Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REACT (Renewable Energy for self-sustAinable island CommuniTies)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-07-01 do 2021-12-31
Geographical islands suffer from several barriers in the traditional electrical energy grid model. They are highly dependent on the mainland energy market, while the transmission of energy is costly and inefficient. This arrangement affects energy security and increases the energy costs of geographically dispersed islands by up to 400% higher than those of the mainland. If islands are not grid-connected, they are highly dependent on fossil fuels. On the other hand, if the grid connection exists between islands and the mainland, the islands are highly dependent on energy import.
REACT tackles these barriers at the core of the problem: island energy independency through maximal exploitation of RES potential and its optimal utilisation by the energy consumption and storage assets. REACT will couple RES technologies available in the pilots (community assets) and from consortium technology providers, with innovative energy storage technologies (batteries, power-to-gas, water desalination), and with necessary know-how and ICT expertise to ensure most efficient, stable and reliable grid operation.
REACT will develop the technical and business ecosystem to convincingly demonstrate the potential of the large-scale deployment of RES and storage assets on geographical islands to bring economic benefits, contribute to the decarbonisation of local energy systems, reduce GHG emissions and improve environmental air quality. This ecosystem will be achieved by meeting the following objectives setting the conditions for wide-scale replicability across EU island communities:
● Integrating existing and emerging technologies to create the REACT cloud-based solution enabling an integrated and digitalised smart grid based on high flexibility services from distributed generation, demand response and the energy storage with the potential to support 100% energy autonomy of geographical islands.
● Piloting the REACT solution on 3 islands in 3 market contexts in 3 different climates demonstrating its potential to reduce GHG emission and energy costs both by > 60%, achieve at least 10% of energy savings.
● Develop partner-backed viable plans for the large-scale replication of the implementations of the REACT solution on 5 follower islands.
REACT tackles these barriers at the core of the problem: island energy independency through maximal exploitation of RES potential and its optimal utilisation by the energy consumption and storage assets. REACT will couple RES technologies available in the pilots (community assets) and from consortium technology providers, with innovative energy storage technologies (batteries, power-to-gas, water desalination), and with necessary know-how and ICT expertise to ensure most efficient, stable and reliable grid operation.
REACT will develop the technical and business ecosystem to convincingly demonstrate the potential of the large-scale deployment of RES and storage assets on geographical islands to bring economic benefits, contribute to the decarbonisation of local energy systems, reduce GHG emissions and improve environmental air quality. This ecosystem will be achieved by meeting the following objectives setting the conditions for wide-scale replicability across EU island communities:
● Integrating existing and emerging technologies to create the REACT cloud-based solution enabling an integrated and digitalised smart grid based on high flexibility services from distributed generation, demand response and the energy storage with the potential to support 100% energy autonomy of geographical islands.
● Piloting the REACT solution on 3 islands in 3 market contexts in 3 different climates demonstrating its potential to reduce GHG emission and energy costs both by > 60%, achieve at least 10% of energy savings.
● Develop partner-backed viable plans for the large-scale replication of the implementations of the REACT solution on 5 follower islands.
From a general point of view, the project has been developed according to what is described in the GA, reaching the objectives foreseen for the first 18 months (January 2019-June 2020). In this sense, the Consortium has made a great effort to achieve the objectives, highlighting the assignment and work of the PCC (pilot case coordinators) as key agents during these first months of work. The PCCs, together with the three clusters of the project, have worked intensively to set the scenarios for the pilots in Spain, Italy and Ireland, by establishing the REACT system configurations as well as the participants in the project. This has been possible thanks to the recruitment campaigns carried out on the pilots and which have been key to capturing the enthusiasm of the users.
In this way, at M18 the project disposes of the pilot definition with all the necessary information from them, with the design and configuration of the equipment that will be deployed in the coming months.
Considering the general progress, the Pilot technical characterization and Pilot infrastructure planning have finalised with a good results as expected and the other WP have started and planned in the GA.
In this way, at M18 the project disposes of the pilot definition with all the necessary information from them, with the design and configuration of the equipment that will be deployed in the coming months.
Considering the general progress, the Pilot technical characterization and Pilot infrastructure planning have finalised with a good results as expected and the other WP have started and planned in the GA.
The main technologies under investigation in the project are described below:
ADVANCED INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES - this includes both, software and hardware technologies:
● Optimised control of smart-grids in geographical islands via holistic optimisation approach enabling targeted optimal energy dispatch control actions both automatically (i.e. fully-automated control of energy generation/storage units and common assets) and by engaging the end consumers (i.e. manual load shifting);
● DR platform for flexibility management at community level via automated and manual strategies;
● Smart energy grid design tool for island optimal RES integration: Deployment in each demonstration site as well as “follower” sites. The tool will consider various hybrid configurations of renewable energy sources and storage, as well as their different sizes and capacities.
● Real-time generation and load forecasting for optimal grid balancing.
● Energy storage: deployment of high-capacity and environmental friendly lithium-ion and aluminium-carbon batteries and conventional vented and valve-regulated lead-acid batteries and power-to-gas solutions.
● Innovative heat pumps and PV systems to be managed at community level.
