The appeal of decentralised approaches to structure energy generation, delivery networks, and consumption to scholars and practitioners has grown in the past 20-30 years. A European, decentralised, and open-source energy data space solution such as EDDIE fits into this trend. In the following we outline our initial views and related economic concepts related to this perspective. Source for the image on the left is a visualisation of the problem area provided in UK's Strategy and Action Plan Digitalising our energy system for net zero.

In order to establish a reliable and credible focal point for developments in European data access, and to be a basis for future extensions, it is vital to provide good “coverage” across the union from the very start of a European Distributed Data Interface for Energy (EDDIE). Thus, in the construction of the consortium, a strong focus was on getting aboard the most relevant data-sharing infrastructure operators, featuring data access to a large number of metering points and expertise to how to access interfaces of smart meters right from the start. Also, it was considered very important to have infrastructures from MSs representing diverse data management approaches (centralised, decentralised, hybrid, etc.) aboard to ensure hands-on expertise and integration support.