This project aims to design and develop novel Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and techniques that facilitate scalable and secure information systems and data exchange between Transmission System Operator (TSO) and Distribution System Operator (DSO). The three novel aspects of ICT tools and techniques to be developed in the project are: scalability – ability to deal with new users and increasingly larger volumes of information and data; security – protection against external threats and attacks; and interoperability –information exchange and communications based on existing and emerging international smart grid ICT standards. The project focuses on TSO-DSO interoperability. While TSO-TSO interoperability is currently well established by ENTSO-E through implementation of the Common Grid Model Exchange System, TSO-DSO interoperability will also benefit future TSO-TSO interoperability. In this context the project will also consider DSO to other Market-participants (DSOs, Aggregators, Distributed Energy Resource Operators, Micro-grid Operators) and information or data access portals that enable business processes involving relevant actors in the electrical power sector. Beyond state-of-the-art progress that will be achieved: Fully defined interface specifications for TSO-DSO information exchange interfaces based on Use Case analysis and IEC 61970/61968/62325 standards to support highly automated information exchange and network analysis. Fully defined interface specifications for information exchange between DSOs and market participants based on Use Case analysis and IEC 61850 and IEC 62325 standards to support highly automated information exchanges. Role-based access control that securely accommodates new data requirements and unbundling processes. A specified suite of ICT protocols and integration with the defined interfaces. Proof of Concept using field tests and demonstration with industry specification at both TSO and DSO levels.

The current high-speed deployment rate of non-programmable Renewable Energy Sources (RES) is making transmission network planning activities more and more complex and affected by a high level of uncertainty. Because network investments are capital intensive and the lifetime of the infrastructure spans several decades, it may happen that when a new line is commissioned it is no longer the best option and it might be partially regarded as a stranded cost. There is an on-going debate on the selection of the more effective technologies that could contribute to system flexibility. This category doesn’t only include grid technologies, but also storage elements and flexible demand, both located in transmission or provided by opportunely aggregated distributed energy sources located in distribution networks. FlexPlanning aims at creating a new tool for optimizing transmission and distribution grid planning, considering the placement of flexibility elements as an alternative to traditional grid planning. This approach aims at helping to reduce overall power system costs i.e. infrastructure deployment and operation costs, the latter in terms of procurement of energy and system services. FlexPlan is going to take into account environmental impact and footprint (impact on air quality for thermal generation, carbon footprint, impact on landscape of new T&D lines). A pre-processing tool is also created to determine location, size and associated costs for storage and flexible demand candidates. The new planning tool is first validated and then used for analysing six detailed regional scenarios at 2030-2040-2050 in order to assess the potential role of storage and flexible resources. Pan-European scenarios are preliminarily elaborated in order to provide border conditions for the regional cases. Regulatory conclusions are drawn to analyse whether opportune incentivisation procedures could be put in place by the regulators wherever some consistent advantages are demonstrated.

Four European TSOs of Central-Eastern Europe (Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia), associated with power system experts, electricity retailers, IT providers and renewable electricity providers, propose to design a unique regional cooperation scheme: it aims at opening Balancing and Redispatching markets to new sources of flexibility and supporting such sources to act on such markets competitively. Thanks to a prototype aggregation solution and renewable generation forecasting techniques, flexibility providers – distributed generators (DG) and Commercial and Industrial (C&I) consumers providing demand response (DR) – are enabled, through retailers acting as flexibility aggregators, to provide competitive offers for Frequency Restoration Reserve (including secondary control activated with a response time between 30 seconds and 15 minutes). A comprehensive techno-economic model for the cross-border integration of such services involves a common activation function (CAF) tailored to congested borders and optimized to overcome critical intra-regional barriers. The resulting CAF is implemented into a prototype Regional Balancing and Redispatching Platform, securely integrated within the four TSOs’ IT systems: this makes research activities about cross-border integration flexible while linking with the aggregation solution. Use cases of growing complexity are pilot tested, going from the involvement of DR and DG into national balancing markets to cross-border competition between flexibility aggregators. Based on past experience with tertiary reserve, participating C&I consumers and DG are expected to provide close to 40MW of secondary reserve. Impact analyses of the pilot tests together with dissemination activities towards all the stakeholders of the electricity value chain will recommend business models and deployment roadmaps for the most promising use cases, which, in turn, contribute to the practical implementation of the European Balancing Target Model by 2020.

The development and adoption of renewable and sustainable energy has become a top priority in Europe, and is Horizon 2020’s most prominent theme. Research into new energy methods required to reduce humanity’s carbon footprint is an urgent and critical need, and is reliant upon a flow of newly qualified persons in areas as diverse as renewable energy infrastructure management, new energy materials and methods, and smart buildings and transport. Bioenergy is a particularly important field in this respect as it is at the cross-roads of several important European policies, from the Strategic Energy Technology Plan Roadmap on Education and Training (SET-Plan) to the European Bioeconomy Strategy to European Food Safety and Nutrition Policy. European development in this prioritised field is stalled due to a lack of qualified personnel, a lack of cohesion and integration among stakeholders, and poor linkage between professional training and industry needs. To address these problems, BioEnergyTrain brings together fifteen partners from six EU countries to create new post-graduate level curricula in key bioenergy disciplines, and a network of tertiary education institutions, research centres, professional associations, and industry stakeholders encompassing the whole value chain of bioenergy from field/forest to integration into the sustainable energy systems of buildings, settlements and regions. The project will foster European cooperation to provide a highly skilled and innovative workforce across the whole bioenergy value chain, closely following the recommendations of the SET-Plan Education Roadmap.