The Consortium

The project involves research teams from the Netherlands and Austria.

The project involves research teams from the Netherlands and Austria. The Dutch team is composed of four universities, namely University of Twente, TU Delft, Wageningen University and Utrecht University and an international company based in the Netherlands, DNV GL. The Austrian team comprises the Technical University of Graz, the Austrian Institute of Technology, and the European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance.

Objectives

Support the development of smart energy products and services for local smart grids.

Further, the main objective of CESEPS is to support the development of smart energy products and services for local smart grids that better respond to the demands and concerns of all stakeholders in terms of performance, cost, reliability, safety and robustness, sustainability and energy-efficiency, and end-users’ comfort. The research in this project is focused on comparative validation of technologies and concepts of existing demonstrations and the further development of new innovative energy products and services for the present and medium-term using a co-evolutionary approach.

To realize these objectives and to achieve these goals, the project will perform a comparative validation of smart grid technologies and concepts in more than four existing demonstration projects in the Netherlands under the umbrella of the Smart Energy Collective of DNV GL, such as PowerMatching City, Your Energy Moment, Heerhugowaard, Lochem, Gorinchem and a new pilot at Ameland and in six ongoing pilots Austria called E-mobility on Demand, PlanGridEV, iWPP-Flex, EcoGrid EU, hybrid-VPP4DSO, IGREENGrid, and others. Adding to existing smart grid pilots, both Dutch and Austrian consortium members will develop innovative technological concepts for e-vehicles with fuel cells, solar charging and other charging solutions within the framework of the Green Village (TUD), Living Lab (UT), Energy storage (TU Graz), COTEVOS (AIT), DCgrids (TUD), Vehicle2Grid Utrecht (UU) through simulation and experimental laboratory set ups.

Find out how these goals will be implemented.

1.) To develop knowledge about the role of stakeholders and end users in local smart grid pilots by gaining insights into their needs and wishes for smart energy products and services, the needed changes in their energy practices, and contextual barriers encountered.

2.) To develop knowledge about the actual performance of technologies in local smart grid pilots by evaluating monitoring data from these projects and executing measurements on site. Complementary to the experimental approach, theoretical modelling of energy performance of smart grid technologies and their interaction will be established.

3.) On the basis of these insights (from 1 and 2) to construct a set of specifications, designs, and implementation guidelines for the development of smart energy products and services for local smart grids that enable the development of fully functional solutions for a better smart grid environment and its elements and users.

4.) It is aimed to accelerate the innovation process of smart energy products and services by informing stakeholders at intermediate points through the project and receiving their feedback to be included in the project.

5.) To develop energy products and services that can be customized for individual households as well as communities, integrating the knowledge and needs of inhabitants and other stakeholders.

6.) To implement some of these newly developed energy products and services on test sites of the consortium

7.) To develop novel local network modelling for both AC and DC smart grids with and without storage with a focus on e-vehicles, demand side management, increased hosting capacity, and customer safety.

8.) To develop scenarios for medium and long term future visions of local smart grids in the Netherlands, Austria and Europe on the basis of the theoretical framework for co-evolution of smart energy products and services.

9.) To validate and scale the smart energy products under various situations, including a co-simulation framework combining real and simulated components for scaling and replication.

Implementation

Evaluating the performance of energy products and services as well as end-users perceptions and stakeholder processes

In this project, we aim to explore existing smart grid environments by evaluating the performance of energy products and services as well as end-users perceptions and stakeholder processes in a significant number of realized smart grid pilots in the Netherlands and Austria.

The research in our project can be seen in the framework of three layers: Marketplace, Stakeholder/Adoption, and Technology.

Marketplace. We will evaluate existing smart grid energy products and services and create new solutions to shape changing energy market structures with a focus on the ‘good design’ for energy products that support safe and reliable operation of local smart grids, demand side management and electric mobility in smart grids with a high penetration of renewables. From the perspective of energymarkets, the microeconomics of smart energy products and services will be evaluated in terms of return of investments, levelled costs of electricity, and real-time pricing versus time of use pricing. In particular in the field of e-mobility financial comparisons will be made between electric charging and consumption of fuels in cars equipped with a combustion engine.

Stakeholders/Adoption. Adoption of end-users such as individual persons and communities is a significant issue with regards new features in smart grids such as demand side management, exchange of energy with other end-users, a high penetration of renewable energy at a local level, the required flexibility for prosumer interactions and e-mobility. By interviews and observations of all smart grid stakeholders (both end-users and utilities, policy makers, network operators et cetera) their experiences, expectations and modes of interaction between them, will be captured to understand the acceptance, preferences, and practices occurring during the pilot projects. Information resulting from these studies will subsequently be applied in co-evolutionary development of smart energy products and services.

Technology. Smart grids host a large number of diverse energy technologies and ICT. In the framework of our research project we have selected a limited number of technologies in local smart grids that will be evaluated and validated in more detail. These are smart grids’ safety aspects and overall network reliability regarding their energy and power flows, energy-efficiency, local sustainable energy production and consumption, demand side management by self-consumption of energy generated in the smart grid pilot, forecasting techniques and mutual trading of energy with neighbors, controlled charging of EV by renewable energy sources and patterns of use.

Learn more about the background of the CESEPS project.

Background

The integration of intermittent renewable energy sources and decentralized energy production in existing electricity grids is a technical and organisational challenge.

To overcome these technological and organisational challenges we suggest a co-evolutionary approach through which technology, marketplaces, emerging user needs and their adaption, as well as needs of stakeholders in business and governance will be merged.

Read more about the specific objectives of the CESEPS project.

Moreover, the means to temporarily store this energy, as well as the expected use of large numbers of new types of energy products (for example electric cars and heat pumps) will pose big engineering questions in the next 10-20 years. Smart grids are an important promising solution – at transnational, national and local levels – supporting the transition from centralized energy generation to energy systems containing more distributed, intermittent energy generation with a high penetration of renewable energy systems and flexible options to manage energy flows via advanced ICT. This paradigm shift will lead to new requirements towards increased flexibility of power systems, increased network capacity and new innovative energy products and services.

Another big challenge in smart grids development is to understand and influence consumer behaviour in smart grids. Social acceptance and a more active role of energy consumers are of great importance for the success of smart grids. Currently however the sector is strongly driven by technical developments; to support a healthy market place for smart energy systems, the supply of innovative product-service combinations in smart grids must be more responsive to the demands and requirements of various stakeholders in terms of performance, costs, safety, robustness and comfort. At present a lot of uncertainty exists about what product-service combinations will be offered, and a better understanding of these issues is required. Existing smart grid pilot projects are a rich source of information regarding marketplaces for new innovative energy products and services and the adoption processes of various stakeholders, including utilities, consumers, and network operators, in these smart grid pilots. These are important factors that can contribute to the development and successful implementation of smart grids within Europe. By capturing critical stakeholders’ preferences and experiences, smart energy products and services can be developed in a more effective way than solely through technical approaches that mainly focus on increased energy performance and reduction of costs.