OwnYourData @ Semantics 2025: Privacy-preserving Data Sharing for Renewable Energy Communities

On September 3, 2025, we took part in Semantics 2025 in Vienna – specifically at the 2nd NeXt-Generation Data Governance (NXDG) Workshop. Together with our partners, we presented results from a current research project:

“A Configurable Anonymisation Service for Semantically Annotated Data: A Case Study on REC Data”.

Why anonymisation matters

With the energy transition and the growing adoption of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), there is an increasing demand for data exchange – both within energy communities and with external stakeholders. However, energy data is highly sensitive: smart meter data can reveal detailed behavioral patterns.

The challenge: How can energy data be shared without compromising privacy?

Our solution: A configurable anonymisation service

As part of the USEFLEDS project, we developed an open, online anonymisation service that integrates seamlessly with our Semantic Overlay Architecture (SOyA).

Key features:

• Semantic annotation of data to make privacy rules explicit and machine-readable.

• Rule-based anonymisation pipelines that automatically apply generalisation and randomisation.

• Configurable via YAML files, without requiring advanced programming knowledge.

• Available as SaaS or On-Premises – with open-source code and Docker images for maximum transparency and reproducibility.

➡️ Try it now: anonymiser.ownyourdata.eu

Evaluation: Privacy vs. data value

For the evaluation of the service, we worked with synthetic datasets representing energy communities in Burgenland, Austria. The main question was how to achieve a sufficient level of protection without destroying the analytical utility of the data. The evaluation was based on k-anonymity, complemented by a similarity measure to also assess the effectiveness of randomisation. The results show that sufficient anonymisation was achieved in all tested scenarios: no dataset remained uniquely attributable to a single person, while the data could still be used meaningfully for analysis. This demonstrates that our approach provides a solid balance between privacy protection and data value.

Embedding in the European regulatory framework and outlook

The developed solution is closely aligned with European regulations. While the GDPR (2018) emphasizes the protection of personal data and the rights of individuals, the Data Governance Act (2022) focuses on trustworthy ecosystems and the role of neutral intermediaries. Anonymisation serves here as a key instrument to connect both levels: it protects individual privacy while at the same time providing the foundation for secure, compliant data sharing within data intermediaries and energy communities. This dual effect makes the approach highly relevant in practice.

In the next phases of the project, we plan to further expand the anonymisation service. This includes the integration of additional techniques to more flexibly handle different data types. In addition, the system will provide key performance indicators and risk assessments directly with the results, enabling users to better understand the effectiveness of the applied anonymisation. Finally, we will investigate how the service performs in large-scale productive environments to ensure its suitability as a building block in real-world data intermediary infrastructures.

👉 Workshop Paper:

A Configurable Anonymisation Service for Semantically Annotated Data: A Case Study on REC Data (PDF)