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EUTC Co-Organised a Joint Networking Session Involving ICT4SMARTDG and SEESGEN-ICTEUTC co-organised a Joint Networking Session entitled: "ICT for SmartGrids with DER: Building the European Power System of Tomorrow" and involving ICT4SMARTDG and SEESGEN-ICT Thematic Networks (TNs). This Joint Networking Session was organised on the occasion of ICT 2010 and took place in Brussels on 27-29 September 2010.
ICT 2010 is a biennial event that has become a unique gathering point for researchers, business people, investors, and high level policy makers in the field of digital innovation. ICT 2010 focused on policy priorities such as Europe's Digital Agenda and the next financial programme of the European Union. The two main themes for the event were ICT for sustainable growth in a low carbon economy and ICT for and by the citizen. The Joint Networking Session took place on 28 September 2010. It focused on the ICT technologies enabling the use and implementation of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) in order to boost energy efficiency. Therefore, the scope of the Session gave further opportunities both to the FP7 and CIP programmes and was completely aligned with the 20-20-20 objectives and the EU ICT strategy roadmap.
Miguel Angel Sánchez Fornié, Director of Telecommunications and Control Systems of Iberdrola and Chairman of EUTC, chaired the session. He introduced the Networking Session pointing out the importance of all initiatives aimed at solving the problems faced by the energy sector. He showed with figures the urgency of the actions also related to the forecasted impact on the network stability of the huge growth of the use of DER, mainly of renewables. He stressed that ICT can provide the solutions and increase the hosting capacity of the Grid. However, the energy world and ICT world are still too far at present.
The session continued with a presentation of both TNs by their respective coordinators.
Giorgio Franchioni, of RSE and Coordinator of SEESGEN-ICT, recalled the motivating context, the objectives of the TN, the organisation and the main topics of the networking activities. He showed some results of the work done in terms of ICT requirements, barriers and solutions, with major emphasis on the proposed concept of Demand Side Service oriented Platform, a technical environment where the service potential of active users can be fully developed.
Peter Moray, Director of EUTC and Coordinator of ICT4SMARTDG, presented the objectives and organisation of the TN. He pointed out the need for urgent actions to improve the awareness on the ongoing evolution of the network and its impact, especially with reference to the most widely representative stakeholder: the user. He stressed that a strong bi-directional telecommunication infrastructure, real time applications and systems to ensure the safety of the network are the priorities.
The session continued with a panel discussion chaired by Maher Chebbo of SAP who introduced the panellists and presented the topics of the debate: the facilitation of DER integration, fostering the EU harmonisation of the approach, the promotion of standardisation, the creation of a consensus and demonstrate implementation.
The invited panellists were:
Before the discussion each of them shared hits experience related to smart grids.
On the occasion of the debate it appears, as regards the need to optimise the different initiatives on the subject, that the Commission is closely coordinating the activities, thus reducing the risk of duplication. But, different views on the same subject can sometimes benefit the process. In any case, the produced material is open and at the disposal of all stakeholders. For instance, the Commission’s Task Force for Smart Grids is largely using the produced results.
On the possibility of re-using the monitoring and control tools of HV-Transmission Networks for MV and LC Distribution Networks, it has been pointed out the unsuitability of the actual SCADA systems to fulfil the needs of the Active Demand. Having mainly in mind the potential of e-mobility, new functions to manage the new services are needed to ensure real added value for the customers.
The panellists stressed that the possibility to export the security scheme proposed in The Netherlands to the rest of EU needs to be treated with caution, taking into account the different sensibility and sensitivity in each country.
It was mentioned that many incentives to the private sector have been used but not always with the expected results. Public-private partnerships seem more promising and a larger number of pilot projects should be someway pushed.
Panellists said, as regards the possible roll-out of the German “e-energy” scheme in the EU, that a final position is difficult for the moment. It would be worth waiting to rely on the lessons learned from the progress made and in order to depurate the results from spurious impacting effects.
Regarding the suitability of the present grid status to host the Smart Grids evolution, a problem could arise from the limited hosting capacity. The European grid is stronger than the US one, but the problem is how to integrate all DERs. Examples of local difficulties in Germany have been mentioned. e-mobility solutions and sustainability have to be taken deeply into consideration. Large investments have to be accounted to face the very urgent problem of the energy sector.
To conclude, panellists stressed that the transformation of the actual electricity grid architecture towards the Smart Network is a must for the future energy sustainability in the EU. The role of ICT is essential to manage and maintain the process, to sustain a healthy service competition and to create the conditions for better energy efficiency.
Clear awareness of all stakeholders on the ongoing Smartgrids evolution is a pre-requisite of its success. Actions to involve end-users are specially urgent and needed. Opportunities offered by networking activities should be emphasised.
Several initiatives are in progress in order to foster and accelerate the evolution process such as R&D, networking, regulation, standardisation, etc.. A better coordination could optimise these efforts, in order to put in practice the good progresses that have already been done, allowing the technology transfer and the development of suitable business models at EU level. Specifically there is a strong need for pilot projects and Large Scale Demonstrations.
It is absolutely necessary and urgent to foster all initiatives which may speed up the transition to Smartgrids if we want to attain the 20/20/20 objectives: 2020 is knocking on our door.
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