The EMPOWER-X Rulebook
Six chapters
Governance
Who runs EMPOWER-X, how decisions are made, and how organisations join and leave.
- Model and phases
- Bodies and decisions
- Roles
- Participation lifecycle
- +3 more
Business
Why EMPOWER-X exists, what it costs and how its success is measured.
- Value and goals
- Use cases and services
- Funding and pricing
- Measuring the business model
Legal
The laws that apply, the agreements that put the Rulebook into effect, and how licences work.
- Regulations that apply
- Compliance mechanisms
- Agreements
- Licences and data sharing
- +1 more
Interoperability
The architecture, data models and open standards that let systems work together.
- Reference architecture
- Data models and reference datasets
- Open standards
- Data exchange and APIs
Trust and data control
Identity, access, usage, consent, traceability, compliance checks and security.
- Identity and trust
- Access control
- Usage control and compute-to-data
- Consent
- +3 more
Value creation
Catalogues, publication, services, federation, community and participant satisfaction.
- Catalogues
- Publication rules
- Service management
- Federation
- +2 more
Foundations
This Rulebook is the single, binding set of rules for operating and taking part in the EMPOWER-X energy data space. It follows the DSSC Rulebook model, CEN/CLC/TS 18331:2026 and the Gaia-X Trust Framework (Loire release).
Document control
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Version | 1.0 |
| Owner | EMPOWER-X Governance Authority (ZERTIFIER, during the pilot phase) |
| Approval | Governance Authority, then ratified by the first General Assembly |
| Applies from | Its publication on empower-x.io; transitional provisions below |
| Review cycle | At least once a year, and whenever a change in law, in the Gaia-X Trust Framework or in a federation agreement requires it |
| Reference framework | DSSC Blueprint; CEN/CLC/TS 18331:2026; Gaia-X Trust Framework (Loire) |
Purpose
This Rulebook sets out who governs EMPOWER-X, who may take part and on which terms, and the business, legal, technical and trust rules that apply to every data and service exchange. Every participant accepts it by signing the Participation Agreement (R3.3).
Order of precedence
Where rules conflict, the higher level prevails:
- Mandatory EU and national law.
- The Gaia-X Trust Framework and any federation agreement EMPOWER-X has signed (R6.4).
- This Rulebook and its annexes.
- The Participation Agreement.
- The terms, licence and policies attached to each individual offer.
Individual offers may add obligations but may not lower the protections set by levels 1 to 4.
Two formats, one Rulebook
The Rulebook exists in a human-readable form (these web pages) and a machine-readable form (credential schemas, policy templates and validation rules, listed below and on Downloads). The human-readable text prevails if the two disagree; the Technical Committee then corrects the machine-readable form within 30 days.
How to read it
The Rulebook has six chapters, one per DSSC maturity dimension:
- R1 Governance: bodies, roles and the participation lifecycle.
- R2 Business: value, use cases, funding and monitoring.
- R3 Legal: regulations and agreements.
- R4 Interoperability: architecture, data models, standards and exchange.
- R5 Trust and data control: identity, access, usage, consent, traceability, compliance and security.
- R6 Value creation: catalogues, publication, services, federation, community and satisfaction.
Scope, mission and principles
EMPOWER-X is a federated energy data space, a Gaia-X Lighthouse Project, for trusted sharing of data and services across energy, mobility and smart community contexts.
Mission
Enable municipalities, energy communities, energy and mobility operators, technology providers and citizens to share, certify and use energy data under their own control, in order to scale Positive Energy Districts and renewable energy communities.
Scope
| Dimension | In scope |
|---|---|
| Domains | Positive Energy Districts, renewable energy communities, electromobility, urban energy intelligence |
| Assets | Datasets, algorithms and data services, compute resources |
| Pilots | Rubí Positive Energy District pilot (DS4PED project) and further pilots approved by the Governance Board |
| Geography | Organisations established in the EU/EEA; others by Governance Board decision |
| Federation | Data spaces with which EMPOWER-X has a federation agreement (R6.4) |
Out of scope: activities that require a licence as an energy market operator, trading of financial instruments, and any processing of personal data without a lawful basis.
Principles
- Data sovereignty. Data holders decide who may use their data, for what and on which terms.
- Truthfulness. Everything EMPOWER-X publishes about offers, use and compliance reflects the platform as it is operated. Example records, test activity and planned features are never presented as real.
- Interoperability and portability. Open standards and open-source components; no lock-in to a single operator.
- Trust by verification. Participants and offers are backed by verifiable credentials checked against recognised trust anchors.
- Openness and non-discrimination. Any eligible organisation can join on the same published criteria.
- Privacy by design. Personal and household energy data leaves its holder only in aggregated or derived form, unless the data subject has consented.
- Sustainability. Rules support the energy transition and the long-term viability of the data space.
Definitions
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Participant | A legal person onboarded to EMPOWER-X with a valid Gaia-X participant credential and an EMPOWER-X membership credential. |
| Offer | A dataset, algorithm or service published in the EMPOWER-X catalogue with its description, licence and policies. |
| Data holder | The organisation that holds the rights to the data in an offer. It may publish the offer itself or authorise a provider to do so. |
| Policy | The machine-readable access and usage conditions attached to an offer. |
| Order | The act by which a consumer accepts an offer's terms and obtains access on the Ocean Enterprise infrastructure. It is recorded on the ledger. |
| Completed use | An order followed by a successful download, service call or compute-to-data job. |
| Compute-to-data | An access mode in which approved algorithms run where the data is held and only the results are returned. |
| Federated offer | An offer published by another data space and visible in EMPOWER-X through a federation agreement. |
| Production environment | The EMPOWER-X portal (portal.empower-x.io) and node (node.empower-x.io). |
| Test activity | Orders, uses or records created by operators or providers to test the platform. |
- Offers published before this Rulebook applies must pass the publication checklist within 60 days. Until then, offers without an approved licence show "Licence pending" under R3.4.
- Until the compute-to-data environment can block outbound internet access by default, each compute-to-data offer states whether outbound access is enabled and accepts only approved algorithms.
- Until the EMPOWER-X membership credential is issued to all participants, the Participants and Restricted access levels are enforced by allow lists.
- The first General Assembly takes place within 6 months of publication and ratifies this Rulebook.
Machine-readable artefacts
| Artefact | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Gaia-X credential schemas (Loire) | Participant and service offering credentials |
| EMPOWER-X membership credential schema | Role and status of participants |
| Credential status list | Revocation checks |
| Access policy templates and ODRL mapping | One template per access level in R5.2 |
| Offer metadata profile (DCAT-AP and Ocean Enterprise DDO) | Validation at publication |
| Approved data models and reference datasets | Technical annex in R4.2 |
| Conformance test package and latest results | R5.6 |
| Implementation status of each rule in R5.6 | Updated with each platform release |
The artefacts are versioned together with this Rulebook and listed on Downloads.