Open space PV parks generate green electricity from decentralized installations. Such PV parks can be part of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) which create increased income by efficiently synchronizing and marketing the power generated from numerous decentralized installations. VPPs can also be effectively used to provide flexibility to the electricity grid, further optimizing the integration of renewable energy sources - and even generate additional revenue.
The brewery acts as a large flexible consumer, adjusting its cooling processes based on electricity production and demand. When there is excess renewable electricity generation the brewery increases its cooling operations, producing ice in the ice storage for later use. Conversely, during periods of higher electricity demand, the brewery reduces its electricity demand for cooling by melting the ice in the ice storage.
Electric vehicles contribute to sector coupling by integrating the transportation and energy sectors, facilitating the efficient use of renewable energy. They can behave grid-friendly through intelligently scheduled charging processes. They can be charged during periods of surplus electricity and-in future-discharged back into the grid during periods of peak demand, helping to reduce grid stress.
This substation adjusts the voltage level for the distribution to end-users and serves as a link between the local and upstream voltage levels of the electricity grid. While large power plants are traditionally connected to the transmission grid, renewable energy sources often are connected to the distribution grid together with a high number of loads and storage units. This shared responsibility requires a close collaboration between the transmission and distribution system operators to ensure system security.
The Distribution System Operator (DSO) - often being a part of the local utility - operates a control center to ensure a reliable power supply by monitoring, managing, and controlling the electricity distribution network it is responsible for. Using advanced technologies and real-time data, the control center can optimize energy flow, detect and resolve grid problems such as congestion, and maintain a balance between supply and demand for efficient, stable, and reliable electricity distribution. With the increasing integration of renewable energy, efficient grid control by the DSO is becoming more and more important.
Once the trading option is activated, producers, prosumers, and consumers can engage in buying and selling electricity in the virtual local marketplace. Local electricity markets focus on trading within a specific geographical region, fostering community empowerment and promoting the utilization of renewable energy sources at a local level.
A standard consumer house refers to a still typical residential property that consumes electricity from the distribution network. Their energy consumption patterns affect the overall demand on the distribution grid. By adapting their demand of electricity, they can offer flexibility to the grid.
A local power transformer is an essential component of the electricity distribution network that adjusts the voltage level for the local grid in order to ensure proper distribution to nearby consumers. By integrating a Phasor Measurement Unit (PMU), the transformer can be digitally monitored, enabling early detection and resolution of network problems such as congestion.
In order to avoid grid congestion, wind turbines need to be curtailed during periods of high wind. In such congestion situations, the electricity generated exceeds the capacity of the grid lines connecting it to the demand sites. Through intelligent control and increased flexibility, wind turbines can be used more efficiently and integrated seamlessly into the grid, minimizing the need for curtailment.
PV installations on houses with batteries enable homeowners to generate solar energy and store excess energy for later use. This setup not only allows households to consume clean and self- generated electricity. It also benefits the electricity distribution network by reducing the strain on the grid during peak generation periods by charging the battery instead of feeding into the grid and peak demand periods by using electricity from the battery in these times.
PV installations on houses combined with a heat pump can use solar energy to provide heating or cooling to the house. Together with a hot water tank, it can support the electricity distribution grid management by shifting heat production to periods of surplus renewable electricity and storing the heat in the hot water tank.
FEVER's FEMS, together with the microgrid operation scheduler, comprise the MgEMS. This MgEMS is a software tool provided “as-a-service”, that enables the planning and scheduling of microgrid assets. The focus of this tool is the coordination of controllable assets of a microgrid to reach an objective function which describes the desired internal operation when in island mode, as well as another to describe the interaction with the main grid when interconnected.
The DSO Toolbox is an IT solution that empowers DSOs with advanced grid management and observability. It offers a range of tools to monitor, analyze and proactively manage their grid, including load forecasting, voltage control, fault detection and outage management. By leveraging flexibility of various assets, it mitigates grid problems and avoids costly grid expansion. An integration platform facilitates seamless data flow between the DSO Toolbox components and the DSO's legacy applications.
