ERIGrid, European Research Infrastructure supporting Smart Grid Systems Technology Development, Validation and Roll Out, HORIZON2020

Full text

Impact Objectives
• Integrate major European research centres with outstanding smart grid research infrastructures and offering
free access to them
• Integrate and enhance the necessary research services for analysing, validating and testing smart grid
configurations and solutions
Cyber-physical smart
power systems
Dr Thomas Strasser discusses his work on ERIGrid, a European collaboration project supporting the
validation and testing of smart grid systems for the roll-out of new approaches and technologies
How is it hoped the
European Research
Infrastructure
supporting Smart
Grid Systems
Technology
Development,
Validation and Roll Out (ERIGrid) project will
address some of the big challenges facing
Europe’s renewable energy industry?
Renewable energy resource integration
is a key enabler to decrease greenhouse
gas emissions and develop a sustainable
electric power system for the future.
The intermittent behaviour of renewable
energy resources and their limited storage
capabilities present new challenges to
power system operators in maintaining
security of supply, reliability and power
quality. However, the increased availability of
advanced automation and communication
technologies has also provided new
intelligent solutions to these challenges.
Previous work has presented various new
methods to operate highly interconnected
power grids with corresponding
components in a more effective way.
As a consequence of technological
developments, the traditional power system
can be transformed into a networked, cyber-
physical system, a so-called smart grid.
Previous and ongoing research activities
have mainly focused on validating certain
aspects of smart grids, but until now
there has been no integrated approach
for analysing and evaluating complex
configurations and advanced solutions in
cyber-physical energy systems, which is
what the ERIGrid project aims to do.
Who do you see benefiting from the ERIGrid
Project?
It is hoped that the ERIGrid project will add
a new integrated level to the European smart
grid technology research and development
and provide the co-operation that will
allow convergence on common standards
and technologies with other parts of the
world with Europe in the lead. In addition,
it is hoped that through collaboration, the
trans-national access programme will enable
academic and industrial research groups,
energy utilities and other players in the
domain of smart grids who do not usually
have access to outstanding infrastructures,
to access world-leading research facilities.
This will also strengthen the links between
academic and technological research
and speed up the innovation to practical
application processes.
How successful have you been so far in
achieving the development of an integrated
European research network to support an
understanding of smart grid infrastructure in
Europe?
ERIGrid is a continuation of long term
collaboration of the consortium members
in several European projects and initiatives
focusing on system-level validation and
testing approaches in the domain of smart
grids. It involves 18 academic, research and
industrial institutions as well as a network in
11 European countries with a high number of
ongoing projects related to intelligent energy
systems and smart grids. A large proportion
of the ERIGrid project members are also
involved in other important European
technology and research activities and
networks. The core consortium emerged out
of the DERlab (European Distributed Energy
Resources Laboratories e.V.) and EERA
(European Energy Research Alliance) Joint
Programme on Smart Grids networks.
Can you share some lessons you have learnt
so far?
Best practice has been and will be
exchanged and expertise integrated by the
synchronisation of background information
and promotion of transregional and cross-
cooperation with a strong focus on advanced
system-level validation approaches and
research infrastructures. The industrial
partners in ERIGrid see the cooperation
with the academic partners as a chance
to generate new knowledge that gives
them a head start in the development
of a technology highly demanded by the
European power system and smart grid
market. The teamwork among industry
partners strengthens the technology
absorption patterns as both of those partners
successfully work in networks. Academic
partners see the chance to continue a
successful long-term cooperation in smart
grid research. Cooperation with the industry
partners gives access to technologies and
challenging applications and fosters the
realisation of innovations in the smart grids
domain – which is a European need.
How do you align this work with other
renewable energy projects currently underway
across Europe to ensure renewable energy
smart grids are best taken advantage of?
ERIGrid has already set up links with other
national, European and international
Research and Development (R&D) projects,
initiatives, networks, and platforms in the
field of smart grids. The main collaborative
activities so far have been the information
exchange on smart grid scenarios, use
cases, research infrastructures requirements
and needs, and testing and evaluation
methodologies.
The evolution of the EU-funded European
Research Infrastructure supporting Smart
Grid Systems Technology Development,
Validation and Roll Out (ERIGrid) project
has been based on the evidence that
as activities continue to address global
warming with the gradual transition from
fossil fuel to renewable energy sources to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, there
continues to be limited development
of power grid systems. The increasing
availability of advanced automation and
communication technology – such as the
comprehensive digitalisation of today’s
power systems – which could revolutionise
the quality and reliability of power from
renewables and sources with limited
storage capacity results in a need to
advance research collaboration. However,
comprehensive validation and testing
methods of such cyber-physical smart power
systems and a corresponding, integrated
research infrastructure are missing up to
now.
