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Development of methodologies and tools for new and evolving DSO roles for efficient DRES integration in distribution networks

Periodic Report Summary 2 - EVOLVDSO (Development of methodologies and tools for new and evolving DSO roles for efficient DRES integration in distribution networks)

Project Context and Objectives:
evolvDSO (“Development of methodologies and tools for new and evolving DSO roles for efficient DRES integration in distribution networks”) is a FP7 collaborative project funded by the European Commission. The project lasts 40 months (September 2013- December 2016) and is carried out by a Consortium of 16 partners coordinated by Enel Distribuzione.
With the growing relevance of distributed renewable energy sources (DRES) in the generation mix and the increasingly pro-active demand for electricity, power systems and their mode of operation need to evolve. evolvDSO will define future roles of distribution system operators (DSOs) and develop tools required for these new roles on the basis of scenarios which will be driven by different DRES penetration levels, various degrees of technological progress, and differing customer acceptance patterns.
evolvDSO aims to deliver the following main outcomes:
1. Future scenarios and new DSO roles;
2. Development of validated tools and methods;
These tools should address both current and possible future challenges of the distribution system;
3. Evaluation of tools performance. Methodologies to evaluate the performance of the developed tools and methods considering the requirements of the key stakeholders (aligned with the EEGI requirements);
4. Recommendations for the modification of the regulatory framework and market architectures (new roles, responsibilities and interactions in the system) that take into account current technical requirements;
5. Roadmap: A pragmatic roadmap for the deployment of the developed tools and methods;

Project Results:
In the second period, the project further investigated the evolving and future DSO roles (defined within the first period) with the aim to identify the main regulatory changes required for their adoption, the strategic implications for the interactions between different market stakeholders when adopted, third party assignation of evolvDSO roles and the evolution of these roles, taking into account current and expected trends.
Starting from the analysis of the System Use cases defined in WP2 and representing the most innovative functionalities covering different domains, DSOs belonging to the Consortium ranked the most innovative and relevant functionalities. Ten tools, covering four domains, composed the final list of tools.
Those tools need input data from real grids or other realistic data in order to be validated and tested. Furthermore, realistic data is important in order to develop tools closely related to the DSO business and to draw conclusions from the results of the tools and methods used within the project. Therefore a dataset for the tools as well as the format used for the data exchange were defined.
In the first period, EEGI KPIs were aligned with the system use cases developed. This alignment was the result of the preliminary analysis completed before the tools were defined, therefore they have been revised within the framework of WP5. Moreover, in order to accurately assess the quality and performance of the tools it was necessary to include more granular KPIs (namely “Operational KPIs”) as well as a preliminary analysis of the scalability and replicability potential.
All the tools envisaged in WP3 have been validated through simulations. The results have been structured in a way that the peculiarities of the countries involved are highlighted. The simulations allowed the assessment of the impact of the tools considering the set of high level EEGI KPIs, operational KPIs defined within the framework of WP5 and their impact taking into account the scenario conditions defined in WP1 and WP2.
In order to complement the validation tests performed in WP3, in September 2015 the real life demonstration and laboratory testing of a subset of tools started. DSO were inspired by the CEI 62559 Intelgrid when selecting the tools to be tested.
These tests will help the DSOs to operate the selected WP3 tools and assess their value and applicability within the real operational environment.
Guidelines for field and laboratory testing within the evolvDSO project have been delivered to make sure that most of the selected Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), measurements and metrics for the different tools will be addressed in the different trials and they will give quantitative and quantitative results, taking into account the different types of networks and processes ongoing in those networks. The proposed process to test the tools and methods within this project is based on the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119, which is an internationally agreed set of standards for software testing.

Potential Impact:
1. The project will ensure all the efforts for the exploitation of the intermediate results, in particular, a regular interaction with the main stakeholders according to the plan included in the revised vesion of D7.1.
2. In WP4, the Consortium will collect all the necessary data from the field tests (D4.3) to evaluate the impact of the tools on country-based (D5.2) and European scenarios (D5.3). These data will be used by WP5 and WP6 to deliver the official conclusions of the project. Attention will be given to the evaluation of the high level and operational KPIs defined in the second period. Recommendations on system changes and challenges for a full exploitation of the proposed tools will be provided in D6.1 on the basis of the results of simulations and tests. The recommendations will be country specific, addressing the particularities of each analysed country as defined in the scenarios developed in WP1 and the impact analysis performed in WP5.
3. A roadmap including a detailed country-specific list of short-term/longer term changes that will enable the electricity system of the future and that fulfills the needs of all new/existing market players will be provided (D6.2). This will help new market players to expand their business in those countries where some regulatory and market barriers still exist. An indication of latest time to implement the innovative DSO roles and services identified in the project, as well as regulatory and market structure changes proposed.
4. Enel will coordinate the Consortium in the delivery of the final report, which will gather and summarize all the main results of the project (in terms of recommendations, technical developments, future scenarios, high level assessment of costs/benefits). The report will represent a “user-friendly” brochure which helps the Consortium to maximize the impact of the last dissemination and exploitation activities.