June 6, 2024


ISGAN Webinar – How to Integrate Energy Communities into the Electricity System

June 25, 2024, 14:00 CEST - ISGAN Virtual Learning and OptiREC project invite you to an insightful webinar on the approaches to integrate Energy Communities into the Spanish electricity system

ISGAN Virtual Learning and OptiREC project invite you to an insightful webinar on the approaches to integrate Energy Communities into the Spanish electricity system.

The EU policy recognizes energy communities as pivotal for achieving energy transition goals. However, integrating this new actor into the existing electricity system landscape remains an open topic, especially as large-scale energy community development reaches a critical mass impacting system and market operations.

The OptiREC project investigates the technical and regulatory challenges posed by the large-scale development and integration of energy communities within the Spanish electricity system. Join us for a webinar where we’ll discuss the OptiREC project’s achievements, focusing on the development of optimal multi-layer coordination among community members, Distribution System Operators (DSOs), and Transmission System Operators (TSOs).

Moreover, OptiREC presents two optimization models designed to simulate the operations of an Energy Community (EC), focusing on energy trading among peers and evaluating the EC’s potential to offer flexibility as a service to the distribution network operator (DSO). Employing the second-order cone programming representation, the mathematical formulations include the distribution network limitations and consider distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar panels, energy storage systems, electric vehicles, and heat pumps. The models were executed over a year with one-hour time steps using the IEEE European Low Voltage test feeder, adapted to a single-phase version, for testing the formulations. Thus, the first model reflects exclusive peer-to-peer (P2P) operations, while the second model isolates flexibility considerations. This approach enables a comprehensive examination of how introducing a flexibility market influences the trading patterns within the community. Through statistical analysis of the annual data generated by the optimization models, the study identifies hours with a higher likelihood for the EC to offer flexibility services and estimates the potential quantity of such services.

These insights provide valuable characterizations of the EC concerning demand, energy trading, and flexibility provision. As a result, the DSO could enhance daily operational planning conditions based on a better understanding of the EC’s dynamics and capabilities.

The speakers:

Seyedamir Mansouri

Universidad Pontificia Comillas
IIT Institute for Research in Technology
Albert Farriol Salas

IREC
Fundació Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya

Intended audience

Researchers and academics interested in energy transition, community energy, and grid integration.
Technology providers and solution developers offering products and services for energy community integration and grid optimization.
Representatives from energy communities, including community organizers, leaders, and members.
Professionals and experts in the energy sector, including policymakers, regulators, and energy industry stakeholders.
Utility companies, DSOs, and TSOs seeking insights into integrating energy communities into the electricity system.

Key messages

  • Cloud computing platforms to integrate energy communities into existing energy markets.
  • Coordinated frameworks to extract flexibility from community members.
  • P2P power sharing among community members to enhance economic, technical, and efficiency indices.

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February 19, 2024


ISGAN Webinar: Aggregator in digitalised power systems

March 11, 2024, 14:00 CET - ISGAN Virtual Learning and ISGAN Working Group 6 invite you to an insightful webinar on the aggregator role in the upcoming digitalised power systems

Utilizing untapped Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) potential from customers in the distribution grid necessitates TSO-DSO-Customer coordination. Customers, who consume, store, or generate electricity, have shown attractive potential for ancillary services to power systems, but they still face challenges managing and marketing their flexibility in the energy market. Aggregators can facilitate these flexibilities as an intermediary by providing services to different power systems participants. This poses new challenges for monitoring, controlling, and coordinating customers’ and other market player’s needs.

This webinar aims to disseminate knowledge about aggregators in power systems, address the challenges encountered, both technical and non-technical, and share experiences from pilot projects. Participants will gain insights to apply and expand the impact of aggregator roles in the context of their own countries.

Speakers

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Sebastian Lehnhoff

OFFIS

Marcel Otte

OFFIS

Dr.-Ing. Jirapa Kamsamrong

OFFIS

Annike Abromeit

EEBUS

Dr. Christian Kunze

Smart Innovation Norway

Moderates:

Dr. José Pablo Chaves Ávila

Comillas Pontifical University

Intended audience

Policymakers, TSOs, DSOs, NGOs, aggregators, governmental agencies, researchers, interested participants, students, etc.

