Development of Smart Grid Standards in View of Energy System Functionalities

A range of technologies must be developed and deployed for achieving a decarbonised energy system. A smart grid aims to integrate these different technologies into a single, over-arching system that is at the same time both complex and interoperable, which cannot be achieved without standardisation. Moreover, standardisation is a method of transferring research into successful processes and products. Without this, existing conventional energy systems will not change much longer, as it is more difficult to achieve significant market penetration of new technologies and deployment of new functions and applications. It seems that standardisation issues are not sufficiently addressed in scientific publications and are treated as a very specific topic by community of researchers despite the fact that standards may serve as a knowledge base for further research and improvement of emerging technologies and approaches. This paper presents a bird's-eye smart grid standardisation review based on a unique functionality - technology approach developed within Horizon 2020 project PANTERA.acceptedVersio

Smart Grid Standardisation: Contributions and Opportunities of EU Horizon 2020 Projects

Standards are critically important for smartening the grid because they affect the interoper-ability, compatibility, efficiency, and realisation of new technologies and services. In this paper we assess the contribution of EU funded Horizon 2020 projects to adapting or initiating new Smart Grid standards. We provide a comprehensive overview of the Smart Grid standardisation ecosystem and identify opportunities for researchers and innovators to participate in stan-dardisation activities. We identify 225 Horizon 2020 Smart Grid projects and explore which have contributed to the creation or revision of Smart Grid standards. We identify the type of standardisation activities undertaken and explore the factors that influence engagement. We have found that 21 % of EU Horizon 2020 Smart Grid projects engage in some level of standardisation activities. Of these projects the majority (60 %) are involved in understanding standards, 31 % actively engage in influencing standards, while 8 % successfully participate in elaborating new standards. Our study demonstrates that despite the complexity of the Smart Grid Standardisation ecosystem, EU funded researchers and innovators play an important role in the standardisation process.Smart Grid Standardisation: Contributions and Opportunities of EU Horizon 2020 ProjectspublishedVersio

Analysis of barriers and key enablers toward citizen ESS successful integration

Enabling energy storage systems (ESS) is a potential aspect of the energy transition toward decarbonising the energy sector. Despite the ongoing effort to analyse distributed energy resources enablers and key barriers, several gaps need to be addressed in the literature on accelerating the implementation of ESS at the citizen level. As citizens are now at the heart of the energy transition, analysing and meeting their needs and securing potential engagement in the energy transition is of utmost importance. However, this presents many challenges as it is more complicated to model and assess rather than institutions, organisations, and companies. This paper analyses the key barriers and enablers of ESS for citizen empowerment through the ownership and operational aspects of ESS. It evaluates various types of ESS at the citizen level, exploring their suitability and distinct characteristics in this specific context and thoroughly examines the key challenges, bottlenecks, and essential facilitators required for ESS citizen empowerment. It adopts a qualitative, bottom-up analysis of barriers and bottlenecks, providing a holistic view of the ecosystem. This comprehensive methodology ensures readers gain a complete perspective on the challenges present throughout the entire ecosystem. Also, it reviews good practices, examines key enablers, and suggests actions and tailored recommendations for diverse stakeholders, facilitating the comprehensive deployment of ESS as an integrated entity to empower energy citizens toward achieving an efficient and smooth energy transition.</p

Photovoltaic grid-forming control strategy investigation using hardware-in-the-loop experiments

The frequency stability of a power system is of paramount importance, as a fast frequency swings in the system can lead to oscillatory instability, and thereby blackouts. A grid-connected microgrid, that can operate in the islanded mode can also possess such deteriorating effect due to the higher share of converter-based sources. In this paper, a coordinated frequency control within a distribution network is discussed, with a higher share of Photovoltaics (PV). The main objective of this paper is to test the grid-forming capabilities of PVs, without the requirement of an energy storage in the network. The tests were carried out with the help of the Typhoon Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) platform using a real Cypriot network feeder. The real-time results confirm the efficacy of the PV as a grid-forming inverter, provided it has sufficient input (irradiance) to provide for the loads within the system of interest. The grid-forming PV also possesses the capability of reconnection with the utility grid through a synchronizer switch that requires minimal communication, makes the overall control independent of any other power source, subject to certain irradiance and loading conditions.Comment: 13th Mediterranean Conference on Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Energy Conversion (MEDPOWER 2022

Stability Studies for Photovoltaic Integration using Power Hardware-in-the-Loop Experiments

The electrical power network is gradually migrating from a centralized generation approach to a decentralized generation with high shares of renewable energy sources (RES). However, power systems with low shares of synchronous generation and consequently low total system inertia, are vulnerable to power imbalances. Such systems can experience frequency stability problems, such as high frequency excursions and higher rates of change of frequency even under small disturbances. This phenomenon is intensified when the grid under investigation has low or no interconnections (islanded) and thus the challenge for stable operation becomes more significant for the operators. This work focuses on how the frequency stability is affected when a photovoltaic (PV) inverter is integrated into a real non-interconnected distribution grid in Cyprus. In order to capture the realistic interactions of this integration, stability experiments in a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) environment are performed with the aim to provide insightful results for the grid operator.Comment: The 12th Mediterranean Conference on Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Energy Conversion (MEDPOWER 2020

Smart Photovoltaic Energy Systems for a Sustainable Future

This book is the result of a concerted effort to shed scientific light on the timely theme of “Smart Photovoltaic Energy Systems for a Sustainable Future” [...

Design of a Smart Nanogrid for Increasing Energy Efficiency of Buildings

Distributed generation (DG) systems are growing in number, diversifying in driving technologies and providing substantial energy quantities in covering the energy needs of the interconnected system in an optimal way. This evolution of technologies is a response to the needs of the energy transition to a low carbon economy. A nanogrid is dependent on local resources through appropriate DG, confined within the boundaries of an energy domain not exceeding 100 kW of power. It can be a single building that is equipped with a local electricity generation to fulfil the building’s load consumption requirements, it is electrically interconnected with the external power system and it can optionally be equipped with a storage system. It is, however, mandatory that a nanogrid is equipped with a controller for optimisation of the production/consumption curves. This study presents design consideretions for nanogrids and the design of a nanogrid system consisting of a 40 kWp photovoltaic (PV) system and a 50 kWh battery energy storage system (BESS) managed via a central converter able to perform demand-side management (DSM). The implementation of the nanogrid aims at reducing the CO2 footprint of the confined domain and increase its self-sufficiency