CORDIS

Our energy systems are increasingly based on Renewable Energy Source (RES) based power generation. They are in the process of implementing digitalisation and they face increasing levels of storm damage due to climate change, creating an increasing need for grid monitoring and stabilisation by power Distribution System Operators (DSO's). DSOs require improved insight into the performance of their networks and the ability to remotely optimise its performance through increased automation. SOGNO addresses these growing needs by offering near real-time insight into the operation of their grids combining hardware and software solutions with the results of research and innovation activities on a range of topics including advanced deep learning techniques, 5G wireless communications and cloud-based virtualisation of distribution network automation functionality.

The SOGNO Vision is to develop a new philosophy of electrical grid management, unlocking a new service-oriented market making Europe’s energy sector the most advanced and open in the world. SOGNO is creating turnkey cloud services implementing next generation data-driven monitoring and control systems (see Figure 1). It will simplify the life of the DSO, enabling them to optimise their operations so they can provide a cost-effective and seamless, secure power supply for their customers increasing their ability to integrate generation based on renewable energy sources into their energy mix.

"As a starting point for the work of the SOGNO project, two scenarios were defined by the project partners to describe a typical, current low-RES integration scenario and a high-RES scenario reflecting the ambitions of DSOs to greatly increase their use of renewable energy sources in coming years.

A key feature of the SOGNO services is that they will be offered to DSO's based on a service oriented business model, for which an initial description has been developed in the first reporting period.

Penalties for lost minutes of customer services have recently been implemented as regulatory changes in countries such as Ireland, Italy and Romania. Reduced penalty payments provide the basis for the business case for implementing SOGNO services in DSOs in such regulatory regimes. SOGNO partners in the project are optimistic that the results of the project field trials will offer the basis for positive business cases for the large scale use of the project results.

At present, national regulations encourage DSO's to purchase assets rather than services. SOGNO has been actively lobbying for change in the regulatory environment during 2018 and can report that in the recently published ""Winter Package"" of the European Commission, the Commission proposes that the DSO's should be empowered to offset the total cost of providing power against the price they charge customers, ending the situation which incentivises them to purchase assets rather than services.

SOGNO is implementing 5 power services, enhancing their operation, where relevant, through the use of artificial intelligence techniques. Initial versions of all five power services had been implemented by the project before the end of the first reporting period: State Estimation, Power control, Fault Location Isolation and Service Restoration, Load and Generation Forecasting and Power quality evaluation.

SOGNO services are being implemented on 5 software platforms demonstrating that they can be deployed and integrated with the wide range of platforms in use by DSO's today. The 5 SOGNO trial locations will demonstrate results in DSO Networks (see Figure 2). During the first reporting period, the integration of three of the power services with three of the platforms has been completed and this functionality was demonstrated with live links to power network sensors in Ireland and Germany in February 2019. Field and laboratory trials of the SOGNO Cloud based automation services are planned to take place in 2019 and 2020 in Estonia, Ireland, Germany and Romania. DSO partners in the SOGNO project are installing advanced sensors in their networks in order to validate and evaluate the services in field trials. At the end of the first reporting period, the planning of the field trials in all locations was at an advanced stage with trials expected to be live in all locations in the first half of 2019. Laboratory trials of 5G based communications are taking place by integrating live over the air 5G infrastructure into advanced power network simulations as hardware in the loop and also by streaming the messages generated at trial sites from the live services over the 5G wireless communication infrastructure using remote communications links to the trial sites. A first set of tests was conducted with 5G infrastructure as hardware in the loop.

SOGNO organised a range of stakeholder engagement and communication activities in the first reporting period, contributing to the adoption of a changed approach to regulation in the 2018 Winter Package and increasing the awareness of the opportunities offered by 5G and cloud enabled power grid monitoring and stabilisation services in the energy sector."

SOGNO will investigate how its advanced algorithms can support an observation driven grid management approach based on implementing an evolved data processing architecture, enabling reuse and costs sharing between sector actors and enabling shared services centres using cloud data analytics architectures providing turn-key cross-network management services.

SOGNO goes beyond the state of the art through its comprehensive approach to distribution grid automation services including studies of appropriate research concepts, implementation concepts, business models and regulatory change and its validation of its results in laboratory and field trials. SOGNO proposes a complete virtualisation of the Substation Automation Unit (SAU) leading to a new concept of automation and a new generation of SAU's called ViSA (Virtualised Substation Automation), implements a data-driven intelligence approach using deep learning architectures for load forecasting and fault detection procedures rather than the currently used model-based approach, investigates Corporate Social Responsibility compliant business models in order that our business models will reflect the responsibility enterprises bear for their impact on society and we define what needs to be done to meet these responsibilities and brings together leading ICT and energy sector organisations to provide optimal support for cloud based power grid monitoring and stabilisation services using 5G features.

At the end of the SOGNO project, we will have researched and implemented new techniques and implemented 5 services for use in field and laboratory trials in Estonia, Ireland, Germany and Romania. Their results will have been evaluated. Proposals for needed regulatory change will have been defined and promoted. A wide range of stakeholder interaction events and activities will have created widespread visibility of the opportunities offered by 5G based cloud based grid automation services. Our scalability studies will promote their large scale adoption assisting the transition to high-RES scenarios in the power sector and enabling power providers to maintain current levels of power network stability in the face of the likely increasing impact of climate change.