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RELEVANT RELATED PROJECTS AND STUDIES

Relevant Related Projects

Current Projects

The FASTGRID project aims at modifying and significantly enhancing the technical and economical attractiveness of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) coated conductors (REBCO conductors) for their application in SuperConducting Fault Current Limiters (SCFCL). As an outcome of the project the necessary length of the conductors in these devices and therefore their cost will be decreased significantly.

The material development made in FASTGRID will lead to advanced superconducting tapes that will be the key for low cost HVDC SCFCL. Using these devices will help to remove one of the barriers of the meshed/multi-terminal HVDC grids called Supergrids, i.e. fault current management. These Supergrids are considered as the best solution today in economic, technic and security terms to enhance the necessary massive penetration of renewable energies from clean generation to reduce CO2 emission from clean generation. FASTGRID objective is to provide a cost-effective solution to build safe DC grids by limiting the fault currents thanks to the development of advanced REBCO tapes suitable for HVDC extreme operation (high electric field under limitation and higher homogeneity on long lengths). Cost-effective production lines will be developed for these advanced tapes.

 

www.fastgrid-h2020.eu

Massive InteGRATion of power Electronic devices
By 2020, several areas of the HVAC pan-European transmission system will be operated with extremely high penetrations of Power Electronics(PE)- interfaced generators, thus becoming the only generating units for some periods of the day or of the year – due to renewable (wind, solar) electricity. This will result in

  1. growing dynamic stability issues for the power system (possibly a new major barrier against future renewable penetration),
  2. the necessity to upgrade existing protection schemes and
  3. measures to mitigate the resulting degradation of power quality due to harmonics propagation.

European TSOs from Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and UK have joined to address such challenges with manufacturers (GE, Schneider Electric) and universities/research centres. They propose innovative solutions to progressively adjust the HVAC system operations.

Firstly, a replicable methodology is developed for appraising the distance of any EU 28 control zone to instability due to PE proliferation and for monitoring it in real time, along with a portfolio of incremental improvements of existing technologies (the tuning of controllers, a pilot test of wide-area control techniques and the upgrading of protection devices with impacts on the present grid codes). Next, innovative power system control laws are designed to cope with the lack of synchronous machines. Numerical simulations and laboratory tests deliver promising control solutions together with recommendations for new PE grid connection rules and the development of a novel protection technology and mitigation of the foreseen power quality disturbances. Technology and economic impacts of such innovations are quantified together with barriers to be overcome in order to recommend future deployment scenarios. Dissemination activities support the deployment schemes of the project outputs based on knowledge sharing among targeted stakeholders at EC level.

 

www.h2020-migrate.eu

Completed Projects

The Baltic InteGrid project will provide a professional network for expertise exchange and a state-of-the-art interdisciplinary research on the optimization potential of offshore wind energy in the Baltic Sea Region by applying the meshed grid approach.

Baltic InteGrid will connect relevant stakeholders (transmission system operators, offshore wind energy industry, policymakers, national authorities and academia) in debates and topical knowledge exchange with a view to optimize transnational coordination of offshore wind energy infrastructure. Additionally, the project’s innovative research efforts will equip stakeholders with state-of-the-art insights on the framework conditions for the development of a regional meshed grid.


www.baltic-integrid.eu

The ‘Best Paths’ Project aims to overcome the challenges of integrating renewable energies into Europe’s energy mix. It aims to develop novel network technologies to increase the pan-European transmission network capacity and electricity system flexibility. The project unites expert partners around five large-scale demonstrations to validate the technical feasibility, costs, impacts and benefits of the tested grid technologies. The focus of the demonstrations is to deliver solutions to allow for transition from High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) lines to HVDC grids, to upgrade and repower existing Alternating Current (AC) parts of the network, and to integrate superconducting high power DC links within AC meshed network.

 

www.bestpaths-project.eu

BEAGINS stands for Baseline Environmental Assessment for the Grid in the Irish and North Seas. The development of an offshore energy system in the North and Irish Seas represents a significant opportunity towards meeting the EU's energy, environmental, growth and employment objectives. The region has a vast renewable energy potential that could provide a significant share of Europe’s power supply by 2030. Furthermore, such a regional energy system could also contribute to the further integration of the electricity market in northwest Europe, which is an important step towards a single European electricity market and improved energy security within the European Union. The target countries for this study are Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

To ensure that environmental concerns and impacts are appropriately considered in the development of such an offshore energy system, the European Commission has ordered a Baseline Environmental Assessment study aiming to compile an Environmental Baseline of impacts including maps, constraints, risks, impacts, ways of mitigation and alternatives. This study may be used to inform any future development of renewable energy generation, energy storage, power cables and associated equipment in the North and Irish Seas. It will be available as a resource to inform developers about this infrastructure regarding environmental assessment (SEA, AA, EIA). This will allow for environmental considerations to be incorporated into plans and projects early in the policy, design or planning processes.