FEMS is a monitoring and control tool intended for larger industrial customers or commercial buildings to collect and monitor the energy consumption data and control the appliances. With state-of-the-art algorithms, FEMS enables factories, such as a foundry, the brewery here shown, or other commercial and industrial buildings, to achieve automatic demand response control, optimal consumption, peak levelling and other energy or cost saving goals.
The V2G Charger, a compact and portable bi-directional charger no larger than a shoebox, is designed to allow the EV's storage capacity to be used both to provide services to the grid and to increase a household's self-consumption. The single-phase charger, with its integrated 3.6 kVA power electronic converter, is ready to be plugged into the wall of any home through a standard Schuko inlet. It is capable of managing active and reactive power while using new, high-performance semiconductor materials.
The GEMS is a cloud-based solution that extracts energy flexibility, in terms of active and reactive power, from three different Energy Storage Systems (ESS), by controlling three power converters. These ESS include two stationary battery EMSs and an aggregated fleet of electric vehicle batteries connected to bidirectional chargers. The GEMS algorithms offer flexibility to the market through an FSPA, thus providing DSO services such as loss reduction, congestion management or voltage compensation.
The DAMM consists of a central DAM that is run on a transmission network level and auction-based DA LFMs on the distribution (DN) level. The LFMs are triggered to alleviate DN issues. These enable the trade of active power flexibility, traded amongst Market Participants (MPs), and reactive power flexibility, which is offered by the MPs to the DSO. After the LFMs run and feasibility on all DNs is restored, the central DAM is re-run to adjust for imbalances caused by the LFM-generated updates.
The RTMM enables participants with DSO network-connected assets to bid their flexibility in the transmission level (TL) market, while safeguarding system security through the avoidance of DSO network violations. Through a so-called Residual Supply Function (RSF), the DSO submits aggregated bids to the TL market. The RTMM enables trading of location-specific real and reactive power, producing the corresponding locational marginal prices, and does so maintaining decentralized network operations.
The FSPA is used for interfacing with different prosumer energy management systems (EMS) and transforming their energy adaptation capacity into a FlexOffer, an information object which enables the flexibility management of various types of DERs. Accessible on local hardware or on the cloud, the FSPA is suitable for flexibility trading on FEVER's FTP. The target group are owners of controllable EMSs who want to play an active role in the smart grid system.
The FMS aggregates and controls a large pool of prosumers with different assets and their flexibilities using FlexOffers. It organizes prosumer assets into portfolios and trades them on different markets, while considering their location in the grid. After trading, it assigns asset operation schedules accordingly. Equipped with different end-user APPs (e. g. for aggregators and prosumers), it uses the concept of flexibility contracts to calculate the corresponding prosumer rewards.
The FTP is a fully automated demand response trading solution for electricity flexibility management. Using advanced grid observability and prediction and bidding algorithms, it determines the most energy-efficient and cost-effective transaction of prosumers’ flexibility among users on the platform. The prosumers can actively define their electricity price policy, influencing the financial settlement. The FTP also addresses grid issues, such as resolving congestion and voltage levelling.
The IDMM offers a market-based approach to manage distribution grid (DN) issues by enabling the trading of active and reactive power from assets in the DN. The DSO periodically performs short-term forecasts and, in case an emerging grid issue is identified, the IDMM provides flexibility requirement signals to the participants, allowing them to submit flexibility offers. Trades are executed only if they contribute in mitigating or alleviating voltage violations and network congestions issues.
The P2P-Toolbox enables energy communities (EC) to operate local flexibility markets without a trusted intermediary through a set of Distributed Applications and supporting services. The blockchain tools allow the configuration of EC members, providing user authentication and authorization services, and offer a marketplace where participants (peers) can trade energy and flexibility using FlexOffers and the FlexCoin pseudo-currency. The toolbox is tightly integrated with the FEVER FMS and FTP.
