as a foundation for developing Digital Twins for electrical grids, the platform’s architecture has been re-engineered using container technology. The document also delves into the development of Digital Twins, which are digital representations of physical objects or systems that can describe the characteristics and behaviors of those objects or systems. The informational Digital Twin of an electrical grid provides utilities with the ability to make data from various systems interoperable and, where possible, standardized. Specifically, an architecture has been proposed that builds on the SGSP, with a focus on introducing real-time aspects, as envisioned in Digital Twin theory, making it easily usable by utilities of any size.

As part of the evolution of SGSP toward a platform capable of managing different energy carriers (the Multi-Energy Semantic Platform), tools were studied to use multiple interconnected ontologies simultaneously, and a guide was outlined for creating new ontologies, with the development of a use case related to district heating.

Additionally, the document presents the Model-Driven transformation processes developed for representing a portion of Rome’s electrical grid and a district heating network in Milan according to defined, and potentially standard, ontologies.

Finally, the concept of semantic Big Data Streaming is introduced, along with a description of the Chimera suite, software that helps bridge the gap between the Big Data world and the Semantic Web.