Key messages

A regulatory framework with a clear definition of the aggregator role should be established in each country to enhance competitiveness, transparency, and societal welfare. Coordination approaches have to be established among aggregators, customers and grid operator with the focus on harmonised and interoperable solutions. Moreover, innovative approaches can be tested in demonstration and R&D projects with temporary regulatory changes and experiments (e.g. regulatory sandboxes), which can help to address the technical and non-technical challenges and support needed for the real deployment.


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January 25, 2024


Webinar – Approaching 5G-based Edge-Cloud Computing: Fostering the digital transition of the energy industry

February 22, 2024, 14:00 CET - ISGAN Virtual Learning and the Smart5Grid EU project invite you to an insightful webinar on modern digital telecommunication infrastructures for the energy industry

Modern digital telecommunication infrastructures will soon allow to be adjusted to the energy industry needs, providing the opportunity to implement edge computing trough cloud native applications.

To simplify the integration of the 5G digital telco infrastructures’ functionalities, increasing reliability and flexibility and reducing the latency, the Smart5Grid project propose the concept of Network Applications, together with a platform to automatically validate and verify those applications, fostering the creation of a new ecosystem of device virtualization experts.

Further reading: https://smart5grid.eu/dissemination-activities/brochures/

Intended audience

System Operators’ O&M experts, Technology experts and researchers, System integrators, Junior engineers and students, SMEs and technologic start-ups, device manufacturers for power plants automation (production, transmission, distribution)

Key messages

  • 5G offers the opportunity to interact with the Core Network to provide services
  • The complexity of such integration is a barrier, but Smart5Grid project proposes an innovative approach
  • We are able to provide a novel concept of Network Application to simplify the 5G complexity
  • Our set of tools can facilitate the access to this technology, fostering the creation of a new market segment for digital services: they are open for everyone who wants to learn more!

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July 29, 2023


WEBINAR: The grid planning process as an enabler for the energy transition

19 September 2023 14:00 CEST - ISGAN Virtual Learning invites you to this webinar on the grid planning process as an enabler for the energy transition

This webinar presents the challenges and solutions related to the long term grid planning process in order to have a process that is an enabler for the energy transition.

Different aspects are considered such as:

  • How to handle uncertainty, complexity, new risks and threats
    • what to consider and tools to use
  • What regulatory adaptations are required?
  • How to maintain a competent, capable and resilient workforce?
  • How to ensure efficient stakeholder interaction?

The webinar will also provide information about the knowledge sharing process.

Once registered, please check your email inbox and ensure that the invitation email is not marked as spam. Please add “isgan@comillas.edu” and “newsletter@iea-isgan.org” to your email whitelist.

Intended audience

The foreseen audience of this webinar are policy makers and stakeholders that impacts or are impacted by the grid planning process: Network operators (TSO/DSO), network planning engineers, researchers, regulators, etc.

Key messages

To overcome the complexities and uncertainties challenging the grid planning efficient, transparent and legitimate planning processes are required that are guided by sound principles and effective steering mechanisms.

It is critical that grid planning aligns with and acts as an enabler for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) e.g. regarding scenarios utilized and grid development plans developed.

Existing cost-benefit analyses should be updated to properly capture the values of sufficient grid capacity and account for social, environmental, and resilience metrics.

Stakeholder interaction is needed at all levels of the grid planning process and in co-creating solutions, methods and tools that are needed to manage the various challenges.

Further information

Once registered, please check your email inbox and ensure that the invitation email is not marked as spam. Please add “isgan@comillas.edu” and “newsletter@iea-isgan.org” to your email whitelist.


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March 11, 2022


Webinar – Demonstration of close-to-real-time cross border flexibility market

21 April 2022 - 13:00 CEST - ISGAN Virtual Learning and the OSMOSE project invite you to this webinar concerning the experience on real-life demonstration activities.

The demonstration led by ELES in the OSMOSE project demonstrated the possibility of cross-border flexibility activation near-to-real time while comlying with grid limitations.

The near real-time potential of flexibility of hydro producers was explored: new tools were developed and live demonstrated to estimate their remaining flexibility 15 min before delivery time.

The processes implemented resulted in a real cross-border activation thanks to a selection of bids every 5 minutes and an activation signal sent every 10 seconds.