In this cloudy and windy scenario, electricity production and consumption are in balance. The electricity generated by the local PV panels and wind turbines together with the electricity delivered from the upstream grid cover the demand of the community. No grid issues can be observed, all electricity can be delivered to the demand sites.
Residential houses and commercial consumers, such as car-sharing and a brewery, are consuming electricity. Wind turbines, open space PV and the house with PV + battery storage are producing electricity. The house with PV and heat pump is able to supply itself.
In this sunny and windy scenario, there is a surplus of electricity production compared to the demand. Both PV panels and wind turbines are generating a significant amount of electricity. However, this leads to congestion between the open space PV and the transformer, as well as between the wind turbines and the transformer, as the lines are too weak to transport that much electricity towards the transformer, indicated by the red electricity flow. To alleviate the congestion, some wind turbines are temporarily shut down. Money flows into the higher-level grid to partly accommodate the surplus electricity.
Residential houses and commercial consumers continue to use electricity from the grid, while houses with PV panels feed-in excess electricity.
In this scenario, the weather is cloudy and non-windy, resulting in lower local electricity production. There is only a small amount of electricity generated from the PV panels. This leads to congestion on the lines between the higher-level grid and the consumers, which is visually represented by red flow. Despite the electricity shortage, all five cars in the car-sharing pool are charging, indicating a lack of coordination. Without digitalization, the control center lacks the necessary information to react and plan the charging according to the current grid status. In most regions of Europe, this is a hypothetical scenario as usually the grid is reinforced to be able to supply all customers even in scenarios with high demand and low local production. Still, it could theoretically happen if costly grid reinforcement is not realized in time.
To meet the demand, significant amounts of electricity need to be supplied from the higher-level grid to the region, resulting in increased money flows into the higher-level grid.
Residential houses and commercial consumers rely on electricity from the grid, while houses with PV panels and storage systems are self-sufficient and do not need electricity from the grid.
In this cloudy and windy scenario, electricity production and consumption are in balance. The electricity generated by the local PV panels and wind turbines together with the electricity delivered from the upstream grid cover the demand of the community. No grid issues can be observed, all electricity can be delivered to the demand sites.
Smart Metering Systems are now installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now digitized control center. The transformers are now equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion.
The car-sharing pool now has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing for optimal charging of electric vehicles based on their specific needs. Three out of the five electric cars may soon be needed, so they are being charged, while the remaining two can are used to shift their charging times to periods of surplus electricity.
PV panels and wind turbines generate electricity, with the wind turbines contributing more due to the high wind conditions. Residential houses and commercial consumers use electricity from the grid, while the house with PV + battery storage feed some electricity into the grid and receive remuneration. The house with PV,heat pump and hot water tank utilizes the self-generated electricity, which is sufficient at that time.
In this sunny and windy scenario, electricity production exceeds the consumption. Both PV panels and wind turbines are generating a significant amount of electricity. However, this leads to congestion between the open space PV and the transformer, as well as between the wind turbines and the transformer, as the lines are too weak to transport that much electricity towards the transformer, indicated by the red electricity flow. To alleviate the congestion, some wind turbines are temporarily shut down.
Smart Metering Systems are now installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now digitized control center. The transformers are now equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion.
The car-sharing pool has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing optimal charging of electric vehicles based on their individual needs. In this case, all five electric cars are charged at full power to locally use the excess electricity generated and support grid operation.
Residential houses and commercial consumers use electricity from the grid, while houses with PV panels also export electricity and charge their batteries.
Despite these improvements, the wind turbines still require curtailment. Also, money flows into the higher-level grid to accommodate the surplus electricity. Now explore if the use of Flexibility Management helps addressing these issues!
In this cloudy and non-windy scenario, electricity consumption exceeds the local generation. Only a small amount of electricity is generated by the PV panels. As a result, there is a congestion on the lines between the upstream grid level and the consumers, as indicated by the red electricity flow.