● Enhanced grid operation monitoring to perform identification, localization of grid failures during operations in a scenario of high intermittent RES penetration and storage into the island energy grid;
TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION and testing in demo islands and via hardware-in-the-loop to reduce costs:
● REACT cloud-based platform will enable an easy integration with RES/storage-based infrastructures using a holistic planning, controlling and monitoring strategy, maximising RES exploitation in geographical islands;
● Hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) laboratory testing, to ensure deployment of adequate control strategy, and to test and evaluate the control actions upon relevant equipment (e.g. energy generation units, storage, etc.) in close to real-life conditions before actual deployment;
● An integrative optimisation approach that combines real-time optimisation of both multi-carrier energy supply and demand side of target energy infrastructure (at household, building or district level).
NEW SYNERGIES - synergy between different grids such as water, transport (EV charging stations), energy and heat. REACT will use real technology assets combined with partners’ expertise in computational modelling and simulation of physical systems to account for the existing grids at demo sites. Attention will be paid to the interaction with EV charging stations, which are becoming common in small and medium islands.
USER ENAGEMENT & BUSINESS MODELS - REACT will engage the end consumers, i.e. the island residents and involve them in demand reduction and time shifting (e.g. peak shaving) activities.
Impacts:
• REACT will enable the achievement of at least 10% energy saving in islands and 60% energy price drop that will be directly translated in end-user bill reduction and CO2 savings.
• REACT will enable higher penetration (min. +50%) of renewables in islands grids and drastically reduce 50% the fossil fuel consumption by using battery storage to improve the technical and economic performance and the flexibility and resilience of the electricity grid.
• REACT will unlock the full potential of DR in residential and tertiary buildings, making the flexible load portion available for use in grid balancing and other ancillary services.
• Reduce/defer a maximum of 30% the DSOs required investments in grid reinforcements and grid balancing by improving assets and network utilization which in the mid-term will reduce the final user energy price.
• REACT integrated solution for optimal control and strategy will ensure a high degree of interoperability with current systems.
• Enable innovative and integral business model unlocking new services for the entire energy value chain and will promote a holistic energy purchase and DR strategy at community level.
ADVANCED INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES - this includes both, software and hardware technologies:
● Optimised control of smart-grids in geographical islands via holistic optimisation approach enabling targeted optimal energy dispatch control actions both automatically (i.e. fully-automated control of energy generation/storage units and common assets) and by engaging the end consumers (i.e. manual load shifting);
● DR platform for flexibility management at community level via automated and manual strategies;
● Smart energy grid design tool for island optimal RES integration: Deployment in each demonstration site as well as “follower” sites. The tool will consider various hybrid configurations of renewable energy sources and storage, as well as their different sizes and capacities.
● Real-time generation and load forecasting for optimal grid balancing.
● Energy storage: deployment of high-capacity and environmental friendly lithium-ion and aluminium-carbon batteries and conventional vented and valve-regulated lead-acid batteries and power-to-gas solutions.
● Innovative heat pumps and PV systems to be managed at community level.
● Enhanced grid operation monitoring to perform identification, localization of grid failures during operations in a scenario of high intermittent RES penetration and storage into the island energy grid;
TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION and testing in demo islands and via hardware-in-the-loop to reduce costs:
● REACT cloud-based platform will enable an easy integration with RES/storage-based infrastructures using a holistic planning, controlling and monitoring strategy, maximising RES exploitation in geographical islands;
● Hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) laboratory testing, to ensure deployment of adequate control strategy, and to test and evaluate the control actions upon relevant equipment (e.g. energy generation units, storage, etc.) in close to real-life conditions before actual deployment;
● An integrative optimisation approach that combines real-time optimisation of both multi-carrier energy supply and demand side of target energy infrastructure (at household, building or district level).
NEW SYNERGIES - synergy between different grids such as water, transport (EV charging stations), energy and heat. REACT will use real technology assets combined with partners’ expertise in computational modelling and simulation of physical systems to account for the existing grids at demo sites. Attention will be paid to the interaction with EV charging stations, which are becoming common in small and medium islands.
USER ENAGEMENT & BUSINESS MODELS - REACT will engage the end consumers, i.e. the island residents and involve them in demand reduction and time shifting (e.g. peak shaving) activities.
Impacts:
• REACT will enable the achievement of at least 10% energy saving in islands and 60% energy price drop that will be directly translated in end-user bill reduction and CO2 savings.
• REACT will enable higher penetration (min. +50%) of renewables in islands grids and drastically reduce 50% the fossil fuel consumption by using battery storage to improve the technical and economic performance and the flexibility and resilience of the electricity grid.
• REACT will unlock the full potential of DR in residential and tertiary buildings, making the flexible load portion available for use in grid balancing and other ancillary services.
• Reduce/defer a maximum of 30% the DSOs required investments in grid reinforcements and grid balancing by improving assets and network utilization which in the mid-term will reduce the final user energy price.
• REACT integrated solution for optimal control and strategy will ensure a high degree of interoperability with current systems.
• Enable innovative and integral business model unlocking new services for the entire energy value chain and will promote a holistic energy purchase and DR strategy at community level.