Join the webinar: 2022-04-21 at h 13:00 CEST (UTC+2)

Intended audience

Junior engineers; students; researchers; utilities; regulators; policymakers;

Further information

https://www.osmose-h2020.eu/ 


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March 11, 2022


Webinar – Smart management of the grid: exploiting line temperature and load forecasts

07 April 2022 - 13:00 CEST - ISGAN Virtual Learning and the OSMOSE project invite you to this webinar concerning the experience of the Italian demo of OSMOSE project.

The Italian demo of OSMOSE project tested different kinds of flexibility solutions in a 9 month long experimentation on a real HV grid portion: one of this is the flexibility from the grid itself! By exploiting accurate load and generation forecasts and cost effective Dynamic Thermal Rating solutions, a new Energy Management System was developed in order to detect and solve efficiently congestions in a 3 hours ahead horizon.

Join the webinar: 2022-04-07 at h 13:00 CEST (UTC+1)

Key messages

Capital-light investments and prediction algorhitm can enhance existing assets exploitation, becoming an efficient add-on to standard infrastructural planning of the grid.

Intended audience

TSOs, academy, industry

Further information

https://www.osmose-h2020.eu/ 


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March 11, 2022


Webinar – Demonstration of grid forming capabilities and synchronisation services

05 April 2022 - 13:00 CEST - ISGAN Virtual Learning and the OSMOSE project invite you to this webinar concerning off-the-shelf inverters interfacing energy storage systems.

The speakers will lead you towards two demonstration activities part of the OSMOSE project concerning off-the-shelf inverters interfacing energy storage systems with the power grid that can be turned into grid-forming units through suitable control upgrades in order to provide several services to the power system when it hosts massive amount of inverter-based renewable/stochastic generation. This is achieved thanks to the provision of synchronisation services superposed to classic regulation ones.

 

Join the webinar: 2022-04-05 at h 13:00 CEST (UTC+1)

Key messages

Within the context of service provision to future power systems hosting massive amount of inverter-based renewable/stochastic generation, 2 demonstrators have shown that grid forming capability can be provided from off-the-shelf equipment. One demonstration is based on a existing MW-class BESS connected to the medium voltage grid of the EPFL campus, while the other was built for the OSMOSE project by Ingeteam and connecter to the RTE network.

  • Both demos proved that grid forming capability can be provided without hardware oversizing, drawing out the most of existing equipment and therefore limiting the cost.
  • A hybrid system showed that supercapacitors installed on the DC side can handled all fast transients induced by grid forming control, therefore smoothing the battery output power.
  • The controls have been improved to behave properly in different grid conditions including harmonics and unbalanced conditions.
  • Multiservices provision can be done including grid forming capability taking into account the unit’s operational constraints.
  • Accurate distribution-class PMUs can be used to assess the performance of grid forming vs grid following units.

Intended audience

This webinar is mainly suitable for transmission system operators (TSO), energy providers, converter manufacturers and researchers in the field of power electronics and/or power systems stability and control. The content of the webinar is also comprehensible for students and engineers with some background in the power systems dynamics.

Further information

https://www.osmose-h2020.eu/ 

 


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January 5, 2022


Webinar – Contribution of the Osmose project to the enhancement of the IEC61850 standard: Improvement of the engineering process and storage data modeling

28 January 2022 - 13:00 - ISGAN Academy Webinars invites you to discover the contribution of the Osmose project to the enhancement of the IEC61850 standard: Improvement of the engineering process and storage data modeling

IEC standards are essential to ensure a successful industrial uptake of innovative smart grid solutions, however further research and innovation are requested in order to develop standardized descriptions of innovative components.

This webinar introduces the activities performed in the OSMOSE project regarding the engineering process and the functional tests performed on a dedicated demonstrator, based on the international standard IEC 61850.  It addresses in particular the following questions aspects:

  • Engineering process: configuration of the system, having devices from different manufacturers
  • Results of functional tests: validation of the system configuration.

Join the webinar: 2022-01-28 at h 13:00 CET (UTC+1)

Key messages

IEC standards are essential to ensure a successful industrial uptake of innovative smart grid solutions, however further research and innovation actions are requested in order to to develop standardized descriptions of innovative components.

The proposed webinar describe the activities performed by OSMOSE partners during the engineering process and functional tests performed in WP7.1 and the contributions that these activities had provided to the development of IEC 61850 standards.

Intended audience

Very large audience from TSO, to DSO, DER project developers, components manufacturers and selected and invited external stakeholders (e.g.: ENTSO-E; T&D Europe, etc.)

