Interoperability of the Power Electronics dominated grid by openness

Project Information

Inter-oPEn

Grant agreement ID: 101119349

DOI

10.3030/101119349

EC signature date 10 November 2023

Start date 1 January 2024

End date 30 June 2028

Funded under

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 2 673 568,80

Coordinated by

RHEINISCH-WESTFAELISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE AACHEN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Inter-oPEn (Interoperability of the Power Electronics dominated grid by openness)

Reporting period: 2024-01-01 to 2025-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Power Electronic Converters are essential for integrating more renewables into Europe’s electricity system, yet the present PE dominated grid faces an “interoperability ice age”: Multi vendor HVDC converters are added ad hoc, while proprietary control software, unclear IP regimes and fragmented regulation hinder information exchange. Inter-oPEn addresses these technical, legal and regulatory obstacles by training ten Doctoral Researchers in a joint engineering legal programme that merges electrical engineering, control protection, IP law and energy policy expertise. The project aims to build an open by design ecosystem for safe, reliable and cost effective operation of future multi vendor PE power systems, pursued through three tightly linked strands:
1. Engineering for swift interoperability: Develop partially open control protection architectures and model based tools.
2. Resilient, flexible power system integration: Apply system level MBSE, stability assessment and data driven control to multi terminal HVDC grids.
3. Legal and regulatory enablement: Analyse openness, IP protection, governance models and EU level regulatory pathways.
By placing openness at the heart of both technology and policy, Inter-oPEn directly supports the EU Green Deal, the UN SDGs and the EU “Fit for 55” energy transition agenda.

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 Inter-oPEn consortium established the organisational, scientific and training base needed for an openness driven, interoperable power electronics grid:
• Doctoral training: Four network wide modules and one workshop covered technical fundamentals, open source software, legal/regulatory issues and change management in critical infrastructure. The hybrid sessions attracted >50 participants; questionnaires and regular feedback meetings guided improvements, and one doctoral fellow completed their first academic secondment. Ten researchers now possess interdisciplinary knowledge and transferable skills that bridge engineering and law.
• Technical progress: PSCAD and EMT simulations together with global sensitivity analyses identified the control functions most affecting protection system design, particularly circulating current control. Building on this, a partitioning strategy separates “open” (shareable) from “proprietary” (protected) control blocks, and model exchange formats (CIM, FMU, DLL) are being evaluated for partially open HVDC converter models. A model based systems engineering framework for concept level protection design, a scalable MATLAB/Simulink test bed (point to point to four terminal HVDC), and early data driven control concepts (DeePC) for multi terminal grids constitute the first concrete technical building blocks for an open, interoperable power system.
• Legal & regulatory work: Two draft papers were produced: (1) interpreting “openness” under EU law for HVDC interoperability, and (2) assessing governance models (national vs. EU planning, new entities, private law cooperation frameworks) for multi vendor, multi terminal projects. The analyses flag IP, competition law and cybersecurity as main barriers and propose a regulated openness model that equips EU legislators to enable data exchange while preserving national flexibility.
• Outreach & dissemination: The Inter-oPEn website, a LinkedIn channel and two newsletters were launched. The Collaborative Open Source Library (COLib) was created and linked to the LF Energy PowSyBl ecosystem, ready to host the partially open models generated later. These activities raise project visibility and lay groundwork for community engagement.
• Overall impact: The consortium has built a solid governance framework, delivered interdisciplinary training, produced novel technical and legal solutions, and initiated coordinated outreach. One peer reviewed paper is published, with several manuscripts in preparation. The established management and dissemination structures position Inter-oPEn to move from methodology to demonstrators, influence future standards and foster market uptake in the next reporting period.

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)

Interoperability of HVDC converters is today limited to post hoc, iterative integration; control software is usually a black box, and there is no systematic way to share models, data, or design rationale across vendors. IP protection, competition law and cybersecurity constraints further curb information exchange, causing long integration times and high system integration risk. Inter-oPEn introduces several breakthroughs:
• Partially open control protection architecture: Sensitivity analysis supports separating control functions into “open” (shareable) and “proprietary” (protected) blocks, providing a clear partitioning strategy that supports multi vendor collaboration while safeguarding critical IP.
• Regulated openness legal framework: A draft model converts EU IP, competition and cybersecurity rules into actionable guidelines for model sharing, bridging engineering practice and legislative requirements.
• COLib: linked to the LF Energy ecosystem, this repository will host partially open converter models, simulation tools and documentation, offering an interoperable resource unavailable today.
• MBSE driven protection design: System level model based engineering defines concept level protection schemes that can be directly mapped to the partially open control blocks, a capability missing from current proprietary design flows.
Further research and demonstration: Ongoing refinement of open control models will be validated in upcoming industrial secondments.
• Standardisation & regulation: Test case envelopes and interoperability assessment procedures are being prepared for submission to CIGRE WG B4.85 and IEC technical committees, paving the way for openness criteria in future standards.
• Commercialisation & IPR support: The regulated openness framework gives industry a clear route to adopt partially open solutions while preserving valuable patents, lowering market entry barriers.
• Internationalisation: Open Access publications and the COLib repository enable cross border knowledge transfer, fostering EU wide convergence on HVDC interoperability.
These results collectively shift the paradigm from isolated, proprietary developments to a collaborative, openness driven ecosystem, directly addressing the shortcomings identified in the state of the art analysis.