New Cost Efficient Business Models for Flexible Smart Grids

Project Information

NOBEL GRID

Grant agreement ID: 646184

DOI

10.3030/646184

Project closed

EC signature date 12 December 2014

Start date 1 January 2015

End date 30 June 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 13 864 309,48

EU contribution

€ 11 725 973,15

Coordinated by

ETRA INVESTIGACION Y DESARROLLO SA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - NOBEL GRID (New Cost Efficient Business Models for Flexible Smart Grids)

Reporting period: 2017-07-01 to 2018-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

H2020 NOBEL GRID project, with a budget of € 14M, composed by 21 institutions from 11 countries and led by the company ETRA, has designed and developed new tools and business models to allow all smart grid and energy market stakeholders to benefit from a more secure and stable distribution network, promoting the integration of distributed renewable energy sources with greater participation of final consumers in the energy market.

As main ground-breaking objective of the project, NOBEL GRID provides solutions for all the actors in order to share the benefits of the Smart Grid in a fair, sustainable and efficient way. In this context, NOBEL GRID promotes, by means of new technologies and business models, collective schemes and community initiatives, giving more power and protection to the final consumer, contributing to a more competitive and well-functioning internal energy market.

All the project results have been deployed and demonstrated in real conditions in six pilot sites in six EU members’ states - Belgium, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece and Romania. NOBEL GRID has selected for the demonstration energy cooperatives and non-profit partners. The main advantage of this is the high level of investment these parties keep on grid innovation with regards to other electric profit companies, which guarantees their commitment for the rapid adoption of technologies benefitting their customers and society.

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 main exploitable results achieved during the project are:

- SLAM (Advanced Smart Meter):
SLAM is a new generation smart meter designed and developed from scratch by ETRA and certified as part of NOBEL GRID project. The SLAM is based on the smart meter Unbundled concept, differentiating two sections: the metrological (SMM: Smart Metrological Meter) and the intelligence (SMX: Smart Extended Meter). Unlike the traditional digital meters that focus solely on providing services to the DSO, the SLAM provides new energy services to all the actors of smart grid value chain, monitoring and control of advanced smart grid parameters and detecting anomalous values in order to give more protection and power to end users. The SLAM is a certified commercial product, TRL 9, ready to be installed in any European country.

- G3M Framework (Grid management and maintenance Master for DSOs):
The G3M framework has been developed and designed by ETRA in NOBEL GRID project. G3M is an innovative DSO platform addressing management and maintenance activities of the distribution grid by merging operational and information technology (OT, IT) capabilities. The main customers of the G3M are DSOs around the globe who seek a reliable and cost-effective integration of renewable technologies and Demand-Response schemes into their traditional core processes. ETRA as a market leader in the field of energy-efficient control and monitoring solutions will be benefited by the incorporation of the G3M (Grid Management and Maintenance Master for DSOs) tool into its portfolio, since ETRA’s commercial offer will provide a singular value proposition for DSOs by providing innovative new functionalities to intelligent monitoring and control of both the energy consumption and stability/performance of the power network.

- DRFM (Demand Response Flexibility Market):
It is a Decision Support System (DSS) that supports different business stakeholders (Aggregator/Retailer/ESCOs) in portfolio management. The cockpit is a web tool that bridges demand-side resources and their flexibility with the electricity grid actors with the final aim to improve the performance of their processes and resources. The main feature of the tool is to maximize business stakeholders’ profit and manage deviations between Aggregators, Retailers and ESCOs, while supporting grid operators to ensure network stability and security.

- EMA App (Energy Monitoring Application App):
EMA App is a software application that enables domestic and industrial prosumers to monitor, control and manage their energy consumption and the production throughout metrics and indicators obtained from real time smart meter readings and other additional data sources (weather, carbon grid intensity). Real time monitoring of energy consumption makes a real difference compared to monthly information accessible by most users. The tool is available in form of a web and mobile application which follows an agile and responsive design harmonized with current standards of visualization and communication promoting user interaction. Moreover, EMA App includes a GUI for administration purposes to enable the operator of the system to configure and manage the application and communicate with users.

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)

A very conservative estimation of NOBEL GRID impact for the societies of the pilot sites in terms of total cost savings is 242 million € over a 20-year evaluation period, where 103 million € are attributed to improved efficiency of DSOs involved and the rest from avoided capacity upgrade investments, as well as, reduced costs for balancing supply and demand. Furthermore, the importance of NOBEL GRID technologies in avoiding outages is expected to have a great impact on the societies in terms of the value of lost load. In the extreme scenario that the DSO decided neither to upgrade capacity nor adopt NOBEL GRID technologies the value of lost load can reach € 7,320 per consumer on an annual basis.

At the same time, NOBEL GRID technologies and the proposed business models are expected to have significant effect on individual market actors and consumers. DSOs will become more cost effective and obtain a higher Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of up to 8%, compared to the Business-as-Usual (BaU) scenario that involves smart meters of low-cost, but low-value as well. Aggregators can rely upon the existing infrastructure of smart meters and obtain an IRR of up to 19%, while in the BaU they were highly unprofitable. If regulated charge for using the distribution network was adjusted so that DSOs achieve an IRR that is close to the BaU, then consumers will see reductions on their electricity bills (compared to the BaU case) ranging from 2% up to 6.6%. These consumers with high and controllable loads (such as EV and heat pumps) can receive significant rewards from Demand Response campaigns, which can reach up to bill savings of up to 8.5%. The latter type of consumers will also have a significant incentive to become prosumers, as electrification of transportation and heating/cooling becomes mainstream even if no net metering is in place, as they will be enjoying an IRR of up to 20%. On the other hand, Retailers will have to offer more flexible pricing schemes as the increased revenues from EVs in some cases will be offset by higher self-consumption.

Additional societal benefits that are offered by NOBEL GRID solutions include the direct impact on jobs (e.g. reducing the gap in skills and personnel due to the ‘greying workforce), environmental impact (such as reduced CO2 emissions due to the increase of RES, such as the smart charging of Electric Vehicles utilizing as much as possible renewable sources) and empowering customers of all genders and energy communities.

NOBEL GRID stakeholders and solutions schema

NOBEL GRID architecture schema

SLAM Fact_sheet

EMA App

DRFM cockpit

SLAM picture

NOBEL GRID Unbundled Smart Meter

G3M cockpit