 


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November 10, 2021


Webinar – Optimizing the value of storage in power systems and electricity markets – the Smart4RES project

9 December 2021 - 12:00 CET - ISGAN Academy Webinars invites you to discover how optimize the value of storage in power systems and electricity markets - the Smart4RES project

ISGAN Academy invites to to the fifth episode of the Smart4RES webinar series. The webinar will provide an industrial view on the problematic and role of storage and a discussion on utilities needs and expectation through addressing the different Smart4RES use cases. The webinar will also focus on the joint optimization and dispatch of RES power plants and storage topic through different angles.
Finally, a presentation of the work done by ICCS will focus on the dispatch of RES and storage in isolated power systems including storage ancillary services and frequency security.

More info on www.smart4res.eu

Join the webinar: 2021-12-09 at h 12:00 CET (UTC+1)

Speakers

Maria Inês Marques

EDP NEW R&D

Simon Camal

MINES ParisTech/ARMINES – Centre PERSEE

Dimitrios Lagos

ICCS

 

 

 

 

Key messages

  1. Electrochemical batteries constraints and what EDP foresees for future (coupling storage and renewables).
  2. Importance of modelling in assets management, maintenance and lifecycle.
  3. Combination of technologies, presenting VPP to the market instead of physical ones.
  4. Multi-objective optimization for RES and storage offer interpretable results to stakeholders who want to participate in multiple electricity markets.
  5. Data-driven trading solutions simplify the modelling chain of trading decisions.
  6. Necessary ancillary services for storage systems in non-interconnected island systems with high RES penetration.
  7. Dispatch of thermal units, RES and storage in non-interconnected island systems considering the frequency security and the ancillary services provided by storage devices.

Intended audience

  • International
  • TSOs/DSOs
  • Storage system industrials
  • RES producers, aggregators, grid operators
  • RES traders
  • Academia, Regulation bodies

 


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October 18, 2021


Webinar – Dynamic Virtual Power Plant to combine flexibilities of dispatchable and non-dispatchable RES – the POSYTYF project

18 November 2021 - 15:00 CET - ISGAN Academy Webinars invites you to discover the Dynamic Virtual Power Plant (DVPP) concept under development by the POSYTYF project.

This webinar introduces the Dynamic Virtual Power Plant (DVPP) concept under development by the European Commission funded project POSYTYF, that aims to facilitate Renewable Energy Sources (RES) integration into the electrical network. After an overall project presentation, the webinar will introduce the proposed DVPP concept and detail the first project deliverable: the definition and specification of DVPP scenarios.

More info on https://posytyf-h2020.eu/

Join the webinar: 2021-11-18 at h 15:00 CET (UTC+1)

Key messages

  1. The new DVPP concept fully integrates the dynamic aspects at all levels: locally (for each RES generator), globally (for grid ancillary services and interaction with other neighbour elements of the grid) and economically (for internal optimal dispatch and participation to electricity markets)
  2. A DVPP is a set of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) along with a set of control and operation procedures. This means methodologies for:
    • choosing the participating RES, optimal and continuous operation as a whole (especially in case of loss of natural resources – e.g., wind, sun – on a part of the DVPP),
    • regulation (in the dynamic sense) to ensure local objectives for each generator,
    • participation to ancillary services of the DVPP as a unit and to diminish negative effects of interaction with neighbour dynamics elements of the power system,
    • integration in both actual power systems scenarios (with mixed classic and power electronics-based generation) and future ones with high degree of RES penetration.

Intended audience

  • Power system engineers, from students to senior experts.

 

Speakers

Bogdan Marinescu

Ecole Centrale Nantes

Oriol Gomis Bellmunt

Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya

Carlos Collados Rodriguez

Universidad Politecnica de Catalunya

 

Speakers Bio

Bogdan Marinescu was born in 1969 in Bucharest, Romania. He received the Engineering degree from the Polytechnical Institute of Bucharest in 1992, the PhD from Université Paris Sud-Orsay, France in 1997 and the “Habilitation à diriger des recherches” from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, France in 2010. He is currently a Professor in Ecole Centrale Nantes and LS2N laboratory where he is the Head of the chair “Analysis and control of power grids”  (2014-2024) and the Coordinator of the European project POSYTYF (Research & Innovation Action, 2020-2023). In the first part of his carrier, he was active in R&D divisions of industry (EDF and RTE) and as a part-time professor (especially from 2006 to 2012 in Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan). His main fields of interest are the theory and applications of linear systems, robust control and power systems engineering.

