DG ENER and the Joint Research Centre aim to propose a Code of Conduct (CoC) to the energy smart appliances (ESA) manufacturers for adherence. The main issue identified is regulating in a way that would ensure full interoperability among different products from various manufacturers. Stakeholders (industry, NGOs, academia) and Member States authorities will be involved in the process at different stages do discuss draft documents and proposals.

The energy policy of the Baltic States is integrated in the energy strategy of the European Union for secure, competitive and sustainable energy. We address several aspects of the Baltic power system and market developments, including detailed power system studies, adequacy analyses, low-carbon technologies integration and new market schemes impact evaluations. Our scientific and technical analyses mainly contribute to the policy decision making process within the Baltic Energy Market Interconnection Plan platform.

Cyprus, as an EU energy island, represents a key test case for the implementation of advanced policies promoting a more secure, competitive and sustainable energy supply. We support, along with DG SRSS and ENER, the Cyprus government to establish a comprehensive medium- to long-term policy for the optimum penetration of renewable energy in the electricity system. More in detail, we assess the power system and market arrangements better suited to host increasing shares of solar (and wind) energy sources.

Assistance to Greek electricity and gas market reforms

The Greek energy sector is undergoing a series of reforms, especially in the context of aligning the electricity and gas markets with the relevant EU Target Models. These reforms aim to remove market distortions, and increase the security of energy supply. In this context, in collaboration with the Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) and DG Energy, we are providing support to the Hellenic government and other national authorities, on issues related to energy sector reforms. This support mainly regards implement significant reforms in the Greek electricity market with the aim of aligning it to the EU Target Model, and providing support for various issues related to the gas sector.

EU Research & Innovation Framework Programme projects

We joined as partners the following EU R&I Framework Programme's projects. We are also involved in several other R&I Framework Programme's projects (e.g. via stakeholder committees, advisory boards, etc).

AFTER

A Framework for electrical power systems vulnerability identification, defense and restoration

AFTER project addresses the challenges posed by the need for vulnerability evaluation and contingency planning of the energy grids and energy plants considering also the relevant ICT systems used in protection and control. Project emphasis is on cascading events that can cause catastrophic outages of the electric power systems. The main addressed problems are related to high impact wide spread multiple contingencies, the most significant wide area criticality. This kind of contingencies and the following cascading effects can be caused by either natural threats or human related threats or even a combination of both. In particular, two major objectives are addressed. The first is to develop a methodology and tool for the integrated, global vulnerability analysis and risk assessment of the interconnected Power Systems considering interdependencies with ICT (Information Communication Technology) systems. The adoption of risk concepts leads to a more in-depth, quantitative evaluation of the security of the electrical power system. Moreover, linking threats to system contingencies permits to dynamically change the set of (single and multiple) contingencies under investigation according to current environmental conditions. This allows to fully exploit large set of data (big data) coming from on-line monitoring systems available at TSOs’ control centers. A fundamental outcome of the tool consists in risk-based ranking list of contingencies, which can help operators decide where to deploy possible control actions. The second objective is to develop algorithms and tools supporting contingency planning in a two-fold approach: preventing or limiting system disruption, by means of physical security techniques and defence plans; re-establishing the system after a major disruption, by means of restoration plans. A language to model defence plans functionalities and ICT architecture is developed. New defence plan concepts are also introduced to cope with emergency situations.

