Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PV-Prosumers4Grid (Development of innovative self-consumption and aggregation concepts for PV Prosumers to improve grid load and increase market value of PV)
Berichtszeitraum: 2019-04-01 bis 2020-03-31
Europe´s electricity sector is in the midst of major transformation moving from public monopolies into competitive private companies in liberalized markets. The liberalization of the market is expected to deliver more competitive and therefore more efficient and cheaper energy. Due to its cost and growth perspective, photovoltaics (PV) will be a key driver of this development throughout Europe. This will happen because PV has reached a level of competitiveness that allows moving to self-consumption schemes in many member countries.
Such a “prosumption” role empowers consumers to participate actively in the electricity market by producing energy themselves. Additionally, technical developments such as battery systems or smart meters and advanced business models promoting self-consumption change the technical design of the electricity systems. The success of these developments depends, however, on the regulatory and administrative framework in terms of energy policy and regulation, grid financing, taxation and legal relationships amongst the involved entities. Consequently, with the rapid growth of the share of electricity produced by variable renewable sources, especially by PV, innovative business and management concepts for private and commercial prosumers are a key element to facilitate PV market and system integration (PVP4Grid concepts).
The main objective of the PV-Prosumers4Grid project was the improvement and replicability of such innovative business and management concepts for PV prosumers considering technical and economic grid issues. With a strong involvement of all relevant key stakeholders for self-consumption this project tried to positively influence the overall regulatory and market conditions for the development of PV Prosumers in the long term. This was attempted with an effective validation of the business and management concepts and with tailor-made recommendations derived for the national as well as European policy level.
The achieved objectives are:
• Identification of the PV prosumer potential and its impacts on different system environments;
• Identification of barriers for and improvement of the role of PV prosumers;
• Validation of innovative business and management concepts (PVP4Grid concepts) for PV prosumers;
• Replicability of results and recommendations for a better deployment of PV prosumers;
• Dissemination of results and development of guidelines.
Such a “prosumption” role empowers consumers to participate actively in the electricity market by producing energy themselves. Additionally, technical developments such as battery systems or smart meters and advanced business models promoting self-consumption change the technical design of the electricity systems. The success of these developments depends, however, on the regulatory and administrative framework in terms of energy policy and regulation, grid financing, taxation and legal relationships amongst the involved entities. Consequently, with the rapid growth of the share of electricity produced by variable renewable sources, especially by PV, innovative business and management concepts for private and commercial prosumers are a key element to facilitate PV market and system integration (PVP4Grid concepts).
The main objective of the PV-Prosumers4Grid project was the improvement and replicability of such innovative business and management concepts for PV prosumers considering technical and economic grid issues. With a strong involvement of all relevant key stakeholders for self-consumption this project tried to positively influence the overall regulatory and market conditions for the development of PV Prosumers in the long term. This was attempted with an effective validation of the business and management concepts and with tailor-made recommendations derived for the national as well as European policy level.
The achieved objectives are:
• Identification of the PV prosumer potential and its impacts on different system environments;
• Identification of barriers for and improvement of the role of PV prosumers;
• Validation of innovative business and management concepts (PVP4Grid concepts) for PV prosumers;
• Replicability of results and recommendations for a better deployment of PV prosumers;
• Dissemination of results and development of guidelines.
PVP4Grid has been successfully completed. During its first stage, project activities were dedicated to the research and the quantitative analysis of the PV prosumer market potential, with focus on homeowners, landlords, housing cooperatives, commerce, retail, services, and with second priority on industry and real estate companies. The performed activities and results of this stage include:
• Identification of the PV prosumer potential and its impacts on different system environments: An assessment on the market potential identified the most appropriate application segments for such an increase in urban and rural areas as well as its impacts on typical grid environments. The analysis included an assessment of free grid capacity for absorbing prosumer PV in urban areas. See results in “Existing and future PV Prosumer concepts”.
• Identification of barriers for and improvement of the role of PV prosumers: the PVP4Grid project analyzed existing national and European regulatory and market conditions for PV prosumers and developed optimized concepts of PV prosumers for grid connection and in electricity markets. The conditions were considered from a prosumer, from a grid operator and from a policy maker perspective. The latter is related to the load balancing and financing of the grids in systems with high PV penetration. See results in “Report on PVPV4Grid concepts”.
In the second part, the project activities focused on the development of practical guidelines for prosumers, reports focused on the socio-economic benefits and green house emission potential of prosumers, papers for grid actors and policy makers that describe the impact of the PV Prosumer concepts on the grid, as well as on the development of policy recommendations. These results include:
• Validation of innovative business and management concepts (PVP4Grid concepts) for PV prosumers: the testing of new innovative PVP4Grid concepts in real-life environments (using data from already available self-consumption systems) led to an extensive network of demonstration projects that contribute to European energy market research and development. See: “Improved PV-Prosumer Concepts”, “Comparison of the greenhouse gas emission reduction potential of energy communities” & “Report on socio-economic impacts of PV prosumer concepts”.
• Replicability and recommendations: special attention was given to possibilities of up-scaling and replicating the innovative PV solutions and to their transferability across the European Union. The project results resulted in tailor-made recommendations. See results in national “Policy advisory papers”.
