Pan-European system with an efficient coordinated use of flexibilities for the integration of a large share of RES

Project Information

EU-SysFlex

Grant agreement ID: 773505

DOI

10.3030/773505

Project closed

EC signature date 19 September 2017

Start date 1 November 2017

End date 28 February 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 26 489 895,25

EU contribution

€ 20 279 863,72

Coordinated by

EIRGRID PLC
Ireland

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - EU-SysFlex (Pan-European system with an efficient coordinated use of flexibilities for the integration of a large share of RES)

Reporting period: 2020-05-01 to 2022-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

EU policy makers have set ambitious targets for the decarbonisation of the energy system, demanding increased levels of energy efficiency and world leading levels of renewable energy technologies.

By 2050, electricity use is estimated to increase from 20% of the overall EU energy use today to 40% of energy needs. Currently, Renewable Energy Sources from Electricity (RES-E) accounts for approximately 30% of overall electricity demand. By 2030 the EU have set a target to increase this to over 50%. This represents a seismic challenge to how we will operate the pan-European power system of the future.

The primary increase in RES-E will come from technologies such as wind and solar. Due to their intermittent and non-synchronous characteristics, power system operators must devise solutions which ensure stability and reliability of the future power system at all time. These solutions can be described as System Services and Flexibility which address stability, power system resilience, balancing of load, increasing needs for reserves and flexibilities in existing and new generation sites. The scale of non-synchronous technologies on the future power system relative to large thermal power stations will results in a system with less inertia and less operational capacities for dispatching or for restoration. Finally, the power system of the future is becoming more decentralised and therefore there is greater need for cross sectoral coordination of the power system between transmission to distribution level. Consequently, there is a need to achieve greater levels of digitalization of the power system to exchange and manage data closer to real-time between producers, consumers, system and market operators is an imperative.

The overall objective of the EU-SysFlex project is to facilitate the provision of effective and sufficient level of system services and power system flexibility to ensure that the objective of 50% RES-E by 2030 is met. This requires defining the right amount of flexibility and system services to support transmission system operators using a threefold approach.

The EU-SysFlex project consortium is represented right across the electricity sector, consisting of 34 partners from 15 European countries. The consortium consists of TSOs, DSOs, generation companies, technology providers, research institutes, academia an aggregator and retailers. The project consortium is supported by an advisory board consisting of industry representative bodies ENTSO-E, E.DSO Wind Europe, Eurelectric, USEF, IWEA as well a number of European and International TSOs and European DSOs.

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

A summary of the work carried out during the second reporting period is provided below.

In WP2, the assessment of technical shortfalls of the pan-European power system with high levels of renewables combined with large-scale deployment of new technologies has been finalised. During this period, a “gap analysis” of the techno-economic dimensions of the RES policy targets for the power system has also been performed. Works on the demonstration and Market Modelling validation have started.

In WP3, the activities for Task 3.2 and Task 3.4 were completed – with a small delay during the final stage of deliverable writing – resulting in two deliverables being published upon the approval of the PMB [M31-32]. The work of WP3 ended in M30.

WP4 activities during this period have been focused on the use of the DTS to run the scenarios from WP2 with multiple sets of TSO operators from across Europe to explore the challenges in training the System Operators of the future, including cross-border and TSO-DSO coordination.

WP5 activities during this period included the production of a first draft of the conceptual model based on SGAM and finish some further elements of the deliverable (e.g. role model), the writing of deliverable 5.2 the completion of most of the sub-tasks in task 5.3 and its deliverable and the drafting the joint milestone report for tasks 5.4 and 5.5.

WP6 has converted the business use cases defined by WP3 (defined in close cooperation with WP6) into system use cases for the demonstrators (see task 6.2 and results in D6.1). WP6 will show how the interface needs to be elaborated to handle the increasing amount of RES. For this purpose, in this WP different systems and tools are being developed (see task 6.3). Furthermore, WP6 is investigating and testing how the TSO/DSO interface including e.g. data management has to evolve. In WP6 three trials building up on existing demonstrators in three different countries (Germany, Finland, Italy) and three different voltage levels are being implemented to test the theoretical approaches in the real system (see task 6.4). The outcome will then be analysed to investigate if the requirements for the interface changes regarding the different voltage levels and countries. The data management is well aligned with WP5 and this WP will also be in close coordination with WP9 for the TSO/DSO flexibility data exchange.

The activities of this period in WP7 focused on concluding task 7.1 and, specifically, subtask 7.1.3 specifying the field tests and demonstration activities, conclude the VPP tools (Task 7.2) conclude the Flexibility Hub tools (Task 7.3) and conclude the work on Task 7.4 regarding the set-up and integration of tools and hardware

WP8 activities during this period include works on the demonstration of the technical feasibility to perform an optimal and coordinated control of wind turbines, PV panels and storage as an aggregator to provide system services to the transmission system and the analysis of the system services that can be provided by the aggregator and to assess the contribution of the aggregator to the enhancement of system security and flexibility.

In WP9, the specific objectives for the period were to deliver more mature releases of Task 9.1 and 9.2 demonstrators as well as to finalize the number and scope of Task 9.3 demonstrators (10 in total).

In WP10, works for the analyses on technical reliability led by Imperial College of London (ICL) and on scalability and replicability led by EDF was launched. Regarding Task 10.2 the flexibility roadmap for Europe and guidelines, this work is carried out by all stakeholders including the advisory board and TSO reference group.

The actions carried out during this period in WP11 aimed to increase the general awareness, to involve relevant stakeholders, support cooperation with research partners outside the consortium and to identify new business opportunities and develop innovative business models.

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 main ambition of EU-SysFlex is to go beyond the current state of the art by demonstrating a set of innovative solutions that foster the appropriate balance and development of needed system services and flexibility. The outcome from this will simply be a better balance of investment in complementary system services providing new technologies. To achieve this innovation it is necessary to remove existing barriers to allow these technologies to be securely and reliably dispatched and operated in the future. This will challenge existing TSO and DSO processes and procedures.
The ultimate ambition of EU- Sysflex is to enhance the design and operation of the energy market to drive the complementary investment in system service capability that will realise the world leading policy objectives of the EU.

Consortium photo at the General Assembly 2018 in Lisbon (Portugal)