European Project,
Sustainable development,
Carbon-free mobility,

DENSE - Dependable Smart Energy Systems

2024 - 2027

Published on January 20, 2025 – Updated on September 9, 2026

DENSE is a European doctoral network (MSCA) training 12 PhD students to develop cutting-edge methods and technologies that ensure the reliability, robustness and security of smart energy systems.

The DENSE project is in line with the objectives of the European Green Deal. It aims to address the challenges of the energy transition by adopting a comprehensive, multi-sectoral approach (Smart Energy Systems – electricity, heating, cooling, transport and buildings) rather than one limited solely to the electricity grid.

The key issue is dependability: ensuring the reliability, safety, integrity and operational resilience of networks in the face of uncertainties and disruptions.

Main objectives

To develop predictive, hierarchical and scalable coordination algorithms for energy systems.
To design data analysis and optimisation tools for planning and distributed control.
Develop methods for fault detection, robust estimation and preventive safety management.
Develop hardware and software (open-source) demonstrators.
Validate these solutions in real-world use cases (heat pumps, green mobility, smart communities).

Work packages (WP)

Le projet est divisé en 4 lots (work packages) :

WP 1: Robust Real-Time Control & Estimation
WP 2: Planning & Energy Data-Analytics
WP 3: Security Management & Optimal Operation
WP 4: Training

Partners

The consortium comprises 10 partners across 6 European countries:

Coordinator: Fraunhofer IEG (Germany)
Academic partners: Centrale Nantes (France), TU Ilmenau (Germany), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), University of Manchester (United Kingdom), KU Leuven (Belgium), VITO (Belgium)
Industrial partners: Enersis, ENERTRAG, EAC