Oriol Gomis-Bellmunt received the degree in industrial engineering from the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB), Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain, in 2001 and the doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the UPC in 2007. In 1999, he joined Engitrol SL where he worked as Project Engineer in the automation and control industry. Since 2004, he has been with the Electrical Engineering Department of the UPC where he is Professor and participates in the CITCEA-UPC Research Group. He is involved in a number of research projects in national and international consortiums (medium-long term research oriented) and technology transfer projects with several manufacturers, operators and developers worldwide (short-term research and practical application). His research interests are focused on the understanding of modern power systems, based on power electronics (HVDC, FACTS, energy storage and renewables) and grid integration of renewable energy, especially onshore and offshore wind and solar photovoltaics. Since 2020, he is an ICREA Academia researcher. Since 2021, he is IEEE Fellow.

Carlos Collados-Rodriguez received the Bachelor’s degree in Energy Engineering and the Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Barcelona, Spain, in 2014 and 2017 respectively. He joined CITCEA-UPC research group in 2013, where he is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering. His research interests include power converters, HVDC systems, grid integration of renewable energy and power system analysis, especially in power-electronics-dominated power systems.

Readings

  1. B. Marinescu, O. Gomis-Bellmunt, F. Dörfler, H. Schulte, L. Sigrist, Dynamic Virtual Power Plant: A New Concept for Grid Integration of Renewable Energy Sources, https://arxiv.org/abs/2108.00153.
  1. Deliverable 1.1 when publicly released: Definition and specification of Dynamic Virtual Power Plant (DVPP) scenarios.

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May 15, 2020


micro vs MEGA trends

micro vs MEGA: trends influencing the development of the power system

micro and MEGA represent two trends which largely influence the decisions and the evolutionary process of power grids.

The trends are both aimed at enabling very high penetration of renewable energy sources
in the electric power system, from two perspectives:

  • micro focuses on local solutions, while
  • MEGA focuses on system or even intra-system wide solutions

ISGAN Annex 6 has dedicated an activity to study the micro and the MEGA trends, with the objective to present a critical assessment of these trends, based on the questions:

  • Does one trend outcompete the other?
  • Does increased investments from one perspective increase the need for investments
    from the other perspective?
  • To what extent can one perspective benefit from the other perspective?

The intention is not to proclaim one solution being superior to another, rather to provide well
informed insights to the needs of considering both perspectives during the planning
and decision-making process for the sustainable development of the wider energy
system.

The outcome of this activity are communicated through publications, presentations and workshops, with contributions from a large number of parties:

 

 

  • Workshop and meeting in Montreux
    A highly successful event, gathering a total of 30 participants, with presentations (available here) from Italy, India, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden.
    The participants at these two meeting days have shown a high level of engagement and it has been highly valuable to learn from each other. In short, we can conclude that these meetings were very productive and successful in gathering a large amount of knowledge.

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February 6, 2020


Webinar: The need to model coupled energy networks to transition to a decarbonized future

The coordination between planners and operators of coupled energy systems will allow the further integration of renewable energy sources in the electricity network by storing energy in fuel form over long periods of time using power-to-gas, the recovery and more efficient use of heat, and the decarbonization of industrial processes and transportation modes that can’t be electrified. Energy networks, such as electricity grids and natural gas pipeline networks, have traditionally been planned and operated independently. In order to enhance the integration and coordination of different energy networks, they must be planned and operated in coupled ways. Different energy networks have historically been and are still modelled by different tools.

27 Feb 2020 @ 14:00 CET

Duration: 1h

In this webinar it will discuss the need to model coupled energy systems in a single framework and we will introduce encoord’s Scenario Analysis Interface for Energy Systems (SAInt), a software application to model, plan, and operate coupled energy networks.

 

Dr. Carlo Brancucci                Dr. Kwabena Pambour


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July 28, 2015


Why the TSO-DSO Relationship Needs to Evolve

A number of emerging trends indicate that the interaction between transmission system operators (TSO) and distribution network operators (DSO) will evolve in the coming years.

Examples of these trends are the electrification of energy consumption and the increasing volume of distributed generation being connected to the distribution grid.

