Interoperable tools for an efficient management and effective planning of the electricity grid

Project Information

INTERPRETER

Grant agreement ID: 864360

DOI

10.3030/864360

Project closed

EC signature date 17 September 2019

Start date 1 October 2019

End date 30 September 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 3 907 872,50

EU contribution

€ 3 907 872,50

Coordinated by

FUNDACION CIRCE CENTRO DE INVESTIGACION DE RECURSOS Y CONSUMOS ENERGETICOS
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - INTERPRETER (Interoperable tools for an efficient management and effective planning of the electricity grid)

Reporting period: 2021-04-01 to 2022-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project brings together 9 entities from 6 European countries in order to develop the INTERPRETER platform, which is a modular grid management solution that provides data services based on an integrated grid modelling tool. The solution targets grid operators who want to improve management of their distribution grid, where observability is still low, despite smart meter data. INTERPRETER provides a data lake, unifying diverse data formats, together with a tool which creates a grid model from available data. This grid model enables advanced monitoring, O&M, planning, and flexibility services. A total of 10 tools have been developed, being 5 devoted to grid operation and maintenance: Non-technical losses detection, Ancillary services for DSO based on voltage balance and congestion, DSO/TSO interaction for ancillary services extension, Predictive maintenance strategies for grid assets, Grid control optimisation and self-Healing. The other 5 services cover grid planning issues, such as Optimal reactive power compensation, Planned phase balancing, Nodal capacity allocation, Dispersed storage units location optimization and finally, Environmental and economic assessment based on LCA/LCC techniques.

All tools have been tested under real conditions, demonstrating their functionality and obtaining valuable lessons learnt for future improvements and exploitation.

As a result, cost reductions are expected for grid operators (CAPEX and OPEX), due to improved O&M (less interruptions and losses), Optimized Planning and Theft detection. Added value is obtained from flexibility services, taking into account challenges and opportunities from Distributed generation and Dispersed storage. In summary, proposed solutions are conceived to support the profound change which is under way, in order to reach a sustainable energy supply based on distributed and renewable sources.

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

During this project, the main focus of the activities was the development of the grid modelling tool and the platform architecture on the one hand, and 10 grid management tools on the other.

Privacy issues have been assessed, concluding that personal identifiers had to be encrypted and that such encryption could be done through tokenization to be able to analyse historical data. The grid model reference will be provided as relative Database setting one substation as a reference (0,0).

Regarding the grid modelling toolset, low, medium and high data availability scenarios were considered. Several modules are ready to be exploited at CIRCE’s service platform for DSOs. CERTH will exploit their modules (unbalanced load flow and state estimator) in future investigations on smart grids. Regarding the INTERPRETER platform, specific data spaces and adaptors have been developed to integrate multiple data sources and platforms from pilot sites and support data ingestion for software applications.

The 10 grid management tools have been developed and validated under real conditions, demonstrating their functionalities. The validation process provided valuable learnings for future improvements for exploitation and bringing the solutions to the market. Key results of the validation by tool have been (pilot in brackets):
6 of the tools, developed by CIRCE, R&D Nester and Turning Tables are expected to be exploited with their collaborating DSO’s in the near future. Other tools will be further developed and exploited in the scientific work of the developers.

Contact with stakeholders for exploitation was achieved by collaboration with other EU projects, workshops, participation in conferences and roundtables and strong presence in social media such as Twitter and especially LinkedIn. In addition, several partners, such as CERTH, RDN and CIRCE have a vast network of collaborating entities with many of them being also stakeholders.

Results were published in a total of 13 papers in scientific journals and conferences.

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)

INTERPRETER innovations are mainly related with the development of the 10 grid management tools and the grid modelling tool. With the grid modelling tool, major steps were done towards automated creation of grid models from DSO inventory data. The python-based unbalanced load-flow and state estimation module lead to a total of 4 publications. Key innovations of the grid management tools have been the following:

- NTL detection – hybrid approach combining ML with grid model analysis (1 publication).
- Ancillary Services for DSO – Simulation platform, combining power flows, DN forecasting, DSO services, DER modelling.
- DSO/TSO interaction – Novel TSO/DSO/AGG information exchange scheme (1 publication).
- PdM Tool – Multi-objective optimisation formulation using the traffic-light system to classify the proposed suggestive actions.
- GCOSH Tool – Use of graph theory instead of classical heuristics applied to grid reconfiguration, leading to lower computational times.
- ORPC and PPB Tool – Expert support system for detecting and solving voltage issues due to excessive reactive power consumption. Optimization algorithm for a set of mitigation strategies to avoid voltage violations.
- NCA Tool – System-wide nodal capacity allocation analysis applied to the distribution networks. Probabilistic risk assessment of new RES integration at nodal level, materialized into a safety metric indication for DSOs.
- DESplan Tool – Multi-temporal techno-economic analysis for the optimized location and sizing of new grid storage for deferral of grid reinforcement.
- ECT Tool – LCA and LCC based on input from grid models (data format from the Grid Modelling Tool, combined with publicly available databases for grid assets.

INTERPRETER made several contributions to the digitalization of Europe’s energy transition.
(1) the Grid Modelling Tool is a helpful step towards digitalization of distribution grids, which requires a massive effort from DSOs to convert grid inventory data (as available in GIS systems for example) into exploitable grid models. The algorithms developed within the project are important advancements towards the final aim of a largely automated creation of correct grid models.
(2) The INTERPRETER platform deals with the issue of unifying data formats, in order to facilitate new services based on a common energy data space. With clear applications at hand, data models have been analysed to provide a common ground. Apart of a common information model (CIM), specific adaptors have been developed for both, harmonizing the information available from data providers and offering required input data for each application (service provider).
(3) Policy recommendations have been formulated regarding 3 main issues found during the project:
- Storage needs a special treatment, as it is generator and consumer at the same time. Market separation of generation, transport, distribution and commercialization turns out to be a rock in the road for effective storage integration in the grid
- Local flexibility markets need to be developed. Interaction of aggregators, DSOs and TSOs is most beneficial but currently not sufficiently regulated. Data sharing policy is a major topic to be solved.
- LECs as asset owner have been identified as ideal format to integrate grid storage in most effective way, overcoming separation of distribution and commercialization.

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