Periodic Reporting for period 2 - VPP4ISLANDS (Virtual Power Plant for Interoperable and Smart isLANDS)
Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-03-31
As a result of the geographic insularity, the energy systems in the Islands are characterized by high investment, installation, and exploitation costs, low profitability, limited connection to the energy market, over-dependence on fossil fuels, high greenhouse gas emissions level, and poor electrical grid quality. Those barriers limit the improvement of the local energy infrastructure and slow down the economic development of the Islands. Although, Islands have a high potential for effective integration of distributed RES thanks to the availability of marine energy sources from the surrounding sea (ocean) and the abundance of wind and/or solar irradiation sources. The adoption of these local renewable energy sources can enhance the household energy efficiency and ensure Islands' energy independence while providing cost-effective solutions. However, the high penetration of renewable energy may cause heavy fluctuations in the whole load system, damage the quality of the electricity network and impact considerably the electric grid structure by moving from conventional generation to variable distributed energy production. This change leads to a new grid architecture characterized by a growing variability and uncertainty triggered by the high shares of variable renewable energy. Thus, decarbonization, frequency stability, profitability, and demand-response became very challenging tasks. Therefore, the key challenge lies in developing new concepts to ensure the successful integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) in existing and future market structures. To address these issues, Virtual Power Plants (VPP) are considered an efficient solution to provide operational flexibility to the local electrical grid1. Based on aggregation and optimal control of DERs, a VPP increases the profitability of its installations by guaranteeing the continuity of services and enhancing the quality of the local power grid. In this context, VPP4Islands is a revolutionary concept developed for the specific needs of islands to enhance the use of the available RES and reduce fossil fuel consumption while ensuring electric grid stability and complying with Smart Grid standards.
The vision of VPP4Islands is to develop a new concept for energy production, distribution, and monitoring dedicated to islands. The new concept will promote RES use and revolutionize the existing small grids and Energy Communities (ECs) in the Islands. The proposed flexible VPP will not be considered as a conventional power plant constituted of small distributed energy sources but as a flexible green power plant that can store surplus energy and modify its behavior and architecture to support unpredictable growth and change in energy demand, climate and market, delivering stability to the grid. VPP4Islands will enhance the innovation capacity and competitiveness of the VPP in Europe based on demand-centered approaches to address the uncertainties and the weakness of the existing VPP. This will be achieved by the appropriate promotion of open innovation and by making smart technologies an asset for an intelligent business.
The vision of VPP4Islands is to develop a new concept for energy production, distribution, and monitoring dedicated to islands. The new concept will promote RES use and revolutionize the existing small grids and Energy Communities (ECs) in the Islands. The proposed flexible VPP will not be considered as a conventional power plant constituted of small distributed energy sources but as a flexible green power plant that can store surplus energy and modify its behavior and architecture to support unpredictable growth and change in energy demand, climate and market, delivering stability to the grid. VPP4Islands will enhance the innovation capacity and competitiveness of the VPP in Europe based on demand-centered approaches to address the uncertainties and the weakness of the existing VPP. This will be achieved by the appropriate promotion of open innovation and by making smart technologies an asset for an intelligent business.
During the Reporting Period 1 (RP1), the project progressed as initially scheduled in the work program and all expected deliverables have been submitted (sometimes with a minor delay) and milestones were reached.
• 39 deliverables have been submitted during the first 18 months of the project, of which 32 have been approved. A number of deliverables are delayed, however, these delays are always communicated forehand. 15 deliverables have to be submitted by the end of the project.
• 6 Milestones have been executed. Some of them have been delayed because they are related to deliverables that have been delayed.
• 39 deliverables have been submitted during the first 18 months of the project, of which 32 have been approved. A number of deliverables are delayed, however, these delays are always communicated forehand. 15 deliverables have to be submitted by the end of the project.
• 6 Milestones have been executed. Some of them have been delayed because they are related to deliverables that have been delayed.
The existing solutions have insufficient availability due to unforeseen outages the low flexibility provided by the deployed storage units (mostly batteries) or they simply do not meet the minimum bid size of the markets. In addition, there are strict requirements regarding the availability and reliability of the flexibility offered in the market that can be affected by the uncertainties. VPP4Islands is this first challenge that combines the assets of digital Twin, DLT, and VESS to promote the combination of several types of flexible storage, production, and consumption units, controlled by a decentralized intelligent system while optimizing the revenues of all players. Our project is unique because our modular architecture and structure can be adapted to the needs of the market and end-users. VPP4Islands surpasses the existing approaches for the following reasons:
- VPP4Islands offers open-source tools to allow end-users to model their portfolio, and households and simulate the combination with new storage, dispatchable systems, DR capabilities, and appliances to assess their flexibility. That will allow attract users and increase their loyalty to our services.
- VPP4Islands will elaborate on the first shared Knowledge base related to VPP. This meaningful information is locked by big entities and not accessible today for non-experts, researchers, and small prosumers or startups. Also, that can provide the possibility to detect synergies and complementarities between all stakeholders to revolutionize this sector.
- The proposed VESS concept is considered a substantial solution to increase the storage capacity and support the growth of energy surplus and demand which is fully in line with the SO2 and the strategic objective and impact of this topic.
- The proposed standard communication and cybersecurity systems will be interoperable with all existing protocols and support any topologies or architectures.
The proposed approach in the VPP4Islands project that employs open innovative tools will provide the potential for future innovation and developments in terms of digitalization, transparency, and advanced flexibility services. VPP4Islands will reach its ambition and realise its potential innovations through the following key technologies and services: Digital Twin for VPP, Data analytics and advanced algorithms, Innovative Blockchain asset, DLT-based business modelapplication, and Interoperability of the IOT solution.
- VPP4Islands offers open-source tools to allow end-users to model their portfolio, and households and simulate the combination with new storage, dispatchable systems, DR capabilities, and appliances to assess their flexibility. That will allow attract users and increase their loyalty to our services.
- VPP4Islands will elaborate on the first shared Knowledge base related to VPP. This meaningful information is locked by big entities and not accessible today for non-experts, researchers, and small prosumers or startups. Also, that can provide the possibility to detect synergies and complementarities between all stakeholders to revolutionize this sector.
- The proposed VESS concept is considered a substantial solution to increase the storage capacity and support the growth of energy surplus and demand which is fully in line with the SO2 and the strategic objective and impact of this topic.
- The proposed standard communication and cybersecurity systems will be interoperable with all existing protocols and support any topologies or architectures.
The proposed approach in the VPP4Islands project that employs open innovative tools will provide the potential for future innovation and developments in terms of digitalization, transparency, and advanced flexibility services. VPP4Islands will reach its ambition and realise its potential innovations through the following key technologies and services: Digital Twin for VPP, Data analytics and advanced algorithms, Innovative Blockchain asset, DLT-based business modelapplication, and Interoperability of the IOT solution.