The relationship between transmission system operators (TSO) and distribution network operators (DSO) is changing. Examples of these trends are the electrification of energy consumption and the increasing volume of distributed generation being connected to the distribution grid. In Europe this subject is highly relevant as pointed out by ENSTO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity) in their paper, Towards smarter grids: Developing TSO and DSO roles and interactions for the benefit of consumers published in March 2015, and ACER (Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators) in their conclusions paper, Energy Regulation: A Bridge to 2025 published in September 2014. ENTSO-E is an association which represents 41 European TSOs and has an objective to promote closer cooperation across Europe’s TSOs to support the implementation of EU energy policy objectives of affordability, sustainability and security of supply. ACER is an agency of the European Union with the overall mission to complement and coordinate the work of national energy regulators at EU level, and to work towards the completion of the single EU energy market for electricity and natural gas. The expected increased interaction between TSOs and DSOs will result in both technical and non-technical challenges.

IEA ISGAN Annex 6 has published a discussion paper in which the current and future cooperation between TSOs and DSOs has been investigated. Six critical grid operation challenges have been identified:
1. Congestion of the transmission-distribution interface
2. Congestion of transmission lines and distribution lines
3. Voltage support (TSO↔DSO)
4. Balancing challenge
5. (Anti-)Islanding, re-synchronization, and black-start
6. Coordinated protection

For each case, country experts provided first-hand information about the status and expected development of TSO-DSO interaction in their respective countries. This resulted in an overview, by country, of the interaction between grid operators and provided input for the discussion about how this interaction could evolve in years to come. Technical aspects, as well as policy aspects, have been taken into account.
The technical solutions required for a closer interaction between TSOs and DSOs are very similar for most of the identified cases, except for the case of islanding & black-start. From a high level viewpoint, grid monitoring has to be implemented, communication between TSO and DSO has to be established and means of communication between the DSO and its flexible customers have to be available. DSOs should also be able to perform (quasi) real time network simulations with input from measurements on the grid.
Such technical requirements should not be underestimated regarding implementation and operational cost, complexity and skills required. These could be a challenge, especially for smaller distribution network operators. Nonetheless, only the distribution grid operator has information about the actual grid configuration and grid loading. This means that even when other entities take up certain roles, for example the role of aggregator, the distribution network operator will always be responsible for monitoring the grid and will need to implement communication solutions to one entity or another.
With the current status of technology, technical requirements for an evolved interaction between TSOs and DSOs can be met. However, several non-technical issues, or points of discussion, have been identified which are closely related to the regulated environment grid operators are working in.

• Maintaining a balance between infrastructure investments and use of flexibility

Flexible demand and generation can be used to support grid operation and avoid infrastructure investments. A minimum use of flexibility will be necessary to avoid over investing, but the impact on the processes and business cases of flexible customers has to be limited. The flexibility available by curtailing renewable energy sources needs to be limited to avoid a high loss of renewable energy.

• The role of markets
Which grid operation challenges should be met by introducing markets and which should be managed only by technical means and appropriate bilateral contracts? It is proposed to use market mechanisms only for the balancing challenge, which is applied today in various countries. Coping with local grid operation challenges such as critical transformer loading, line loading and voltages, is proposed to be managed by the network operators, optimally interacting with each other and using flexible customers when necessary. Because of the local nature of the mentioned grid operation challenges, markets would not work efficiently. Instead, a regulatory framework is required for bilateral contracts between flexible customers and network operators, facilitating the use of flexible generation and demand for grid operation purposes.

 

• Setting a level playing field for flexibility
When the combined flexibility of customers on the distribution and transmission grid is used, favoring one set of customers at the cost of the other should be avoided. For example, when facing critical line loading on the transmission grid, the use of flexibility of only distribution connected customers would be undesirable. Some mechanism, probably in discussion with the regulator, should be implemented to cope with this.

• The role of regulation
Closely related to the previous statement is the discussion point on how grid operation should evolve:
more regulated, with clearer and stricter roles, or more open, with guaranteed interaction between grid operators and new market players? There is no one size fits all solution but in any case, a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of all participants in future grid operation will be necessary and will serve as a good start.
A clear policy framework will, in every case, push forward investments in Smart Grid solutions to deal with the discussed challenges that grid operators are facing.
The article is based on a discussion paper published by IEA ISGAN Annex 6.


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