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In preparation for the upcoming legal measures regarding smart grids and technology connected to it, the European Commission released a communication document in 2011, presenting various challenges connected to smart grids, such as funding of smart grid projects, technical standers across the continent, data protection, a regulatory framework, a competitive and open retail market and the continued support for technology and systems behind a smart grid system.<ref>http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2011:0202:FIN:EN:PDF</ref> That was followed up by a similar document in 2012. This time the European Commission outlined the benefits of an open, integrated and flexible energy market and how to get the most out of the internal energy market.<ref>http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2012:0663:FIN:EN:PDF</ref> How public intervention could have fundamental influence on the energy market was brought up for the first time in 2013 by the European Commission.<ref>https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/com_2013_public_intervention_en.pdf</ref><ref>https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/com_2013_public_intervention_swd07_en.pdf</ref><br />
In the middle of 2014, the Directorate General on Energy released a report on benchmarking results of smart metering deployment, naming the usage of available standards and the right set of functionalities to ensure interoperability and guarantee data protection, the need for a specific data privacy and security framework and getting the consumer on board as the key lessons learned from pilot programmes.<ref>http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52014DC0356&from=EN</ref><br /> The funding of smart grid technologies was up to € 3.15 billion in 2013, while 26% was invested in research and development and 74% in Demo and Deployment. The main investors at the moment are France and the United Kingdom, followed by Germany and Spain.
The [[European Strategic Energy Technology Plan]] (SET-Plan) aims to accelerate the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies. It seeks to improve new technologies and bring down costs by coordinating national research efforts and helping to finance projects.<br />
