The ADDRESS European project aims to deliver a comprehensive commercial and technical framework for the development of “Active Demand” in the smart grids of the future. Specifically, ADDRESS will investigate how to effectively activate participation of domestic and small commercial customers in the power system markets and in the provision of services to the different power system participants. This paper gives an overview of the project: its objectives, scope and first draft architecture, the concepts that will be specifically developed to meet the objectives, the methodology adopted for development and validation, the main expected results and the project consortium.