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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SMILE (SMart IsLand Energy systems)

Teaser

Summary

The overall scope of SMILE project is to demonstrate, in real-life operational conditions, a set of both technological and non-technological solutions adapted to local circumstances targeting distribution grids to enable demand response schemes, smart grid functionalities, storage and energy system integration with the final objective of paving the way for the introduction of the innovative solutions in the market in the near future. To this end, three large-scale pilot projects are under implementation in three island locations in different regions of Europe with similar topographic characteristics but different policies, regulations and energy markets: Orkneys (UK), SamsÃ¸ (DK) and Madeira (PT). SMILE consortium is composed by 19 partners from 6 EU countries coordinated by RINA Consulting.
The objective is to test solutions while establishing mutual learning processes and providing best practice guidance for replication in other regions. Actually, the 3 demonstrators in the islands are testing different combinations of technological solutions according to local specificities and conditions and the existing infrastructure and are involving all value chain actors needed to efficiently implement projects system-wide. The technological solutions vary from integration of different battery technologies, power to heat, power to fuel, pumped hydro, electric vehicles, electricity stored on board of boats, aggregator approach to demand side management (DSM) and predictive algorithms. Nowadays, the increasing share of variable renewable energy sources particularly prove challenging to the electricity systemâ€™s stability and reliability, thus requiring the system to become more flexible and responsive. The 3 case studies are characterised by high penetration of renewable energy sources in the electricity grid or have planned increased shares thereof in the forthcoming years. In this framework, each pilot aims to demonstrate stable and secure grid operation in the context of the implementation of solutions enabling demand response and the intelligent control and automation of distribution networks to provide for smart management of the grid, as well as in the context of the adoption of energy storage solutions and/or the connection between the electricity network and other energy networks as well as of the smart integration of grid users from transport and mobility. Moreover, cross-cutting activities among the pilots are devoted to solve common technical, organizational, legal, regulatory and market-related issues as well as to evaluate the solutions from the economic and business points of view. Each of the demonstrators is bringing a specific set of challenges, technology options and most importantly, energy market conditions. The sites are therefore effectively representative of the majority of the EU energy markets and offer excellent demonstration settings which will deliver maximum impact in terms of replicability. Furthermore, island communities can be more easily engaged in the real-life testing of solutions aimed at solving important challenges impacting life on the island and therefore constitute ideal candidates for demonstration activities requiring societal engagement and active residentsâ€™ commitment. Each case study is representative of an important energy challenge common to several locations in Europe, on islands as on mainland. Actually, the Orkneys and SamsÃ¸ are electrically connected to the mainland network and can be representative of smart grids located on the mainland as well whereas Madeira is the case of an energy island not connected to the mainland network.

Work performed

During the first period, the 3 regional demonstrators were focused on the definition of requirements, on the design of the overall architectures as well as the selection of the technologies to be deployed.
In the Orkney, the architectural design of DSM system including the domestic heating installations, the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging and as well as the industrial load has been completed. The most suitable technologies have been assessed and chosen with technical interactions defined. Furthermore, special attention has been paid to the user engagement strategy in order to recruit the most suitable participants in the project area.
The core of the SamsÃ¸ Demonstrator is the DSM system for the Ballen marina including a battery energy storage system (BESS). During the reference period, the case study specification and assessment was carried out and the basic architecture was defined. The BESS system is under development and it will be released at the beginning of the second period.
In Madeira, after a first phase related to the definition of the specification and assessment of the demonstrator study, 5 different pilots was defined: two of them are related to the increase of self-consumption in micro-producers thanks to DSM services and BESS, other two were related to smart charging of EVs whereas one pilot deals with Voltage and frequency control. For each pilot, it was defined the architecture as well as the hardware and software requirements. Furthermore, special attention was paid to the end user engagement and to the deployment of the energy monitoring infrastructure.
Among the transversal activities, it is worth to mention the definition of the most appropriate Demand Response (DR) services for each demonstrator as well as the identification of key performance indicators for the evaluation of the proposed solutions.
Furthermore, the activities were also related to the establishment of reference energy systems simulations models of the three demonstrator islands, to the preliminary analysis of the legislative framework as well as to the dissemination and communication activities for raising the awareness on the project solutions.

Final results

Currently, Smart grids are particularly important to face the need of flexibly, stably and reliably solutions in energy systems characterized by increasing share of renewables as well as distributed energy generation. In this framework, SMILE is implementing and testing in real-life conditions, different ICT-based solutions including a cross-functional and modular control and automation framework as well as plug-and-play and scalable software solutions (mainly predictive algorithms, control strategies, aggregator and decision-support tools), which will make distribution in an electricity grid integrating variable energy generation and various DER (including storage and demand response) more agile and competitive thanks to fusing actual real-time data with predicted ones from simulations. Based on the real-time data and KPIs available through the proposed infrastructure, the framework will be able to provide grid operators with efficient decision support on how the various modules can be integrated together towards optimizing the overall energy systems operation. All the value chain actors needed to efficiently implement the 3 demonstrators have been involved and an innovation management approach will guarantee a wider exploitation and replication of technological solutions. Actually, the project is expected to have a relevant impact in terms of replicability of the proposed solutions: although deployed in island locations, the three demonstrators are representative of smart grid solutions operating in connected as well as non-connected modes guaranteeing to the project a wide socio-economic impact in EU.