In 2007 the European Technology Platform (ETP) for the ElectricityNetworks of the Future presented its Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) onSmartGrids. Drawing on contributions from research institutes,industry, regulators and utilities, the 2007 document identified themain areas requiring investigation in the short and medium term inEurope. Since then, it has provided key input to the EuropeanElectricity Grid Initiative (EEGI), laying out Smart electricityRD&D needs to achieve the EU’s targets for 2020.
Ronnie Belmans, Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven(Beligum) and Chairman of the European SmartGrids Platform, in hisforeword to the SRA 2035 report endorsed in Rome this month,explains why it was necessary to update the 2007 researchstrategy.
“The goal of this new SmartGrids SRA 2035,” he says, “consists indetermining the longer term research and innovation activities,necessary for electricity networks and intelligent electric systems by2035 and contributing to the EU’s envisioned minimum CO2 reduction ofminimally 80% by 2050. These activities should start now to enable asmooth transition from today – via progress achieved through theEuropean Electricity Grid Initiative (EEGI) and other SET-Planinitiatives by 2020 – towards an optimal smart energy system withflexibility in demand and generation by 2035.”
Just like the previous 2007 Strategic Research Agenda, he adds, “therevised SRA 2035 is a strategic document serving as key input to thenext EU Framework Programme for research and innovation (Horizon2020) – starting in 2014 – as well as other Smart electricitygrids RD&D initiatives both on national and European level.”
According to the report, Smart electricity research up to the year2035 will have to take account of the increasing impact of electricitygeneration based on renewable energy, which is expected to provide 34%of the total energy consumed by 2020. Partly as a result, futuregrids “will require massive amounts of storage, relying on technologiessuch as bulk storage and hydro energy in the mountain regions, anddistributed storage relying on other technologies, e.g.electrochemical.”
New actors and stakeholders in the electricity system are alsoexpected to emerge. Indeed, in the coming years, the consumers ofelectricity will increasingly become ‘prosumers’ – feeding electricityinto the grid as well as consuming it. “Users within the Smartelectricity grids system by 2035,” says the report, “will include anyelectricity or heat/cold conversion equipment, any mobility vehicle,any power transformation and any storage device. In such a system,users – both technology and human beings – can act individually oraggregate to participate in the market.”
At the same time, an increasing challenge will come from theincreased presence of zero or even positive energy buildings, and theincorporation of renewable sources. By their very nature, these exhibitfluctuations in availability and productivity. Smart electricity gridstechnology will need to cover the energy demands of night timeintervals when Solar Photovoltaic (PV) cells are not generatingelectricity, or winter days in cold climate regions when not enoughheat is generated by solar power on the house roof or heat pumps andduring intervals (days or weeks) when planned power is not availablefor unforeseen contingencies.
The nature of the interactions between the transmission anddistribution networks is also expected to change in the years up to2035. “Due to the drastically changing nature of the grid users,” saysthe report, “electricity generation is becoming less controllable andelectricity consumption is becoming increasingly varied; thearchitecture and technology used for the transmission and distributiongrids and their system interaction will need to change.”
Legal frameworks must be adapted to go along with this evolution ofthe electricity system and grids. This means that tasks, obligationsand business activities of those actors that will intervene in theelectricity system must be clearly defined.
The interfaces between regulated grid monopolies and competitivemarket-based business activities will be challenged due to theincreasingly bundled technical system effects, such as the massiveintroduction of distributed and concentrated storage.
The use of hybrid fossil/electric or fully electric vehicles andtheir need for both slow and fast charging infrastructures will alsoneed to be fundamentally considered.
The period up to 2035 is seen as a time of transition, whereresearch is needed to determine how the functions and the actions of aninitially low number of new actors should be regulated. Designing alegal framework with regulated and measurable goals for eachstakeholder, says the report, “will make it necessary to incorporate anincreased level of intelligent functionalities, thus supporting theoverall SmartGrids systems goals. Research must be done to analyze howthis system intelligence can be made easily accessible to the largestmajority of the users, while keeping costs as low as possible.”
Since the initiation of the Smart electricity grids revolution in2006, the report concludes, the world has changed. “Without SmartGridstechnologies, the grid-based system would become less stable anddisruption in the supply may occur much more frequently. Investments inthe grid are long-living. There are long lags between the formulationof an idea for a research topic and the time by when the result of thatresearch can be applied in SmartGrid infrastructure, meaning it is nowtime to formulate the necessary new RD&D needs in Europe for theyear 2035.”
For further information, see the full SRA 2035 report: