ELECTRA

Smarter Grids for Renewable Energy Renewable energy sources account for an ever-greater proportion of our overall energy supply, and are set to rise further in future in line with EU strategy. New real-time control strategies will be required to help the EU grid adapt to changing circumstances, one of the challenges that Luciano Martini and his colleagues in the ELECTRA project are working to address The development and deployment of renewable sources of energy is widely recognised as a major priority, as European nations look to move towards a more sustainable model of energy provision.

Renewable sources of energy have already reached high grid penetration levels in some countries, notably in Denmark, Germany, Italy and Spain, and other European nations are set to follow suit, bringing new challenges in terms of the operation of the grid. “First of all, we need to take measures to enable this higher penetration. Secondly, we need to take the measures necessary to make the grid fit for receiving such a large amount of power from renewable sources, dealing with the technical issues resulting from the fact that this generation is not fully predictable. For example, levels of energy from wind and solar sources can change rapidly, however the grid should always be in balance, between generation and load levels,” explains Luciano Martini, the Principal Investigator of the ELECTRA project. “This requires potentially a new grid architecture, new control functions and new algorithms.”

ELECTRA project This forms a core part of the agenda for the ELECTRA project, an integrated research programme on smart grids bringing together partners from across Europe to both pursue further technical investigation, and to help coordinate EU research more effectively. The grid itself was planned several decades ago, at a point when the industrial and domestic load was relatively low, but the situation has of course since evolved. “Today there are hundreds of millions of generating units of different sizes, which are connected to the grid at different

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voltages: low, medium and high,” outlines Martini. The way these units are controlled needs to change, in line with the changing nature of the grid. “We now have sophisticated sensors available, and the possibility for realtime monitoring, which is what we will use to balance generation and load at a local level,” continues Martini. “We have to be able to adapt the generation side, the demand side, and distributed energy storage to better manage the operation and resilience of the grid. What we propose is not tackling the grid with a

concept of enabling local control in grids is not entirely new, as a great deal of attention has previously centered on the development of micro-grids, whereby a local grid which can be operated, islanded or interconnected. While micro-grids can help improve resilience, Martini says they are not the end of the story in terms of the stability and efficient management of the power system. “An additional feature of the WoC concept is in the cells’ ability to cooperatively support each other in the delivery of frequency and voltage control,” he explains.

We have to be able to adapt the generation side, the demand side, and distributed energy storage to better manage the operation and resilience of the grid.

What we propose is not tackling the grid with a unique centralised control, but to make information and intelligent decisions available throughout the grid, closer to where increased amounts of flexibility are appearing. unique centralised control, but to make information and intelligent decisions available throughout the grid, closer to where increased amounts of flexibility are appearing.”

A new grid control architecture has been proposed within the project called “Web-ofCells” (WoC), which is designed to enable the local control of the grid. The grid is effectively sub-divided into smaller cells, each connected to neighbouring cells, which Martini says can then provide cooperative support in terms of relevant grid services. “We think this collaboration between neighbouring cells is important, as it enhances the stability of the grid and means any issues can be addressed faster,” he explains. The

The solutions being developed within the project are intended to be applied widely, yet Martini and his colleagues are mindful that the specific circumstances and technical challenges may vary in different locations. Over the course of the project, meetings and roundtables have been held with key experts from around the world to share ideas, and some clear principles have emerged. “We agreed that it is really important to push forward the idea of decentralised control,” stresses Martini. These changes to the grid could open up new commercial opportunities. “New commercial arrangements between transmission system operators, distribution system operators and

EU Research

other new entrant energy actors such as aggregators are becoming more and more important to secure grid operation,” outlines Martini. “And, we believe that what we are proposing will open up further new markets, for example in opening up the utilisation of new sources of flexibility. Moreover the increased deployment of low cost sensors throughout the grid will provide greater opportunities to identify critical situations developing in different parts of the grid at an earlier stage providing greater scope for rapid intervention.”

A further consideration is the behaviour of individual consumers. Those cells involving lower voltage networks will utilise the action of industrial customers and clusters of smaller consumers playing a more active role, for example in responding to changing levels of demand and adapting their energy consumption patterns. “Individuals or organisations receiving a price signal can change their consumption plans accordingly, through, for example, their EV smart chargers responding automatically,” explains Martini. This may eventually prove to be a more cost-effective approach, which could help encourage consumers to think about their energy consumption patterns and adapt their behaviour.

“This could motivate people to use energy when it’s available and to reduce their consumption when the output from local renewables is limited,” says Martini. “This is already happening to a degree. Each of us can get information about our own consumption patterns, and we can adopt what we believe is more sustainable behaviour, and consistent operation on this basis may limit and defer the need for further network reinforcement and subsequently improved efficiency in network operations.”

Coordination and support The development of smart grids is a highly active area of research, with many different European programmes dedicated to investigating innovative new solutions. Alongside the technical investigation, several workpackages in ELECTRA are focused on coordination and support activities (CSA), helping to train the

next generation of researchers. “Two of the CSA activities were about using research infrastructures effectively, and developing a sustainable mobility scheme (“ELECTRA REX”), especially for researchers at an early stage of their careers,” outlines Martini. Through ELECTRA REX researchers have been exposed to different techniques and facilities, built relationships with key international collaborators, and equipped themselves with new skills to face future challenges. “We hope to have the opportunity to continue our research over the next decade or so, and this will take place in the framework of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA),” says Martini. “All the partners in the ELECTRA consortium are key members of the EERA Joint Programme on Smart Grids, which is focussed on medium to long term research goals. We are currently in the process of approving the next iteration of our description of work for the next - years research and development activity.”

The new grid architecture based upon the WoC concept and the new advanced algorithms for voltage and frequency control are all set to be included in this new description of work, with researchers collaborating to build further on earlier work. This includes collaborations at the European level, and also more widely, with Martini saying links have been established with other international initiatives. “We’ve had positive feedback about what we’re proposing from China and the US, and also from India.

There is a large new programme in the US called Grid Modernisation, that involves several key national labs,” he explains. There is also a possibility of working within the framework of Mission Innovation, a global clean energy countries, further initiative involving reinforcing the importance attached to this area of research. “We have begun working together, sharing information and comparing approaches and national strategies. The new grid architecture is one of the topics that has been identified as an important task, and one in which we would benefit from international cooperation,” says Martini.

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ELECTRA IRP European Liaison on Electricity Committed Towards long-term Research Activities for Smart Grids Project Objectives

The ELECTRA Integrated Research Programme brings together the partners of the EERA Joint Programme on Smart Grids to reinforce and accelerate Europe’s medium to long term research cooperation in this area for stable operation of the EU power system of 2030+.

The high penetration of DER into the European power system requires a radical new approach to the real time grid operation. ELECTRA is active in the definition of the new system requirements, deploying flexibility resources to be triggered in response to proper grid observables inputs.

Project Funding

ELECTRA IRP receives funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under the grant agreement n° 609687.

Project Partners

RSE (Coordinator), AIT, VITO, LABORELEC, DTU, VTT, CEA, Fraunhofer IWES, CRES, ENEA, IPE, SINTEF, IEN, INESC Porto, TECNALIA, JRC, TNO, TUBITAK, University of Strathclyde, DERlab, OFFIS

Contact Details

Luciano Martini ELECTRA IRP Coordinator Director - T&D Technologies Dpt. Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico - RSE S.p.A 54, Via R. Rubattino I-20134 Milano - Italy T: +39 02 3992 5376 E: luciano.martini@rse-web.it E: info@electrairp.eu W: http://www.electrairp.eu/ Luciano Martini

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Luciano Martini works for RSE, a national research center based in Milano, where he is the Director of the “Transmission and Distribution Technologies” Department. He has more than years’ experience on R&D activities dealing with renewable energies, superconductivity, and smart grids. He is the Coordinator of the Smart Grids Joint Programme of the European Energy Research Alliance and of ELECTRA - the European Integrated Research Programme on smart grids. He is the vice-Chairman and Italian delegate within the Executive Committee of the IEA Technology Collaboration Programme ISGAN (International Smart Grid Action Network). Within Mission Innovation, Martini is co-leading, together with representatives from India and China, the activity of Innovation Challenge # on smart grids.

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