Smart Metering Systems are now installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now digitized control center. The transformers are now equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion.
The car-sharing pool has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing for intelligent charging of electric vehicles. In this case, only one car is charged to alleviate the electricity shortage.
Residential houses and commercial consumers use electricity from the grid and pay for it. Houses with PV panels are self-sufficient and do not rely on electricity from the grid.
Money flows into the higher-level grid, as electricity must be supplied from the central grid to meet the local demand. It seems that digitalization is not enough to help the system overcome its grid issues. It is worth trying to see if Flexibility Management can help to solve the problems!
In this cloudy and windy scenario, electricity production and consumption are in balance. The electricity generated by the local PV panels and wind turbines together with the electricity delivered from the upstream grid cover the demand of the community. No grid issues can be observed, all electricity can be delivered to the demand sites and no flexibility measures are needed.
Smart Metering Systems are installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now fully digitized control center. The transformers are equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion. Prosumers and Consumers are now as well equipped with Home respectively Factory Energy Management Systems which enable both observability and, if necessary, receiving and responding to flexibility demands sent by the control center of the utility.
The car-sharing pool has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing for optimal charging of electric vehicles based on their specific needs. Three out of the five electric cars may soon be needed, so they are being charged, while the remaining two can shift their charging times to periods of surplus local electricity generation.
PV panels and wind turbines continue to generate electricity, with the wind turbines contributing more due to the high wind conditions. Residential houses and commercial consumers use electricity from the grid, while the house with PV + battery storage feeds some electricity into the grid and receives remuneration. The house with PV and a heat pump utilizes the self-generated electricity, which is sufficient at that time.
In this sunny and windy scenario, electricity production exceeds the consumption. Both, PV panels and wind turbines are generating a significant amount of electricity. As opposed to scenarios without digitization and flexibility management, adaptation of demand is possible to use all locally generated electricity and prevent any congestions in the local grid.
Smart Metering Systems are installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now fully digitized control center. The transformers are equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion. Prosumers and Consumers are now as well equipped with Home respectively Factory Energy Management Systems which enable both observability and, if necessary, receiving and responding to flexibility demands sent by the control center of the utility.
The car-sharing pool has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing optimal charging of electric vehicles based on their individual needs. In this case, all five electric cars are charged at full power to absorb the excess locally generated electricity.
With the now installed Energy Management Systems both in residential houses and commercial consumers, they received the signal from the control center to increase their consumption and use as much electricity from the grid as possible. So, houses with PV panels charge their batteries or generate heat to store in their heat storage. The commercial consumer, the brewery, runs its ice production at maximum to consume as much electricity as possible, creating ice in their ice storage for later use.
The now available Energy Management options at all prosumers and consumers in addition to observability enables a local balancing of generation and demand by increasing the demand in times of high generation. As this increased electricity demand is asked for by the utility, prosumers and consumers with increased demand get remunerated for their grid-beneficial behavior. Curtailment of local PV and wind generation is no longer necessary.
In this cloudy and non-windy scenario, electricity consumption exceeds the local generation. Only a small amount of electricity is generated by the PV panels. As opposed to scenarios without digitization and flexibility management, adaptation of demand is possible to compensate for a shortage in electricity production.
Smart Metering Systems are installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now fully digitized control center. The transformers are equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion. Prosumers and Consumers are now as well equipped with Home respectively Factory Energy Management Systems which enable both observability and, if necessary, receiving and responding to flexibility demands sent by the control center of the utility.
Additionally, the car-sharing pool has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing for intelligent charging of electric vehicles. In this case, one car is charged to alleviate the electricity shortage.
