Virtual power plants and flexibility markets orchestrate the shift to grid-aware production, demand and storage management
The number of industrial, commercial and residential flexible energy assets addressing generation, storage and demand is growing – supporting an increasing penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources in modern energy grids. At the same time, there is an increasing demand for electricity from the growing electrification of many sectors. Improved utilisation of these flexible energy assets will enable distribution system operators (DSOs) to better balance the grid’s fluctuating supply and demand on a local level. The EU-funded FEVER project developed solutions that were successfully validated in real settings. Along the way, FEVER teamed up with the H2020 projects edgeFLEX and Platone to form FlexCommunity. This platform facilitates networking, collaboration, awareness raising, standardisation and policy advocacy and now boasts more than 250 members from academia, research institutions and industry. It will ensure sustainability beyond the lifespan of the founding projects.
Active grid management using deep learning to leverage flexibility
FEVER’s solutions address three main areas: advanced grid monitoring and automated control, flexibility aggregation and management, and flexibility market mechanisms. According to project coordinator Isidoros Kokos of Intracom Telecom: “FEVER’s DSO toolbox uses deep learning and multivariate statistics models to analyse the current and future status of the distribution grid. Forecasting of issues such as congestion or voltage violations enables proactive management for more efficient, reliable and resilient operation.” Mitigation plans devised by the DSO toolbox leverage flexible energy assets – particularly for congestion management – as alternatives to traditional interventions such as cutting power to assets or dispatching expensive generation resources. Additional services include voltage regulation through reactive power control to improve power quality and grid reconfiguration enabling more resilient operation.
Aggregation and trading of flexible energy assets
“FEVER also delivered a flexibility management system and flexibility trading platform for the aggregation of flexible energy assets and their automated trading,” adds Kokos. FEVER’s advanced energy management systems monitor and control assets including industrial loads, distributed energy resource assets within a microgrid, stationary batteries, and bidirectional charging stations in real time. Market mechanisms support and incentivise flexibility services. The day-ahead services use auction-based day-ahead local flexibility markets. The intra-day mechanism executes trades via partial bid matching while the real-time market mechanism dispatches flexible resources as needed in real time. Finally, “a peer-to-peer (P2P) flexibility trading toolbox using distributed-ledger technology and the pseudo-currency FlexCoin was implemented. It enables energy communities to operate a local flexibility market without a trusted intermediary,” Kokos explains.
Solutions will continue to ‘flex’ their muscles beyond project end
FEVER’s solutions were demonstrated in three pilots in Germany, Spain and Cyprus. Among the highlights, the Spanish DSO Anel activated about 3.2 MWh of flexibility from industrial consumers through automated trading over a period of 3 ½ months. The German pilot realised virtual automated trades in a P2P flexibility trading scheme and implemented a regional flexibility trading scheme among energy communities in different regions. Check out the interactive flex animation to see the positive effects of energy system digitalisation and flexibility in action. Several project technology providers have made agreements with the pilots’ end-users to continue supporting the solutions’ use. In addition, EWII, a large Danish utility, acquired 50 % of FlexShape, a startup created by researchers at Aalborg University – one of FEVER’s key flexibility technology providers. Finally, keep an eye on FlexCommunity which is determined to “tackle all obstacles preventing a comprehensive roll-out of flexibility applications.”
Keywords
FEVER, flexibility, energy, flexible energy assets, DSO, flexibility trading, flexibility market, distribution system operator, P2P flexibility trading, distributed-ledger technology, flexibility management
