InterFlex – Increasing of renewables hosting capacity in Czech Republic
Six demonstration projects are conducted in five EU Member States (CZ, FR, DE, NL, SE) in order to provide deep insights into the market and development potential of the orientations, i.e., demand-response, smart grid, storage, e-mobility and energy system integration...
InterFlex is a response to the Horizon 2020 Call for proposals LCE-02-2016 of the European Commission. Six demonstration projects are conducted in five EU Member States (CZ, FR, DE, NL, SE) in order to provide deep insights into the market and development potential of the orientations, i.e., demand-response, smart grid, storage, e-mobility and energy system integration. Its motto is “Interactions between automated energy systems and flexibilities brought by energy market players”.
CEZ Distribuce as a European Distribution System Operator (DSO) with more than 3.5 million customers has to be prepared for future expected development of renewables in the Czech Republic. The official government document called Czech National Action Plan for Smart Grids by Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade presents a scenario of future expected development of renewables where PV installations have a major share. In order to find a cost effective solution for renewables integration, reliability of power supply and power quality for customers, CEZ Distribuce focuses on testing of innovative smart solutions which have a strong potential for wide scale development. The 3-year 22.8 M€ project includes 20 partners who are exploring new ways to use various forms of flexibilities with the aim to optimize the electric power system on a local scale.
The Czech Work Package 6 is located in several areas in the Czech Republic and is not focused only on one area in order to prove replicability and interoperability of designed solutions. WP6 is divided into 4 use cases:
- Increase hosting capacity for renewables in LV distribution grids by smart PV inverters equipped with autonomous Q (V) and P (V) function
- Increase hosting capacity for renewables in MV grids by volt-var control (control of reactive power based on voltage set points)
- Smart EV charging (autonomous charging power curtailment in case of under voltage or under frequency)
- Smart energy storage (autonomous discharging of batteries in case of under voltage or under frequency)
Czech Demo is focused on the implementation of solutions which are not so far usual in distribution grids but which have a strong potential for future roll out. Tested solutions cover the most urgent challenges of DSOs - increasing renewables hosting capacity, EV charging stations implementation and energy storage. Beyond the technical developments, it also aims to propose grid codes and standards updates in order to secure future smoother integration of selected smart grid solutions. Within WP6, CEZ Distribuce co-operates with other InterFlex partners – Austrian Institute of Technology, CEZ Solarni, Fronius, Schneider Electric and Siemens. Final results of field demonstrations are expected in 2019. After evaluation, CEZ Distribuce is going to propose grid code update (calculation of hosting capacity for renewables in distribution grids) in order to allow more connections of renewables equipped with Q (V) and P (V) functions on LV level and renewables equipped with volt-var control system on MV level. This approach based on InterFlex results is going to contribute to significant cost reduction of future renewables integration and could be scaled and replicated worldwide.