ANYPLACE

Adaptable Platform for Active Services Exchange

AnyPLACE aims to develop a modular energy management system capable monitoring and controlling local devices according to the preferences of end-users. It will allow end-users to manage their energy expenditure and to become more efficient. Users will be able to take part in new energy services and take advantage of dynamic price tariffs to minimise their energy costs. A set of prototypes will be built with different combinations of modules to deal with different scenarios of application, which will be tested in a smart grid laboratory environment and in a field trial, providing a real-world assessment of their performance. Near-market prototype versions will be produced, accomplishing the project knowledge and technology transfer to industrial consortium partners as well as general industry and service providers. The AnyPLACE project will also address public acceptance of the designed solutions. The system aims to provide a bi-directional service exchange gateway that enhances the interaction between consumers, market representatives, electricity network operators and ICT providers. The proposed solution will allow energy remote metering (electricity, gas, heating and cooling), exploitation of electricity networks in a more efficient manner and turn end users into active energy market players through their engagement in demand response programs. The use of the AnyPLACE platform to actively manage and control electricity networks will also make it possible to address operational problems related to the variability of renewable based generation. To enable the development of an effective modular and flexible platform, an analysis to the different regulatory frameworks, energy/telecommunications standards, potential scenarios of deployment, technical requirements of the solution and technologies currently available is being performed. A modular and plug and play software and hardware platform is being developed in parallel with current and expected regulatory initiatives and standards. A cost-benefit analysis on different possible configurations will be developed, to ensure that appropriate configurations, or even retrofitted solutions, are designed for each context and their cost does not exceed a target cost of 100€.

DELTA

Future tamper-proof Demand rEsponse framework through seLf-configured, self-opTimized and collAborative virtual distributed energy nodes.

DELTA is an EU funded project aiming to unleash the demand response (DR) potential in small and medium-sized electricity prosumers in Europe. It will achieve this purpose by developing and offering an innovative DR management platform which will introduce scalability and adaptiveness into the commercial Aggregators’ DR toolkits, while providing the means for end-users (prosumers) to enable their participation into such DR schemes. DELTA tackles the DR management problem holistically, by working on 5 main pillars:

- Distributing parts of the Aggregators’ intelligence into lower layers of its DR framework architecture, by introducing the concept of ‘Virtual Nodes’

- Developing the Fog Enabled Intelligent Devices (FEIDs), to expose energy-related data from the end-prosumers on the Node level while giving them the ability to receive control signals

- Exploiting multi-agent based, self-learning algorithms to perform fast and optimal energy matchmaking, efficient segmentation and coordination of several demand & supply energy clusters

- Introducing blockchain-based Smart Contracts, for facilitating Aggregators-to-Prosumers transactions

- Demonstrating the DELTA solutions in large-scale pilots in UK and Cyprus, covering a wide variety of residential/tertiary loads (>11GWh), RES generation (>14GWh) & energy storage systems (>9MWh)

DRIMPAC

Unified DR interoperability framework enabling market participation of active energy consumers

Buildings constitute a vast, yet currently untapped, source of energy demand flexibility that can provide invaluable services to the energy system. This flexibility currently remains unattainable due to the lack of a technological framework that can connect the multitude of buildings and building systems with the energy system in a cost-effective manner as well as the reluctance of energy consumers to enrol in demand response programs.

DRIMPAC offers a comprehensive solution to empower consumer to become active participants in the energy markets. It comprises three main pillars:

a) A legacy and Standards-compliant interoperability framework to interconnect building energy loads/appliances and expose their demand flexibility as price-responsive demand to the grid or for market actors to aggregate and bid in ancillary service markets.

b) A human-centric, intelligent building energy management system that will lift the burden of demand response from the consumers shoulders and reduce reluctance and fear of participation in DR programs. It will infer user comfort preferences and dynamically control building loads to minimize energy cost and use for the building occupant leveraging dynamic prices, while always preserving comfortable and healthy indoor conditions.

c) Innovative business models and service offering for energy retailers in order to facilitate their transformation from commodity suppliers to digital energy service suppliers and kick-start the deployment of the DRIMPAC solution in the market.

The DRIMPAC technological framework and business models will be validated by four retailers supplying three energy carriers – electricity, natural gas and district heating – in four different national markets across the EU - France, Cyprus, Germany and Spain. Pilot demonstrations will take place in a range of building types, including residential, office, educational and others, in order to validate the DRIMPAC benefits across most building typologies.