 

www.beagins.eu

Ecofys Environmental Baseline Study

Power system reliability management means to take decisions under increasing uncertainty (for instance, related to renewable generation). It aims at maintaining power system performance at a desired level, while minimising the socio-economic costs of keeping the power system at that performance level.

Seven TSOs (Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Iceland, Norway), together with twelve RTD performers and one innovation management expert work with the 4-year GARPUR research project in order to design, develop, assess and evaluate new system reliability criteria and management to be progressively implemented over the next decades at a pan-European level, while maximising social welfare.

 

www.garpur-project.eu

The MEDOW consortium is made up of eleven partners (five universities and six industrial organisations). Each institution in the consortium contributes various expertise on the manufacturing, design, operation, and control of multi-terminal DC grids.

A DC grid based on multi-terminal voltage-source converter is a newly emerging technology, which is particularly suitable for the connection of offshore wind farms.  Multi-terminal DC grids will be the key technology for the European offshore ‘supergrid’.

This project will recruit twelve early-stage researchers (ESRs) and five experienced researchers (ERs).  In addition to their individual scientific projects, all fellows will benefit from further interdisciplinary and intersectoral education, which includes internships and secondments, a variety of training modules as well as transferable skills courses and active participation in workshops and conferences.

MEDOW offers a development path to researchers across Europe in the area of DC grids, in addition to fostering greater ties between industry and academia in this key development area.

 

 sites.cardiff.ac.uk/medow

The iTesla project aims at improving network operations with a new security assessment tool able to cope with increasingly uncertain operating conditions and take advantage of the growing flexibility of the grid. The developed toolbox should support the decision making process for network operation from two-days ahead to real time, based on three main features:

  • provide a risk-based assessment taking into account the different sources of uncertainties (in particular intermittent power generation), the probabilities of contingencies and the possible failures of corrective actions;
  • perform accurate security assessment taking into account the dynamics of the system using time-domain simulations;
  • provide operators with relevant proposals of preventive and curative actions to keep the system in a secure state.

 

www.itesla-project.eu

The ‘e-Highway2050’ Project’s main objective was to develop a top-down planning methodology to provide a first version of a modular and robust expansion plan for the Pan-European Transmission Network from 2020 to 2050, in line with the pillars of European energy policy. The main findings of the project included:

  • New methodologies for the development of the European transmission grid have been developed, enabling to:
  • Address long term horizons,
  • Cover the whole Europe,
  • Cope with the European low carbon objectives, translated at national, and local levels, while building global grid architectures   
  • An invariant set of transmission requirements has been identified in consistency, and in continuity with the Ten-Year Network Development Plan conducted by ENTSO-E. Their benefits for the European system, resulting from the optimal use of energy sources, largely exceed their costs.
  • The proposed architectures integrate the present pan-European transmission grid, without needing a new separate ‘layer’ within this existing transmission network.


www.e-highway2050.eu/e-highway2050

The Irish-Scottish Links on Energy Study (ISLES) is a major initiative designed to enable the development of interconnected grid networks to enhance the integration of marine renewable energy between Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Each of the three partner administrations has significant potential for offshore wind, wave and tidal energy generation. However, planning and licensing, market and regulatory complexities between the three jurisdictions act as a potential challenge to joint development. ISLES is designed to smooth the pathway to future development of high-quality, efficient, renewable energy developments.

 

www.islesproject.eu

The NorthSeaGrid project, funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) program, was the follow-up project of OffshoreGrid. The major outputs and results of the project were:

  • A detailed cost inventory for each case study project, for different scenarios of each case study
  • A calculation of the benefits of the interconnection analysed in each case study and scenario
  • Different models for cost and benefit allocation to different countries and stakeholders, such as project developer, TSO, etc.
  • Identification of risk and the financial effects of this risk, for each stakeholder
  • Evaluation of the compatibility of support schemes and regulatory frameworks in the different countries, with the proposed interconnection design
  • Discussion surrounding the political barriers present and how to overcome them
  • Specific recommendations for European and regional policy

 

northseagrid.info

Within the frame of the ‘Twenties’ Project a group of transmission system operator from various European countries linked with generator companies, power technology manufactures and research & development found out that:

