Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - InterFlex (Interactions between automated energy systems and Flexibilities brought by energy market players)

Teaser

The European electric power systems have undergone dramatic changes within the last two decades. Distributed renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power have reached significant shares while new uses of electricity have emerged. Today, the vast majority of the...

Summary

The European electric power systems have undergone dramatic changes within the last two decades. Distributed renewable energy sources such as wind or solar power have reached significant shares while new uses of electricity have emerged. Today, the vast majority of the renewable sources is connected to the distribution grid. The distribution grid will need to adapt to rapidly changing energy flows. In the aim of minimizing the corresponding grid investments the Distribution System Operators (DSOs) will play a major role, within a more local approach, exploring the various means of managing temporarily the exchanged energy with the grid.

InterFlex is a response to the Horizon 2020 Call for proposals LCE-02-2016. During three years (2017-2019), 20 project partners are exploring new ways to use various forms of flexibilities in the aim of optimizing the electric power system on a local scale. With Enedis as the global coordinator and ÄŒEZ Distribuce as the technical director, InterFlex investigates the INTERactions between FLEXibilities provided by energy market players and the distribution grid, with a particular focus on energy storage, smart charging of electric vehicles, demand response, islanding, grid automation and the integration of different energy carriers (gas, heat, electricity). Six different demonstration projects (demos) led by 5 European DSOs in 5 countries are designed to assess if and how the integration of the new solutions can lead to a local energy optimisation.

Work performed

Design of demonstration Use Cases and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): All six demonstration projects (demos) have provided unified descriptions of their respective use cases and formed contents of a common deliverable describing InterFlex’ joint activities. Furthermore, a set of common KPIs was defined, measuring the overall success of the project.

Technical specifications and development: The technical solutions put in place in the demos were designed and specified; technical and communication architectures were defined and validated; IT systems and functions were developed and tested according to the specific needs of each use case. Developed solutions include remote control software and IT systems of network operators, market platforms for aggregators or customers, forecasting tools, and IT functions for steerable devices.

Local implementation of use cases: Customers were recruited for active participation and subcontractors were selected according to the principles of best value for money, based on the contractual procedures which have been previously specified. Depending on the use cases, laboratory and field tests have been performed and the demonstrators started the installation of equipment: steerable devices for flexibility services (PV systems, batteries, EV charging stations, heat pumps, hot tap water boilers, CHP units,…), management, communication and control devices as well as measurement equipment. Depending on the development needs in the setup phase, some of the demo use cases have been running for more than a year, whereas others entered the test phase only recently.

Activities on interoperability and interchangeability: The architecture of each demo was analysed and compared according to the interoperability and interchangeability of the employed solutions. Interfaces and functionalities fostering potential interoperability have been identified. In this context, the InterFlex partners actively contributed to the four BRIDGE working groups: Regulation, Data Management, Customer Engagement and Business Models.

Elaboration of a dissemination and exploitation master plan of the project results: A large panel of communication levers were elaborated in the dissemination plan and the corresponding actions put in place: development of a project website, invitation of external stakeholders to be part of the project’s Advisory and Replicability Boards, organization of a yearly InterFlex Community Meeting to foster interaction with those and other players, especially regulators and DSOs. Fourteen scientific papers have been published so far and InterFlex was involved in 54 conference presentations. The first version of the project Exploitation Plan was submitted, identifying for each partner the potential exploitable results, the potential levers and barriers for exploitation, as well as the measures to be implemented after the project.

Final results

The InterFlex project deploys smart grid technologies at an industrial scale considering within six demonstration projects six innovation streams for grid flexibilities:

- Grid automation: Grid automation allows to enhance the flexibility of the distribution grid, generators and steerable assets. Grid automation is a key to drive all other InterFlex innovation streams. Innovations include different approaches, from steering technical devices (volt-var control in the CZ demo) to local flexibility mechanisms (NL, FR and SE demos)

- Demand response: InterFlex develops in five of its demonstrators the technology and the strategies to leverage flexible loads or assets, thereby improving the integration of renewable energy sources (RES) while reducing constraints on the distribution grid. Considered is the full integration of residential and industrial loads in the grid operation, machine learning and advanced sector coupling. The commercial aspects include the development of a global control interface (Smart Grid Hub in DE demo), schemes to enable 100% RES microgrid operation (SE demo), local flexibility or energy platforms (SE, NL and FR demos).

- Islanding: Local distributed energy resources (DER) can support islanding and extend its duration using generation curtailment, demand side management and storage systems. Grid protection and anti-islanding protections are currently the main technical challenges associated to the operation of embedded microgrids (FR and SE demos). Business models and contracting among stakeholders are major questions being addressed in the project.

- Energy storage: Power electronics raised batteries to a whole new level of capabilities and enable the distribution network to face many challenges such as load shifting, frequency support, voltage regulation. The SE and FR demos analyze central battery systems for their islanding capabilities, or as a buffer for EV charging (NL demo) while distributed household battery systems are explored for balancing/frequency support (CZ demo).

- Cross energy carrier synergies: Three InterFlex demos explore the synergies between different energy carriers. SE’s demo in Simris uses Power2Heat (Hot water boilers) as a hybrid flexibility asset in households in order to support the integration of renewables without affecting customers‘ comfort. Other Power2Heat flexibilities based on the inertia of thermal systems with the use of complex thermal system models and cost optimization algorithms are being investigated in SE\'s second demo in Malmö. The FR demo is evaluating potential benefits from hybrid heating systems and micro/mini-cogeneration units dependent on system needs to stabilize the grid.

- Electric vehicle: The NL and CZ demos explore the most effective way for EV charging to contribute to the stability and flexibility of the distribution system without affecting the customers’ comfort and the power quality within the distribution network.

Website & more info

More info: https://interflex-h2020.com/.