Residential houses and commercial consumers use electricity from the grid and pay for it. Houses with PV panels are self-sufficient and do not rely on the grid for electricity supply. With the now installed Energy Management Systems both in residential houses and commercial consumers, they receive the signal from the control center to reduce their consumption of electricity from the grid as much as possible. So, houses with PV + battery storage feed-in to the grid. The commercial consumer, the brewery, uses the earlier produced ice from the ice storage instead of just- in-time cold production from electricity.
The now available Energy Management options at all prosumers and consumers in addition to observability enables a local balancing of generation and demand by reducing the demand in times of low local generation. Prosumers and consumers with reduced demand get remunerated for their grid-beneficial behavior. Less electricity from the upstream grid is needed and subsequently less money flows from the local community.
In this cloudy and windy scenario, electricity production and consumption are in balance. The electricity generated by the local PV panels and wind turbines together with the electricity delivered from the upstream grid cover the demand of the community. No grid issues can be observed, all electricity can be delivered to the demand sites and no flexibility measures are needed.
The option for local trading is now activated. In comparison to the scenario "Balanced with Flexibility Management, but no trading”, the only difference here lies in the monetary flow, while the electricity and data flows remain the same.
Smart Metering Systems are installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now fully digitized control center. The transformers are equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion. Prosumers and Consumers are now as well equipped with Home respectively Factory Energy Management Systems which enables both observability and, if necessary, receiving and responding to flexibility demands sent by the control center of the utility.
The car-sharing pool has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing for optimal charging of electric vehicles based on their specific needs. Three out of the five electric cars may soon be needed, so they are being charged, while the remaining two can shift their charging times to periods of surplus electricity.
PV panels and wind turbines continue to generate electricity, with the wind turbines contributing more due to the high wind conditions. Residential houses and commercial consumers use electricity from the grid, while the house with PV + battery storage feeds some electricity into the grid and receives remuneration. The house with PV and a heat pump utilizes the self-generated electricity which is sufficient at that time.
Two local trading options are now available (Peer-to-Peer Trading and Local Virtual Marketplace), allowing producers, prosumers and consumers to locally buy and sell their electricity.
The Peer-To-Peer Trading enables prosumers to sell their surplus electricity directly to their neighbors, as shown by the money flow between the PV + battery storage house and the normal consumer household.
The Local Virtual Marketplace facilitates direct trading between producers, consumers and prosumers, reducing dependence on large energy corporations. This approach strengthens the local community and supports a decentralized energy supply.
Additionally, dynamic pricing mechanism allows for real-time adjustment of electricity prices, which encourages consumers and prosumers to align their energy needs with market conditions and promotes efficient energy utilization.
In this sunny and windy scenario, electricity production exceeds the consumption. Both, PV panels and wind turbines are generating a significant amount of electricity. As opposed to scenarios without digitization and flexibility management, adaptation of demand is possible to use all locally generated electricity and prevent any congestions in the local grid.
The option for local trading is now activated. In comparison to the scenario "Overproduction with Flexibility Management, but no trading”, the only difference here lies in the monetary flow, while the electricity and data flows remain the same.
Smart Metering Systems are installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now fully digitized control center. The transformers are equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion. Prosumers and Consumers are now as well equipped with Home respectively Factory Energy Management Systems which enables both observability and, if necessary, receiving and responding to flexibility demands sent by the control center of the utility.
The car-sharing pool has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing optimal charging of electric vehicles based on their individual needs. In this case, all five electric cars are charged at full power to absorb the excess locally generated electricity.
With the now installed Energy Management Systems both in residential houses and commercial consumers, they received the signal from the control center to increase their consumption and use as much electricity from the grid as possible. So, houses with PV panels charge their batteries or generate heat to store in their heat storage. The commercial consumer, the brewery, runs its ice production at maximum to consume as much electricity as possible, creating ice in their ice storage for later use.
Two local trading options are now available (Peer-to-Peer Trading and Local Virtual Marketplace), allowing producers, prosumers and consumers to locally buy and sell their electricity.