The trans-national ERIGrid project involves
18 European research institutions from
across 11 different countries, who have
teamed up together to deliver a four and
a half year project focusing on improving
validation and testing approaches which is
supported by the European Commission
through the Horizon 2020 project
supporting Research and Innovation (RIA) –
Integrating Activity (IA) across Europe.
SYSTEM VALIDATION
ERIGrid Project Coordinator Dr Thomas
Strasser, from the Electric Energy
Systems Unit at the Austrian Institute of
Technology’s (AIT) Centre for Energy, in
Vienna, says that their work has identified
that there is a ‘lack of system validation
approaches for smart grid systems and
a corresponding, integrated smart grid
research infrastructure is missing up to
now in Europe’. It is this challenge that
the collaborative network is hoping to
overcome. From Strasser’s perspective
one of the most important outcomes
from the first 18 months of the project is
the ‘definition of a holistic power system
validation and testing approach which
will be used by the ERIGrid partners itself
but also by external trans-national access
user groups to specify validation and
testing needs of smart grid solutions in a
harmonised way’.
In the initial scoping of the project, the
ERIGrid project team identified that the
Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European
Commission listed 459 smart grid projects
in Europe in 2015 with an overall investment
of around 3.15 Billion euros and highlighted
the need to collate and share the research
and knowledge base to support and
test practical applications of smart grid
technologies. By providing a Pan-European
research infrastructure ERIGrid supports the
technology development as well as the roll
out of smart grid solutions and concepts in
Europe. Strasser underlines that ’ERIGrid
tackles a holistic, cyber-physical systems
based approach by integrating 18 European
research centres and institutions with
outstanding research infrastructures and
jointly develops common testing methods,
concepts, and procedures’.
Following discussions within the project
group and in technical workshops as well
as inputs from various stakeholders, the
ERIGrid project team chose to focus on
system configurations rather than traditional
high-level scenarios and aims to provide
a single point of access to integrated
smart grid research infrastructure. The key
objectives of the project are to integrate
major European research centres with
outstanding smart grid collaborative
research infrastructures and integrate
analysis, validation and testing of smart grid
configurations. In addition, the project aims
to support technological development and
roll-out of systems, solutions and concepts
across Europe and provide system-level
support and education for industrial and
academic researchers in smart grid research
and technology development.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR APPLICATION
Strasser identifies that the opportunities
that the ERIGrid project support also
integrate and enhance the necessary
research services for analysing, validating
and testing smart grid configurations. He
highlights that ‘system level support and
education for industrial and academic
researchers is provided to foster future
innovation. ERIGrid partners also offer
their research infrastructures (outstanding
smart grid laboratories) for free to external
industrial and academic users in the
corresponding trans-national access
programme’. In securing funding for the
project Strasser notes that ‘The ERIGrid
project works at three levels; networking
of infrastructure and knowledge; joint
research activities to validate research and
development; and trans-national access
supporting research and innovation of
external user groups’.
In order to establish a wider knowledge
base access to the ERIGrid the ERIGrid
partnership offers free access available
to users from research, academia and
industry through the project website. ‘Each
application is vetted to establish eligibility
particularly in terms of scientific and
technical knowledge as well as relevance of
Supporting the transition
to renewable energy
ERIGrid is a collaboration of industrial and academic researchers working together to develop a
European smart-grid energy system to support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable resources
by harmonising system-level validation and testing approaches
www.impact.pub 7978 www.impact.pub

objectives and project outcomes,’ Strasser
notes. The project also aims to increase
engagement from young researchers as
well as female researchers to support career
development and sustainable development
in the industry.
CHALLENGES ADDRESSED
The ERIGrid project has already overcome
a number of hurdles in developing its
collaboration and knowledge exchange
mechanism, but wider challenges to the
long-term goals of the project involve the
practical application and integration of the
findings across the energy supply industry.
‘Future constraints include those identified
in operational development (such as a
regulatory framework or interoperability of
data), technical limits, prevailing legislation
or rules as well as a dependency on the
reliability of other components such
as the availability of internet and data
communication links,’ Strasser observes.
To validate research the team has developed
a holistic research and testing methodology
and is investigating application barriers
of the technology. This includes reliability
and accessibility as ICT networks develop,
as well as cross over interactions from
prototype to concept and application. The
project is also looking to optimise ICT
architecture by ensuring electrical and ICT
assets are compatible in future decades
without the risk of assets becoming
obsolete and increase the need to upgrade
expensive infrastructure.
