Power Alliance
Power Alliance - From local peak shaving to regional load shaping, a transnational demonstration initiative
At a glance
- Project leader : Dr. Silvia Ulli-Beer
- Project team : Mirjam West, Dr. Juliana Victoria Zapata Riveros
- Project status : completed
- Funding partner : Third party , Federal government (Bundesamt für Energie BFE / Projekt Nr. SI/501406)
- Project partner : Xamax AG, Stadtwerke Crailsheim GmbH, Hochschule Luzern, Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW, EBM Energie AG, ASKI Industrie-Elektronik GmbH, Alpiq AG
- Contact person : Silvia Ulli-Beer
Description
The overall aim of Power Alliance is to evaluate the
(trans)national feasibility of a traffic light approach at the grid
distribution level N5 in practical terms. The implementation of
regional load shaping devices and algorithms requires a high degree
of autonomy of the underlying system, so that no or only a minimum
of human interaction is required, while maintaining the security of
supply and fast reaction times. Furthermore, consumer behaviour
must not be impaired by the application of the technology. The
installation of necessary technology must be quick and simple, with
a minimum of maintenance effort. Finally, the architecture must be
scalable to allow for dynamic integration or removal of
participants.
Power Alliance will improve and adapt an approach to “regional load
shaping”, which had been developed in the SmartStability project at
the FHNW. The aim of the technology is to automatically shape the
collective energy behaviour of regional consumers and producers
according to a customized load schedule that ensures optimization
of grid parameters. More specifically, a region is considered a
collection of prosumers that collectively negotiate a load schedule
with their utility companies in advance. Collective dynamic load
shaping algorithms are then applied within the region to ensure
that the pre-given load schedule can be met. The negotiated load
schedule is used to achieve grid parameter optimization, while
providing participants with the flexibility to engage in the
electricity market. In emergency situations (traffic light “yellow”
or “red”), the negotiated default schedule can be overwritten to
implement more aggressive shortterm grid-stabilizing measures. To
allow for the required degree of autonomy in normal operation
(traffic light “green”), all participants offer their resources and
bids via autonomous software/hardware agents that follow a
market-oriented behaviour. The market-oriented approach ensures
that interferences with consumer requirements are minimized.
Scalability and simple installation are met, since adding or
removing a new member to or from the region amounts to adding or
removing an actor participating in the market; no further
adjustments are needed. The self-organizing character of this
approach minimizes maintenance efforts and serves as a grid
stabilization measure. The selected primary market segment shall be
SME with a medium load / generation capacity / flexibility in the
range of 50 kW up to ca. 1 MW. Another objective is to gain
experience and research results to which level data from customers
are required in order to make a traffic light based grid operation
feasible and how possible privacy issues can be managed in a
reliable way with reasonable effort. The general objectives
are:
- to develop and test energy service solutions and products that directly optimize grid operations and are applicable beyond national borders,
- to develop corresponding viable business models,
- to test equipment under field conditions,
- to elaborate differences in regulations which hinder a transnational unified operation and,
- to confirm acceptance of business models by customers and directly impacted stakeholders.
Knowledge from projects of different European institutions, and research results will be disseminated by participation in the ERA-Net Knowledge Community. The exchange within the community should also assist new ideas resulting in practical solutions at low implementation costs.