“Study and demonstration of NEW GRID CONTROL ARCHITECTURES both at transmission and distribution level”.

Task co-leaders:
– ITALIA – Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico – RSE
– USA – US Department of Energy – DoE

Sub-tasks:

  • 5.1 Collection of available new grid control architectures
  • 5.2 Basis for control architectures comparison
  • 5.3 Enhanced new control architectures
  • 5.4 Control architecture solutions for the electric network convergence and integration with other domains
  • 5.5 Impact of new control architectures on regional grids
  • 5.6 Impact of new control architectures on distribution grids
  • 5.7 Microgrids interoperability
  • 5.8 Available new technologies for smart grids
  • 5.9 ICT infrastructures

Scope

The need for a transition towards a new grid control framework is based on the changes that are taking place in the todays’ power systems. The always growing replacement of conventional bulk generation with new power plants with radically different characteristics is one important change that makes power system operation more challenging. Generation is shifting from classical dispatchable units to more intermittent renewables and an increasing amount of generation units is no longer connected to the transmission system but to the distribution system. This trend, together with the fact that new power plants will be in many case much smaller than the conventional ones, results in a big challenge for the control and operation of the future power system.

Main objectives

The key objective of this task is to assess and compare emerging control architectures enabling secure operation of the power system with very high penetration of electric energy generated by renewable energy sources. The analysis and assessment is aimed to identify the most promising solutions and/or possible synergies among them that can contribute to the design of an optimal control architecture for the future power system. Moreover, the work will highlight the benefits associated to each control architecture as well as the impact and requirements on the ICT infrastructure and energy markets.