• Dissemination and guidelines: by deriving best-practice criteria under different constraints and by elaborating tailor-made guidelines for the relevant target groups and its key actors across Europe, the project empowered many electricity consumers, while ensuring a fair and sound financing of distribution and transmission grids. See results in “Prosumer guidelines”; “Impact of PV Prosumer concepts on grid system” & “PVP calculator”.
• Identification of the PV prosumer potential and its impacts on different system environments: An assessment on the market potential identified the most appropriate application segments for such an increase in urban and rural areas as well as its impacts on typical grid environments. The analysis included an assessment of free grid capacity for absorbing prosumer PV in urban areas. See results in “Existing and future PV Prosumer concepts”.
• Identification of barriers for and improvement of the role of PV prosumers: the PVP4Grid project analyzed existing national and European regulatory and market conditions for PV prosumers and developed optimized concepts of PV prosumers for grid connection and in electricity markets. The conditions were considered from a prosumer, from a grid operator and from a policy maker perspective. The latter is related to the load balancing and financing of the grids in systems with high PV penetration. See results in “Report on PVPV4Grid concepts”.
In the second part, the project activities focused on the development of practical guidelines for prosumers, reports focused on the socio-economic benefits and green house emission potential of prosumers, papers for grid actors and policy makers that describe the impact of the PV Prosumer concepts on the grid, as well as on the development of policy recommendations. These results include:
• Validation of innovative business and management concepts (PVP4Grid concepts) for PV prosumers: the testing of new innovative PVP4Grid concepts in real-life environments (using data from already available self-consumption systems) led to an extensive network of demonstration projects that contribute to European energy market research and development. See: “Improved PV-Prosumer Concepts”, “Comparison of the greenhouse gas emission reduction potential of energy communities” & “Report on socio-economic impacts of PV prosumer concepts”.
• Replicability and recommendations: special attention was given to possibilities of up-scaling and replicating the innovative PV solutions and to their transferability across the European Union. The project results resulted in tailor-made recommendations. See results in national “Policy advisory papers”.
• Dissemination and guidelines: by deriving best-practice criteria under different constraints and by elaborating tailor-made guidelines for the relevant target groups and its key actors across Europe, the project empowered many electricity consumers, while ensuring a fair and sound financing of distribution and transmission grids. See results in “Prosumer guidelines”; “Impact of PV Prosumer concepts on grid system” & “PVP calculator”.
PVP4Grid aimed to achieve the following impact:
• Replicability: the outcomes of the project can be used in various EU- and Non-EU countries. The cases and recommendations of the eight countries of the project can be used as an example in other countries with similar regulations. This is the case of the prosumer guidelines and the advisory papers , as well as the impact analysis (incl. the prosumer concepts) . Additionally, the experience of the seven national implementation counties, which have a very different financing and policy environment, can support other markets not included in the project to adapt the results according to their needs.
• Policy: DSO and TSO ancillary service adaptations. Market design and regulatory frameworks
Development of policy recommendations. The project aims to identify and to analyze the current policy barriers that hinders the development of PV prosumers in the countries. With these results, the consortium assessed the policy sector, giving the advice on which policy needs to be changed or adapted in order to increase the development of PV prosumers .
• Socio-economic: Public acceptance due to full market integration of PV with lower or no support and public acceptance due to grid operation support by successful PVP4Grid concepts integration. Practical results, as the prosumer guidelines and the prosumer concepts will enable the users to become prosumers. This will be achieved through answering the questions that are most frequently raised by potential prosumers during the design and implementation of particular PV projects.
• Environment: the development of PV prosumers will contribute to the European and national climate and energy transition goals.
• Market Transformation: the identification of the policy barriers and their possible solutions will help to evolve the PV prosumer market in the eight-implementation countries and at European level.
• Replicability: the outcomes of the project can be used in various EU- and Non-EU countries. The cases and recommendations of the eight countries of the project can be used as an example in other countries with similar regulations. This is the case of the prosumer guidelines and the advisory papers , as well as the impact analysis (incl. the prosumer concepts) . Additionally, the experience of the seven national implementation counties, which have a very different financing and policy environment, can support other markets not included in the project to adapt the results according to their needs.
• Policy: DSO and TSO ancillary service adaptations. Market design and regulatory frameworks
Development of policy recommendations. The project aims to identify and to analyze the current policy barriers that hinders the development of PV prosumers in the countries. With these results, the consortium assessed the policy sector, giving the advice on which policy needs to be changed or adapted in order to increase the development of PV prosumers .
• Socio-economic: Public acceptance due to full market integration of PV with lower or no support and public acceptance due to grid operation support by successful PVP4Grid concepts integration. Practical results, as the prosumer guidelines and the prosumer concepts will enable the users to become prosumers. This will be achieved through answering the questions that are most frequently raised by potential prosumers during the design and implementation of particular PV projects.
• Environment: the development of PV prosumers will contribute to the European and national climate and energy transition goals.
• Market Transformation: the identification of the policy barriers and their possible solutions will help to evolve the PV prosumer market in the eight-implementation countries and at European level.