Final Report Summary - SMARTWAVE (Power quality in coastal smart grids)
Although almost half of the European population lives in coastal areas, the specific issues associated with the dramatic transformation of the coastal electrical networks into smart grids have been little addressed. This constitutes a significant gap which must be filled immediately for Europe to meet its long-term targets in terms of renewable energy consumption. The proposed “SmartWave” research project will constitute a positive step in this direction. Its objective is to bring the research on coastal smart grids to the next level by tackling urging challenges by means of a realistic, integrated approach which addresses the combined impact on power quality of different renewable energy sources (in the form of wave energy farms and distributed photovoltaic panels) and of electric vehicles. It will also investigate different options to mitigate this impact in the form of intelligent charging scenarios for electric vehicles. The studies will be conducted based on typical coastal networks which will allow the conclusions of the research project to be transferable to a wide range of maritime countries, thus giving it a worldwide impact.