Geographical Islands FlexibiliTy

Project Information

GIFT

Grant agreement ID: 824410

DOI 10.3030/824410

Project closed

EC signature date 14 November 2018

Start date 1 January 2019

End date 30 June 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost € 12 151 534,50

EU contribution € 9 555 708,02

Coordinated by

INEA INFORMATIZACIJA ENERGETIKA AVTOMATIZACIJA DOO
Slovenia

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GIFT (Geographical Islands FlexibiliTy)

Reporting period: 2020-07-01 to 2021-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

GIFT is an innovative project that aims to decarbonise the energy mix of European islands. European islands have to abide by the law of their countries that push toward a greener energy mix to comply with the European and international agreements. GIFT is willing to develop innovative systems to allow islands to integrate vast amount of renewables. Through the development of multiple innovative solutions, such as a virtual power system, energy management systems for harbours, factories, homes, better prediction of supply and demand and visualisation of those date through a GIS platform, and innovative storage systems allowing synergy between electrical, heating and transportation networks, GIFT will increase the penetration rate of renewable energy sources into the islands’ grid, reducing their needs for diesel generation and thus decreasing the greenhouse gases emissions directly related to it. During 4 years, the partners will develop and demonstrate the solutions in two lighthouse islands, in Hinnøya, Norway’s largest island and the small island of Procida in Italy and study the replicability of the solution in a Greek and Italian islands at the minimum, respectively Evia and Favignana.

GIFT will address the energy issues on the demonstration sites in a holistic way. High energy costs on the islands mostly depend on the undesirable situations on the grid, caused mostly by the volatile supply through the renewables. In order to achieve high level of RES penetration, the grid needs to become more dynamic. We will deploy several solutions for monitoring the local grid. Those solutions will allow us to make real time predictions on the operational states of the grid. We will use this information to construct a bid for flexibility, which will allow the island to balance the grid in real time. The central part of the project will be a flexibility marketplace, which will allow many different prosumers to participate in a uniform way. This generalization layer will allow for construction of several different business cases for participating players. With unique approaches to storage, such as multi vector and virtual storage, we plan to demonstrate a comprehensive integrated solution of different technologies, all working together in a coordinated manner.

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

In the first 36 months of its implementation, the GIFT project has consolidated a solid basis for the implementation of its solutions on the demonstration sites. Components related to Observability, Prediction and GIS Twin flow are successfully integrated with new developed Enterprise Service Bus. The partners have made progress towards the observability of the grid data to receive close to real time through sensors provided by ODI and installed by HLK. An extended integration testing among the Enterprise Service Bus, Forecasting and Observability was completed. The energy supply and demand forecasting engine are finished and demonstrated in several settings.
The Elestor BMS/EMS to FA communication channel was successfully tested for the flex agents.
Additionally, the conceptual, basic design phases and detailed design phase for HBr storage have been completed. The battery system build is mostly completed and is currently under commissioning activities in the Netherlands. To get the targeted power out of the battery some further stack tests are required and more stacks need to be built.
The Smart energy hub completed a new version prototype, named “Alpha”, and is currently used for stacks & systems testing and qualification. Final GIFT Smart Energy Hub will have very similar characteristics to “Alpha” prototype, hence its testing and development is considered essential for GIFT systems and to achieve balance of plant (BOP).
Digital twin is kept updating according to the user’s perspective (DSO, municipalities) and new data are available for both islands.
Norway demo site identify 34 potential commercial prosumers in Grytøya and 10 industrials prosumers in Hinnøya. Italian demo site in Procida identify 13 potential prosumers and both demo sites start with integration activities of selecting prosumers.
The EV charger EMS is developed in the way to enable operation and integration with GIFT system in two scenarios: a single charging station and several charging stations at prosumer. The physical installation of EV chargers is ongoing deployment process with integration activities with Virtual Power System.
In parallel, the project website, dissemination and Communication strategy have been fully operational and new communication tools have been developed.

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 GIFT project relies on the development of innovative solutions for the VPS, Energy Management System, Enterprise Service Bus, Integration of energy storage and HBr battery.
For the VPS, most of the existing solutions to address demand response utilise so-called “curtailment” methods, which means switching customers on or off, based on requirements on the grid / market. Such systems are often met with resistance, since they are invasive by nature – they interrupt processes and/or comfort. To address this issue, GIFT places the prosumer at the centre. Each participating party, whether it is prosumer with flexible loads, generator or storage is generalized using Flex-Offer protocol.
Existing embedded EMS place emphasis on the coordination of electrical appliances, with less emphasis on the interaction of the EMS with the dynamic user preferences and the home environmental context. In GIFT project, EMS will be further developed to allow intelligent management of prosumers, requiring upgrades in structure, communication, cooperation, and algorithms, as well as the integration Flex Agents. So far, the Elestor BMS/EMS to FA communication channel was successfully tested for the flex agents.
In most cases the solutions are tailored to specific requirements and are designed for specific use cases, which results in limited operational capacity and in lack of interoperability and integrability with other systems. GIFT proposes the development of an innovative and standards’-based Enterprise Services Bus (ESB) facilitate the integration and interplay among the various systems that synthesize the IT ecosystem of an Energy Island.
The HBr flow battery will enable electric energy storage at a cost level that presently cannot be reached by any storage solution available on the market or proven on a large scale (0.05 €/kWh.cycle). The conceptual, basic design and detailed design phases with built phase for HBr storage have been completed commissioning has started
Through these innovations, the GIFT project expects to develop energy systems that are cheaper than diesel generation, to reduce fossil fuel consumption significantly, and enhance autonomy for islands that are grid connected to the mainland. The project has also a socio-economic impact on the consumers that have been contacted on the demonstration islands: the aim is to turn these consumers into active prosumers.

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