Strasser says that it has been recognised
that there are ‘significant challenges
associated with modelling real-time cyclic
dependences on energy and delivery
systems as well as virtual and real-time
hardware coupling alongside signal-based
synchronisation of assets’. The technology
must also be able to respond to unplanned
events across the smart grid to mitigate
risk which highlights the importance of
a collaborative project where particularly
trans-national supply and demand
infrastructure for renewable resources may
vary in reliability. This work has identified
the need to collaborate in order to model
communication, as well as processing
automation and control across smart grids
to develop a consistency for procedure and
management protocols. ‘The topical issue
of cyber-security is also a concern for the
ERIGrid project as traditional supervisory
control and data acquisition (SCADA)
systems are at risk from connectivity
interference and affects both electrical
and ICT security which are key to the
long-term success of integrating energy
from renewable sources into national and
international supply grids,’ he explains.
AN INTEGRATED FUTURE
The drive for increasing the integration
of renewables for sustainable energy
supply in Europe is well recorded but
until recently there has been a lack of
integrated networking of supplies. The
project recognises that the future wholesale
deployment of renewable energy resources
will require the networking of sources at
different voltage levels that require new
innovations in real-time, co-ordinated
control at different scales across Europe.
ERIGrid analysis and objectives support
the transition of energy supply from fossil
fuel dispatchable energy units to more
decentralised dynamic responses to users
to store or supply energy from renewable
sources by advanced testing methods.
The project considers not just short-term
energy transition strategies of up to five
years but more long-term sustainable
supplies up to 20 years in the future. ‘Whilst
there are many socio-economic barriers to
the development of extensive smart grid
renewably sourced energy grids in Europe,
the ERIGrid project aims to enhance
knowledge, research and development
and research infrastructure to support
wider smart grid energy in the future,’
Strasser points out. It is evident from
ERIGrid reports and list of collaborators
that researchers, energy delivery operators
and governments all support the wider
networking and practical modelling and
testing of future smart grid technology to
support energy security in Europe. The
ERIGrid project not only facilitates research
and development but also by providing
access to 19 outstanding laboratory
installations through the consortium it
allows real-time horizontal and vertical
system testing and research across Europe
to development trans-national access to
smart grid technology.
The development of smart grid technology
also supports increased efficiency
through advances in communication
and grid service modelling that will also
respond more quickly to peak supply and
demand requirements and reduce levels
of redundancy in supply infrastructure.
Evidence suggests that through the ERIGrid
project that an integrated approach at a
technology and infrastructure level will
provide the basis for future developments
in energy security across Europe using
smart grid delivery of energy from renewable
sources.
Project Insights
FUNDING
Supported by the H2020 Programme
under Contract No. 654113. The content
of this article does not reflect the
official opinion of the European Union.
Responsibility for the information
expressed therein lies entirely with the
ERIGrid consortium.
PARTICIPANTS
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
GmbH – AIT (Austria) • Commissariat
a l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies
Alternatives – CEA (France) • Centre
for Renewable Energy Sources and
Saving Foundation – CRES (Greece) •
European Distributed Energy Resources
Laboratories e.V. – DERlab (Germany)
• DNV GL Netherlands B.V. – DNV GL
(Netherlands) • Danmarks Tekniske
Universitet – DTU (Denmark) • Institut
Polytechnique de Grenoble – GINP
(France) • Institute of Communication
and Computer Systems – ICCS-NTUA
(Greece) • Frauhofer Gesellschaft zur
Foerderung der Angewandten Forschung
e.v – IWES (Germany) • Ormazabal
Corporate Technology, A.I.E. – OCT
(Spain) • OFFIS e.V. – OFF (Germany)
• Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico - RSE
s.p.a – RSE (Italy) • SINTEF ENERGI
AS – SIN (Norway) • Fundacion Tecnalia
Research & Innovation – TEC (Spain)
• Technische Universiteit Delft – TU
Delft (Netherlands) • University of
Strathclyde – UST (UK) • Teknologian
tutkimuskeskus VTT Oy – VTT (Finland) •
Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network
Operator – HEDNO (Greece)
CONTACT
Thomas Strasser
Project Coordinator
T: +43 664 2351934
E: thomas.strasser@ait.ac.at
W: https://erigrid.eu/
PROJECT COORDINATOR BIO
Dr Thomas Strasser received a PhD
from Vienna University of Technology.
For several years, he has been a senior
scientist in the Center for Energy of the
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. His
main responsibilities involve strategic
development of smart grid research
projects and mentoring and advising
junior scientist and PhD candidates.
80 www.impact.pub