  • Europe’s energy structure can be used a lot more efficiently than it currently is. The most important findings include:
  • Wind  farms  can  provide  wide  area  voltage  control, and  secondary  frequency  control  services  to  the system
  • Virtual power plants enables reliable delivery of an-cillary services, like voltage control and reserves, by intelligent control of distributed generation including wind farms and industrial consumption
  • A DC circuit breaker prototype was tested successfully
  • By applying ‘high wind ride through control’, reserve requirements are cut in half
  • By using Real Time Thermal Rating (RTTR) or Dynamic Line Rating (DLR) for measuring and forecasting overhead  line  capacity,  10%  more  flow  in  average can go through equipped overhead lines;
  • By using the combined effect of DLR and power flow controlling  devices  to  control  the  flows  in  the  European grid, more wind in-feed can be integrated in the existing grid without jeopardizing the system security;
  • By controlling flows by means of PSTs, HVDCs and FACTS, local congestions can be alleviated in a flexible manner. A smart control of a set of such devices enable getting even more out of the existing grids


www.twenties-project.eu (offline)

THINK was an FP7-financed project that advised the European Commission (DG Energy) on a diverse set of energy policy topics. In total, 12 reports were produced over this period.


www.eui.eu/Projects/THINK/Home.aspx

The PEGASE project has produced new tools to enhance the cooperation among transmission system operators for the real time control and operational planning of the Pan-European transmission network. New powerful algorithms and full-scale prototypes have been developed that run the whole European Transmission Network model for state estimation, dynamic security analysis, steady state optimization and dispatcher
training simulator.

 

www.fp7-pegase.com

SEANERGY 2020 was an EU funded project – Intelligent Energy Europe programme . It was coordinated by the European Wind Energy Association. The project provided an in-depth analysis of the national and international Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) practices, policy recommendations for developing existing and potentially new MSP for the development of offshore renewable power generation, and promoted acceptance of the results.

 

www.seanergy2020.eu

OffshoreGrid was a techno-economic study within the Intelligent Energy Europe programme. It has developed a scientific view on an offshore grid in northern Europe along with a suitable regulatory framework that takes technical, economic, policy and regulatory aspects into account. The following aspects were among the key findings:

  • Detailed offshore wind power scenarios with generation time series for Northern Europe and high-level renewable energy and grid scenarios for the Mediterranean region.
  • Interaction of different design drivers for an offshore grid and the associated costs and interaction of power prices, market design and energy economic parameters in a market comprising the regions around the Baltic and North Sea.
  • The interim report discusses the clustering of wind farms at hubs versus radial connections to the shore, the possibility of teeing in offshore wind farms to planned interconnectors, and the integration of wind farm hubs with interconnectors in meshed grids;

 

www.offshoregrid.eu

Offshore wind energy deployment can significantly contribute to increasing the share of renewable energy in Europe's energy mix. However, competing uses of the sea, costs, grid integration and other barriers are important challenges to the development of offshore wind. (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK). The  WINDSPEED  project  has  carried  out  an assessment  of  (ambitious  but  realistic)  deployment  potentials  under  different  scenarios  to  gain  better insight  into  how  key  uncertainties  can  impact  on  OWE  developments. The WINDSPEED project concludes that a capacity of 135 GW of OWE in the Central and Southern North Sea  is  feasible  by 2030. To  achieve  135 GW  OWE  in  the  Central  and  Southern  North  Sea  by  2030,  countries  must  be  willing  to both increase spatial prioritisation to OWE (closer to shore) and establish an offshore grid. In order to do so, greater coordination between countries is necessary.

 

www.windspeed.eu

Relevant Related Standardization Bodies

The key objective of the project is to prepare the necessary standards framework and coordinate the development, in cooperation with other TC/SCs, of CENELEC standards needed to facilitate the functioning of electricity supply systems in open markets.

 

www.cenelec.eu/dyn/www/f?p=104:7:34249111905401::::FSP_ORG_ID,FSP_LANG_ID:1258595,25


The mission of Study Committee A3 is to facilitate and promote the progress of engineering and the international exchange of information and knowledge in the field of high voltage equipment, and to add value to this information and knowledge by means of synthesizing state-of-the-art practices and developing recommendations.

 

a3.cigre.org


The work of the Study Committee addresses all the relevant Target Groups in Power Industry interested in Power Electronics. In addition to technical aspects also economical and environmental subjects of this technology and asset management are covered.
The Study Committee activities include the following subjects:

  • HVDC
  • Power Electronic for AC systems and Power Quality Improvement
  • Advanced Power Electronics

 

b4.cigre.org


Standardization in the field of HVDC Transmission technology above 100kV. The task includes HVDC system oriented standards as design aspects, technical requirements, construction and commissioning, reliability and availability, and operation and maintenance. Standards of HVDC equipment so far related to the system aspects will be prepared in close collaboration with the relevant Technical Committees and Subcommittees.

