Getting ready for multi-vendor and multi-terminal DC technology

Project Information

READY4DC

Grant agreement ID: 101069656

DOI

10.3030/101069656

Project closed

EC signature date 3 March 2022

Start date 1 April 2022

End date 30 November 2023

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 999 812,50

EU contribution

€ 999 812,50

Coordinated by

RHEINISCH-WESTFAELISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE AACHEN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - READY4DC (Getting ready for multi-vendor and multi-terminal DC technology)

Reporting period: 2022-04-01 to 2023-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The READY4DC Project, supported by Horizon Europe, has created and engaged a community of experts that gave recommendations on the major technical and legal aspects of designing and building an interoperable multi-vendor HVDC grid. High-Voltage Direct-Current (HVDC) technology is a key enabler for the integration of renewable energy (in particular offshore wind) and its transmission over longer distances to consumers. However, most HVDC systems today are single-vendor and point-to-point. The major objective of READY4DC was to the ground for the development of the first multi-terminal, multi-vendor HVDC project in Europe. For that, READY4DC established four Working Groups with open participation to European stakeholders (transmission system operators, equipment manufacturers, and more) and created targeted white papers consolidating the perspectives and views of all relevant sectors on the various technical, long-term planning and legal aspects, deep-diving for example into (real-time) testing, intellectual property and regultory aspects, a multi-vendor interoperability process and practical locations, as well as, the vision for the future power system and HVDC R&D priorities. All results are publicly available at https://www.ready4dc.eu/.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The technical and scientific work in READY4DC happend in four working groups focusing on (a) Modelling, simulation framework and data sharing for multi-vendor HVDC interaction
studies and large-scale EMT simulation, (b) Legal Framework for the Realisation of a Multi-vendor HVDC systems, (c) Multi-vendor Interoperability Process and Demonstration Definition, and (d) Framing the future European energy system. In these working groups, the READY4DC project members with contribution from volunteer experts in the HVDC domain, exchanged their experience, viewpoints, and developed their common viewpoints on the four technical topics. The outcome are several whitepapers available at https://www.ready4dc.eu/.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The READY4DC results lay the groundwork for the larger follow-up project InterOPERA that will result in the first European multi-vendor HVDC demonstrator. The European HVDC community needs help with overcoming staff scarcity. Several manufactuers and transmission system operators have launched impressive recruitment programs, however, it appears unlikely that these positions will be filled. Staff scarcity is an impediment to reaching the EU offshore targets.

Commissioned HVDC projects and projection of future commissioning