Grid Requirement tackled
Challenges: Customer connections, Grid Planning and Grid Operations.
Investments:
- Curtailment/Reinforcement reverse power flow to allow: Renewables integration, Overload prevention and Congestion alleviation.
- Growth & grid reinforcement to accommodate: Increase in distributed generation and Electrification of heat and transport.
- System digitalisation & substation automation to power: Operational and flexibility systems and Data management/Analytics.
Approach & solution
- Approach: The holistic coordination of distributed energy resources from the secondary transformer substation is the best way to tackle expanded grid requirements.
- Solutions: The operation of smart distribution transformers with OLTC is coordinated with existing distributed generation, batteries and EVs.
- Implementation: This holistic approach has been experimentally assessed in two leading European Smart Grid Laboratories: Test Centre for Smart Grids and Electromobility (SysTec) of the Fraunhofer IEE, and the Energy System Integration Lab (SYSLAB) of the Denmark Technical University (DTU). Nowadays, we are waiting for regulatory sandbox approval (along 2024) to test the proposed use case in a small Spanish DSO: CMH (Puerto Lapice).
Benefits
- Benefits for the end customer: Improved quality of energy supply, avoided or limited need for curtailment.
- Benefits for the DSO: Increased Hosting Capacity, thereby delaying or limiting expensive and long-term grid reinforcement.
- Benefits for the energy system: This holistic approach, based on DER operation and coordination from the secondary transformer substation, complements local flexibility markets, which alleviate congestion in a market-based manner.