CONNECT investigates new concepts and technologies for power conversion that will be specifically developed for bidirectional power exchange with the grid and thus supports the extended integration of local storage and renewables, such as photovoltaics. The enhanced capabilities of the power conversion fit seamlessly to the smart energy management systems researched in CONNECT applicable for single/multiple buildings and quarters, while monitoring approaches and advanced control algorithms will be developed which take into account renewable energy sources, local storage and electric vehicles for peak demand reduction and optimization of local generation, consumption and storage. CONNECT will also develop solutions for high interoperable, high data rate local and wide area communication in the grid with enhanced security in order to protect this critical infrastructure against attacks.