Publications
Smart grids systems, for being profitably implemented, will have to deliver advantageous results to costumers, investors and operators. This can be realized by providing efficient, secure and reliable systems, connecting distributed renewable energy sources and enabling advanced services. The analysis of those potential benefits should consider all components of smart grids from the energy sources to the consumers, including the communication and power portions of the system.
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity has been publishing network reliability data for major fault events in the European electricity transmission network since 2002. The work presented focuses on three reliability indicators provided for each major fault event: energy not supplied, total loss of power and restoration time. The purpose of this paper is to assess the usefulness of these indicators and to gain a better understanding of the impact of network topology on transmission network reliability.
A relatively new trend in Critical Infrastructures (e.g., power plants, nuclear plants, energy grids, etc.) is the massive migration from the classic model of isolated systems, to a system-of-systems model, where these infrastructures are intensifying their interconnections through Information and Communications Technology (ICT) means. The ICT core of these industrial installations is known as Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA).
There is a general need of elaborating energy-effective solutions for managing our increasingly dense interconnected world. The problem should be tackled in multiple dimensions -technology, society, economics, law, regulations, and politics- at different temporal and spatial scales. Holistic approaches will enable technological solutions to be supported by socio-economic motivations, adequate incentive regulation to foster investment in green infrastructures coherently integrated with adequate energy provisioning schemes.
"In the next century, planet earth will don an electronic skin. It will use the Internet as a scaffold to support and transmit its sensations. This skin is already being stitched together. It consists of millions of embedded electronic measuring devices: thermostats, pressure gauges, pollution detectors, cameras, microphones, glucose sensors, EKGs, electroencephalographs. These will probe and monitor cities and endangered species, the atmosphere, our ships, highways and fleets of trucks, our conversations, our bodies--even our dreams ....What will the earth's new skin permit us to feel?
Maintaining and improving reliable, efficient grids is vital for a modern society. The European transmission and distribution networks are ageing and they are faced with different challenges that may push them to evolve following different trends and conflicting drivers.
In spite of its critical role, energy security lacks a universally agreed definition, which given its complexity may well just be unrealistic. The concept is still used in a wide range of reports and documents, often without discussion of its dimensions and their significance. As a consequence, the literature is characterized by an almost overwhelming focus on securing supplies of primary energy sources and geopolitics. Clearly, views on energy security also differ widely between nations.
Meeting the EU’s climate change and energy policy objectives for 2020 and beyond will require a major transformation of our electricity infrastructure. Strengthening and upgrading existing networks is of paramount importance to integrating an increasing amount of renewable energy generation, enhancing grid security, developing the internal energy market and realising energy saving and efficiency.
Smart grids are seen as key enablers for the future deployment of sustainable energy, particularly in the context of satisfying the European Union’s (EU) targets for 2020 and beyond. In particular, the share of variable renewable energy sources (RES), such as wind, solar, wave and run-of-the-river hydropower, is predicted to be in excess of 20 % of the total power generation in 2030 [EC DG ENER, 2009]. Moreover, smart grids allow for increased energy efficiency - a requirement for the future power system.
The main goal of this study is to collect a wide inventory of Smart Grid projects in Europe and use project data to support analysis on trends and developments. The report looks into several aspects of the Smart Grids landscape to describe the state of the art of their implementation, the emerging hallmarks of the new electricity system and the foreseeable developments.
This article assesses the impact of extensive deployment of indigenous and external renewable energy sources on a local electricity system (Sardinia Island) and discusses the main challenges faced by the European power grids in integrating high shares of renewable-based generation technologies. It presents the 2030 scenarios for the Sardinian power system and the results of steady-state analyses in extreme (renewable) generation and consumption conditions.
The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could play an important role in the power generation sector of developing countries and emerging economies by providing additional revenues to support the diffusion of renewable energy sources (RES). This paper aims at investigating the contribution of the CDM to the deployment of renewable electricity projects in China and India and at highlighting the main potentialities and limitations of this mechanism for their support.
The European power transmission grid is on the critical path to meet the European Union (EU)’s climate change and energy policy objectives for 2020. This trend is expected to continue also for the years after 2020, in view of ambitious decarbonisation targets by 2050. The main challenge will be the power system integration of very large amounts of variable renewable energy sources (RES), especially wind and also solar, while keeping overall system reliability at acceptable levels, in a liberalised background. To this scope, a more flexible, yet robust, transmission grid is needed.
The present paper focuses on FACTS (Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System) and HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) transmission technologies. Particular attention is paid to different specific technical, economic and environmental features of these power electronics-based devices. Final aim of the paper is the investigation of the role that FACTS and HVDC may play towards the development of the future pan-European transmission system.
In response to the challenges of security of supply, environmental sustainability and competitiveness, which underpin the European Union (EU) integrated climate change and energy policy, the electric power sector in Europe is facing several modifications and developments towards targets for 2020 and beyond.
The present paper focuses on main technical, environmental, and economic features of three types of advanced transmission technologies, currently having a different level of maturity and deployment in Europe. The devices addressed in this paper are the SSSC (Static Synchronous Series Compensator), the VSC (Voltage Source Converter)-HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) and the GIL (Gas Insulated Line).
The European power grid is the largest complex physical network ever made by human kind. The assessment of its reliability has been an ambitious and attractive as well as necessary research field over the past decades. In particular, the assessment of the European power grid by means of topological measures has garnered a great deal of interest among the scientific community. The extension of its analysis and the correlation between load curve indicators and fault events in the European power grid are the main goals of this paper.
In the last decades an increasing integration of renewable energy sources (RES) in the extra high voltage (EHV) and high voltage (HV) networks, boosted by technical reasons and political decisions has been noticed. RES introduce significant environmental benefits, but also considerable difficulties to power system planning and operation. In fact, if RES are correctly allocated, they allow deferring network upgrade investments and decreasing Joule losses.
The Institute for Energy (IE) of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) provides support to Community policies related to energy. Several challenges affect the evolving European energy networks while pursuing the objective of a fully functioning, interconnected and integrated internal energy market. A key concern for policy makers and the energy sector is the increasing risk of supply failure. Providing proper answers demands the analysis of different contingencies and scenarios, and the assessment of the vulnerability, reliability and resilience of the energy systems.
The digitalization of the electricity grid opens the way to bundle value added services to the electricity commodity, and possibly shift business value to electricity services in line with the notions of efficiency, conservation and sustainability. In this context, market forces should be mobilized within the boundaries of energy policy goals to contribute to the massive investments that are required to fulfill the Smart Grid vision.