Publications
The decarbonisation of our economies and the consequent process towards a more sustainable society are at the core of the set environmental policies. Distribution System Operators (DSOs) as responsible of delivering electricity from High Voltage level to final customers are among the top players in the paved transition. As part of the Clean Energy for All Europeans legislative package, the DSOs have an important role in the European energy market as neutral market facilitators, but also as innovators driving the transition of the energy system towards a more sustainable future.
The distribution system is a key part of the electricity chain. It links bulk production with end consumers. Recently, radical changes have taken place in every segment of the power industry. These are calling for a changing role of the Distribution System Operators (DSOs) in Europe. This report provides a clear picture of the features of distribution grids in Europe, on the way they are operated and how far DSOs are from the paved provisions proposed in the recent Electricity Directive of the European Commission.
The European Union is increasingly considering energy cooperation with Central Asia as this is a relatively nearby and stable region with tremendous energy resources. Locally produced electricity – i.e. predominantly from gas and hydro and potentially from solar and wind energy – offer opportunities for beneficial electricity trade, both among the Central Asian countries and with the European Union. As such, Central Asia may contribute to the European Union’s security of electricity supply and the achievement of its renewable energy targets.
The document presents the outcome of the evaluation process of candidate projects of common interest in the priority thematic area of smart grids deployment, as set out in Regulation (EU) No 347/2013. The evaluation follows the guidelines of the Assessment framework for projects of common interest in the field of smart grids — 2017 update developed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and adopted within the smart grid priority thematic group.
Decarbonisation policies have recently seen an uncontrolled increase in local electricity production from renewable energy sources (RES) at distribution level. As a consequence, bidirectional power flows might cause high voltage/ medium voltage (HV/MV) transformers to overload. Additionally, not-well-planned installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations could provoke voltage deviations and cables overloading during peak times.
Concerns about climate change, pollution and energy security have prompted policies aiming at replacing fossil fuels (in heating and cooling, and transportation) with electricity, presumably generated from renewable sources. Climate change itself is expected to increase the demand for cooling in buildings, which is generally met with electricity-powered air conditioning. We use hourly electricity demand from a sample of Italian residences over a full year to examine how sensitive residential demand is to temperature.
This report provides an analysis of digital transformation (DT) in a selection of policy areas covering transport, construction, energy, and digital government and public administration. DT refers in the report to the profound changes that are taking place in all sectors of the economy and society as a result of the uptake and integration of digital technologies in every aspect of human life. Digital technologies are having increasing impacts on the way of living, of working, on communication, and on social interaction of a growing share of the population.
Distributed Computing is growing up in interest in many applied fields of scientific research. Power system operation is becoming increasingly complex due to the Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) integration at various voltage levels. In this context, the need to automate grid operation is ever fundamental in order to ensure adequate levels of reliability, flexibility and cost effectiveness of power systems.
This paper describes some of the main regulatory challenges underpinning the restructuring of electricity markets in the EU. If energy markets are to remain the instruments that enable long-term policy and innovation initiatives, new regulatory arrangements are needed to reconcile the security and competitiveness of sustainable solutions. Promising reforms are outlined (e.g., in the electricity market time and spatial scales), with the objective of properly distributing costs and benefits among current and emerging actors.
The adoption of electric vehicles (EV) has to be complemented with the right charging infrastructure roll-out. This infrastructure is already in place in many cities throughout the main markets of China, EU and USA. Public policies are both taken at regional and/or at a city level targeting both EV adoption, but also charging infrastructure management. A growing trend is the increasing idle time over the years (time an EV is connected without charging), which directly impacts on the sizing of the infrastructure, hence its cost or availability.
The availability and continuity of energy supply play a key role in qualifying the energy security of a country. This report explores the meaning of energy security, according to the perceptions and preferences of a broad range of market actors. Making use of interviews and survey data taken in Estonia, the Netherlands and Portugal, the importance of an encompassing set of policy topics/measures is explored and described to investigate the relevance of different dimensions of energy security.
The report presents the results of a multicountry survey providing qualitative and quantitative information on the level of appreciation of customers and of regulators, suppliers and other key actors involved in electricity markets. The survey was conducted in Estonia, the Netherlands and Portugal.
The Value of Lost Load (VoLL) is an indicator of the economic value that consumers place on the energy not served in case of a supply disruption, e.g. an electricity outage (blackout). VoLL is broadly used by industry and regulators for benchmarking the operating conditions of an energy system. The perceived worth of the reliability of the energy system can be used for assessing the economic convenience of future improvements, e.g. infrastructure investments, or to assess the damages caused by disruptions.
This report presents the results of a study on the Value of Lost Load (VoLL) in Greece for various scenarios of interruptions of power supply. The VoLL is the value of unserved energy, and quantifies the value of damages perceived by energy users, in case of a blackout. The VoLL is used as a proxy of the economic value of reliability or alternatively of the social costs of power outages.
As photovoltaic (PV) penetration increases in low-voltage distribution networks, voltage variation may become a problem. This is particularly important in residential single-phase systems, due to voltage unbalances created by the inflow of points in the network. The existing...
Exposing electric vehicles (EV) to extreme temperatures limits its performance and charging. For the foreseen adoption of EVs, it is not only important to study the technology behind it, but also the environment it will be inserted into. In Europe, temperatures ranging from...
Indicator-Based Methodology for Assessing EV Charging Infrastructure Using Exploratory Data Analysis
Electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure rollout iswell underway in several power systems, namelyNorthAmerica, Japan, Europe, and China. In order to support EVcharging infrastructures design and operation, little attempt has been made to develop indicator-based methods characterising such networks across different regions...
Multi-type fast charging stations are being deployed over Europe as electric vehicle adoption becomes more popular. The growth of an electrical charging infrastructure in different countries poses different challenges related to its installation. One of these challenges is related to weather conditions that are extremely heterogeneous due to different latitudes, in which fast charging stations are located and whose impact on the charging performance is often neglected or unknown. ...
Smart Grid pilot projects and their assessment through a cost-benefit analysis are crucial to ensure that Smart Grid and Smart Metering roll-out are economically reasonable and cost-effective. Analysing the Isernia pilot project, the key result of the investigation is that an extra remuneration for such ambitious projects has been crucial in turning the Distribution System Operator’s Return on Investment (RoI) positive.
This paper first discusses the main impact that smart grid deployment has, in different respects, in smart cities and then presents a methodology for an extended CBA, able to go beyond the strictly financial aspects.