SIX IC1 R&D TASKS
Smart Grids Research priorities to concentrate the efforts on in the near future
IC1 aims to help put the smart grids sector on a pathway such that technological solutions that can accommodate up to 100% renewable based power plants are deployed at scale across the globe.
Research and Development in the field of Smart Grids is needed to address the challenges related to the development, integration, operation, management and optimization of accessible, reliable and resilient power systems with steadily increasing penetration of RES worldwide and collaboration among countries is Key.
IC1 aims at developing an improved and shared understanding of main R&D needs and gaps, fostering national research towards jointly identified R&D priorities, thus promoting opportunities to researchers, innovators and investors from around the world and strengthening and expanding collaboration between key partners, leveraging on their existing complementarities and synergies.
In order to identify the most relevant Research and Development (R&D) priorities in the national strategies of IC1 member countries, a Questionnaire was defined and circulated to all IC1 members with the aim to agree and then launch IC1 activities related to the topics that gathered more interest. See more at this page.
As a result of the elaboration of the received questionnaires, Global R&D smart grids priorities were identified: the Top Ten “Smart Grid Challenges”. These challenges were discussed and analysed in IC1 Deep Dive Workshops (Bejing, New Delhi, Malmoe/Copenhagen, Rome and Vancouver) and SIX R&D Tasks to be firstly addressed by IC1 and, within them, 37 research themes (Sub-tasks) were identified. Tasks Co-leaders were also defined together with the countries interested in contributing to the tasks/sub-tasks activities.
A first draft of R&D Tasks Programme of Work (PoW) 2019-2020 was then defined, a document describing the Tasks’ activities for a two-year timeframe for the six initial Tasks around which international collaboration will be focused, including Tasks’ scope and objective as well as Tasks’ Milestones and Deliverables (e.g., joint reports, white papers, joint workshops, papers). Task Co-leaders in charge of developing, circulating, finalizing, supervising the PoW and managing the task activities were identified, together with IC1 Countries interested in contributing to Tasks activities. The draft R&D Tasks PoW was presented at the 4th IC1 Workshop in Rome (November 2018) and tasks progress and new steps discussed at the 5th IC1 Workshop (Vancouver, May 2019), where a draft guideline for IC1 task leaders was defined.
The R&D Tasks PoW is still being finalized and is not yet available for consultation.
Work is in progress on IC1 R&D tasks and the spectrum of activities is expected to be widened taking into account additional priorities expressed by the member countries and other smart grid stakeholders.