ELECTRA

European Liaison on Electricity Committed Towards long-term Research Activity Integrated Research Programme

The ELECTRA Integrated Research Programme on Smart Grids brings together the partners of the EERA Joint Programme on Smart Grids (JP SG) to reinforce and accelerate Europe's medium to long term research cooperation in this area and to drive a closer integration of the research programmes of the participating organisations and of the related national programmes. ELECTRA's joint research activity and collaborative support actions build on an established track record of collaboration and engagement. The widespread deployment of Renewable Energy Resources connected to the network at all voltage levels will require radically new approaches for real time control that can accommodate the coordinated operation of millions of devices, of various technologies, at many different scales and voltage levels, dispersed across EU grid. ELECTRA addresses this challenge, and will establish and validate proofs of concept that utilise flexibility from across traditional boundaries in a holistic fashion. The Electra consortium believe that a new control concept is needed and set out to develop and test vertically-integrated control schemes reinforced with horizontally-distributed control schemes to provide for a dynamic power balance that is closer to its equilibrium value than a conventional central control scheme. In addition to the joint R&D activities, coordination work packages in ELECTRA build on existing efforts established through EERA and will significantly escalate these through the coordination and collaboration amongst EU leading research infrastructures, researcher exchange across EU and internationally, and actions on international cooperation. The support received at proposal stage from 16 national funding agencies, ENTSOE, EDSO4SG, ETP SG, T&D Europe as well as from a number of international organisations will be developed to leverage the research effort in ELECTRA and to strengthen its exploitation potential.

FLEXMETER

Flexible Smart Metering for Multiple Energy Vectors with Active Prosumers

The introduction of the electricity market, the widespread diffusion of distributed generation from renewable and non-programmable energy sources and the need for storage are quickly changing the problems that Transmission and Distribution system operators have to face in their activity and are requiring a “smarter” grid. A first step in this direction is the development and installation of a flexible smart metering architecture for multiple energy vectors. Up to now the smart meters that in some countries are being installed at the users are nearly only devoted to billing improvements. The new metering systems must go much further to provide their contribution to various objectives such as end-user affordability of electricity, energy and market efficiency improvement, CO2 emissions and pollutants reduction. In the FLEXMETER project a flexible, multi-utility, multi-service metering architecture will be designed and deployed in two demonstrators. Simple off-the-shelf meters will be placed at the users for electric, thermal and gas metering; they will communicate with a building concentrator, where the “smartness” of the metering system will reside. A central cloud system will collect data from the building concentrators and from MV/LV substation meters. Data collection, fusion and mining algorithms will be adopted. The proposed architecture will allow for innovative services for the prosumers, for the Distribution System Operators and for the retail market. Also demand side management devices could be plugged into the system. In the FLEXMETER project two pilot applications in two different countries (Italy and Sweden), on real systems, with the involvement of the local DSOs and volunteer prosumers will be demonstrated. The results on the demonstrators will then be scaled up to the size of the cities in order to evaluate the advantages on a real scale.

GRIDTECH

Innovative grid-impacting technologies enabling a clean, efficient and secure electricity system in Europe

For the achievement of the European Union’s ambitious renewable energy targets for 2020 and beyond, extensive electricity system planning and investments are necessary. This covers electricity generation capacity, transmission networks, and supporting technologies and measures that will ensure clean, secure and efficient energy supply. The main objective of the GridTech project is to conduct a fully integrated assessment of new grid-impacting technologies and their implementation into the European electricity system. This will allow comparing different technological options towards the exploitation of the full potential of future electricity production from renewable energy sources (RES-E), with the lowest possible total electricity system cost. Assess the non-technical barriers for transmission expansion and market compatible renewable electricity integration in Europe. Develop a robust cost-benefit analysis methodology on investments in most suitable new technologies fostering large-scale renewable electricity and storage integration into the European transmission grid. Apply and verify the cost-benefit methodology for investments in the transmission grid on national and European level. Achieve a common understanding among key actors and target groups on best-practise criteria for the implementation of new technologies fostering large-scale renewable electricity and storage integration. Deliver tailor-made recommendations and action plans, taking into account the legal, regulatory, and market framework.

REALISEGRID

Research, methodologies and technologies for the effective development of pan-European grid infrastructures