FlexPlan created a new innovative grid-planning tool whose ambition is to go beyond the state of the art of planning methodologies by including the following innovative features:
- assessment of the best planning strategy by analysing in one shot a high number of candidate expansion options provided by a pre-processor tool,
- simultaneous mid- and long-term planning assessment over three grid years (2030, 2040, 2050),
- incorporation of a full range of cost–benefit analysis criteria into the target function,
- integrated transmission and distribution planning,
- embedded environmental analysis (air quality, carbon footprint, landscape constraints),
- probabilistic contingency methodologies in replacement of the traditional N-1 criterion,
- application of numerical decomposition techniques to reduce calculation efforts,
- analysis of variability of yearly renewable energy sources (RES) and load time series through a stochastic optimization approach.
Six regional cases covering nearly the whole European continent were developed in order to cast a view on grid planning in Europe till 2050.
FlexPlan ended up by formulating guidelines for regulators and planning offices of system operators by indicating to what extent system flexibility can contribute to the reduction of overall system costs (operational + investment) yet maintaining current system security levels and which regulatory provisions could foster such process.
After presenting a short overview of the project motivation and goals, the present report concentrates on the final regulatory reflections and the elaboration of the final regulatory guidelines.