The Peer-To-Peer Trading enables prosumers to sell their surplus electricity directly to their neighbors, as shown by the money flow between the PV + battery storage house and the normal consumer household.
The Local Virtual Marketplace facilitates direct trading between producers, consumers and prosumers, reducing dependence on large energy corporations. This approach strengthens the local community and supports a decentralized energy supply.
Additionally, dynamic pricing mechanism allows for real-time adjustment of electricity prices, which encourages consumers and prosumers to align their energy needs with market conditions.
The now available Energy Management options at all prosumers and consumers in addition to observability enables a local balancing of generation and demand by increasing the demand in times of high generation. As this increased electricity demand is asked for by the utility, prosumers and consumers with increased demand get remunerated for their grid-beneficial behavior. Curtailment of local PV and wind generation is no longer necessary.
The local trading options allow the customers to access locally generated renewable electricity, promoting sustainability and reducing dependence on non-renewable sources.
In this cloudy and non-windy scenario, electricity consumption exceeds the local generation. Only a small amount of electricity is generated by the PV panels. As opposed to scenarios without digitization and flexibility management, adaptation of demand is possible to balance out a shortage in electricity production.
The option for local trading is now activated. In comparison to the scenario "Underproduction with Flexibility Management, but no trading”, the only difference here lies in the monetary flow, while the electricity and data flows remain the same.
Smart Metering Systems are installed everywhere, resulting in the presence of blue data flows towards the now fully digitized control center. The transformers are equipped with Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), collecting, and sending grid data to the control center, enabling early detection and resolution of grid problems such as congestion. Prosumers and Consumers are now as well equipped with Home respectively Factory Energy Management Systems which enables both observability and, if necessary, receiving and responding to flexibility demands sent by the control center of the utility.
Additionally, the car-sharing pool has bi-directional communication enabled with the control center, allowing for intelligent charging of electric vehicles. In this case, one car is charged to alleviate the electricity shortage.
Residential houses and commercial consumers use electricity from the grid and pay for it. Houses with PV panels are self-sufficient and do not rely on the grid for electricity. With the now installed Energy Management Systems both in residential houses and commercial consumers, they receive the signal from the control center to reduce their consumption of electricity from the grid as much as possible. So, houses with PV + battery storage feed-in to the grid. The commercial consumer, the brewery, uses the earlier produced ice from the ice storage instead of just- in-time cold production from electricity.
Local trading options are now available (Peer-to-Peer Trading and Local Virtual Marketplace), allowing producers, prosumers and consumers to buy and sell their electricity locally.
The Peer-To-Peer Trading enables prosumers to sell their surplus electricity directly to their neighbors. However, as little electricity is produced in this scenario, the house with the PV + battery storage cannot sell electricity to its neighbors.
The Local Virtual Marketplace facilitates direct trading between producers, consumers and prosumers, reducing dependence on large energy corporations. This approach strengthens the local community and supports a decentralized energy supply.
Additionally, dynamic pricing mechanism allows for real-time adjustment of electricity prices, which encourages consumers and prosumers to adapt their energy needs to market conditions.
The now available Energy Management options at all prosumers and consumers in addition to observability enables a local balancing of generation and demand by reducing the demand in times of low local generation. Prosumers and consumers with reduced demand get remunerated for their grid-beneficial behavior. Less electricity from the upstream grid is needed and subsequently less money flows from the local community.
The local trading options allow the customers to access locally generated renewable electricity, promoting sustainability and reducing dependence on non-renewable sources.
The European Research & Innovation project FEVER aims at demonstrating and implementing solutions that leverage the potential of flexibility in generation, consumption and storage of electricity. Seventeen partners from eight European countries are working together to accelerate the transformation of the energy system. These animation shows the main technologies and results that have been (further) developed in FEVER. The solutions enable system operators and flexibility providers to jointly solve the problems during over- and underproduction, bringing the grid to a balanced state. Click through these solutions to better understand their functionality and contribution to the energy transition.