 

www.iec.ch/tc115


The scope of the project includes the treatment of all matters related to the design, theoretical and experimental performance, installation, and service operation of parts of electric power systems which serve to transmit electric energy between the generating sources and substations or customer points of common coupling through AC or DC lines.

 

www.ieee.org

The IET is a network community for all those with an active interest in power systems and equipment. It will be relevant to those involved with the design and operation of generation, transmission and distribution systems including the associated protection and control equipment.

 

communities.theiet.org/communities/home/62

Relevant Political Initiatives and Trade Associations

The Agency's overall mission, as stated in its founding regulation, is to complement and coordinate the work of national energy regulators at EU level, and to work towards the completion of the single EU energy market for electricity and natural gas.

ACER plays a central role in the development of EU-wide network and market rules with a view to enhancing competition. The Agency coordinates regional and cross-regional initiatives, which favour market integration. It monitors the work of European networks of transmission system operators (ENTSOs), and notably, their EU-wide network development plans. Finally, ACER monitors the functioning of gas and electricity markets in general, and of wholesale energy trading in particular.


www.acer.europa.eu


ENTSO-E, the European Network of Transmission System Operators, represents 42 electricity transmission system operators (TSOs) from 35 countries across Europe. ENTSO-E was established and given legal mandates by the EU’s Third Legislative Package for the Internal Energy Market in 2009, which aims at further liberalising the gas and electricity markets in the EU.

The role of Transmission System Operators has considerably evolved with the Third Energy Package. Due to unbundling and the liberalisation of the energy market TSOs have become the meeting place for the various players to interact on the market place.

ENTSO-E objectives

ENTSO-E members share the objective of setting up the internal energy market and ensuring its optimal functioning, and of supporting the ambitious European energy and climate agenda. One of the important issues on today’s agenda is the integration of a high degree of Renewables in Europe’s energy system, the development of consecutive flexibility, and a much more customer centric approach than in the past.

ENTSO-E is committed to develop the most suitable responses to the challenge of a changing power system while maintaining security of supply. Innovation, a market based approach, customer focus, stakeholder focus, security of supply, flexibility, and regional cooperation are key to ENTSO-E’s agenda.

 

 

www.entsoe.eu

Friends of the Supergrid advocates for an efficient, interconnected and resilient electricity grid to complement existing national transmission infrastructure. The Supergrid will secure the supply of a sustainable energy mix for Europe. This grid will foster economic welfare for the European citizens and create highly qualified jobs.

Therefore, Friends of the Supergrid fully endorses the creation of a truly harmonized and collaborative regulatory environment that will enable effective European energy system planning, attract investments and facilitate an equitable fast-track permitting process.

 

www.friendsofthesupergrid.eu

The North Seas Energy Forum brings together representatives of the public, private and non-governmental sectors in the Northern Seas region to discuss challenges and opportunities and the role of stakeholders in realising the region's full energy potential. The forum is orgnised by the European Commission within the North Seas Energy Cooperation.

 

ec.europa.eu/energy/en/events/north-seas-energy-forum

The North Seas Countries’ Offshore Grid Initiative is a regional cooperation of 10 countries to facilitate the coordinated development of a possible offshore   electricity grid in the greater North Sea area. It seeks to maximize the efficient and economic use of the renewable energy resources as well as infrastructure investments.

This cooperation, formalized by a Memorandum of Understanding in 2010, following a Political Declaration in 2009, is supported by the energy ministries, the regulators and transmission system operators of the 10 participating countries, and the European Commission.


www.benelux.int/nl/kernthemas/energie/nscogi-2012-report

The Renewables Grid Initiative is a unique collaboration of NGOs and TSOs from across Europe. They promote transparent, environmentally sensitive grid development to enable the further steady growth of renewable energy and the energy transition.

RGI members originate from a variety of European countries, consisting of TSOs from Belgium (Elia), France (RTE), Germany (50Hertz and TenneT), Italy (Terna), the Netherlands (TenneT), Spain (Red Eléctrica de España), Switzerland (Swissgrid) and Norway (Statnett); and NGOs such as WWF International, BirdLife Europe, Fundación Renovables, Germanwatch, Legambiente, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe and Natuur&Milieu. RGI was launched in July 2009.

 

renewables-grid.eu

WindEurope is the voice of the wind industry, actively promoting wind power in Europe and worldwide. It has over 500 members, active in over 50 countries, including wind turbine manufacturers with a leading share of the world wind power market, plus component suppliers, research institutes, national wind and renewables associations, developers, contractors, electricity providers, finance and insurance companies, and consultants.

WindEurope coordinates international policy, communications, research and analysis and provides various services to support members’ requirements and needs to help their development, offering the best networking and learning opportunities in the sector.

Among others, WindEurope is organising internal working groups, as well as offshore wind.

 

windeurope.org