ERA-NET E-REGIO: SMART COMMUNITY ENERGY MARKETS

E-REGIO has developed, analyzed, tested and validated, a new way of structuring a local energy market, based on storage as market centers. The goal has been to complement previous research by adapting market design and solutions to local energy markets through the use of neighborhood batteries as a central energy storage, and then test this live on different demo venues in Europe. Two pilot sites have been developed, one in Sweden and one in Norway. Several delays have been experienced during the project period. Due to the technical novelty and magnitude of the installations several issues and technical challenges have had to be overcome. Even after commissioning weaknesses, technical failures and other changes have had to be made. The lessons learned from all of this are many. As an example sub-contractors and suppliers failed to deliver on time and deliveries proved to be off-spec when tested. The V2G chargers in Sweden is a case in point. Several inverters that were initially procured for the Norwegian pilot needed replacement too. Delays once more occurred due to the Covid-19 situation. As a consequence of all this the project period was extended. The pilot in Sweden has been operating satisfactorily since March 2019, but some parts of the system have required replacement. This applies to both batteries and V2G charging posts. Considerable experience has been gained around this type of technology. Our original partner, Innoenergy, spun-out from the project a new, commercial company to manage the pilot during the project period. This company, Power2U, picked up results that were developed during the early phase of the project. Especially the ideas related to flexibility services and stacking of these. One, principal ambition of Power2U was to use E-Regio to develop a concept that enabled them to qualify for the Swedish frequency market by consolidating assets at residential level and aggregate flexibility from smart charging, batteries and demand-response. With this as the bearing revenue generator, other flexibility services directed towards the households themselves were part of the business model adopted. This included a centralized, local market. This process led to frequent interactions with the Swedish TSO and modifications to the concept. The simulations conducted in the project by the Dutch partner helped to resolve several issues associated with this. In June 2020 the Swedish TSO qualified Power2U as a pertinent flexibility provider for the frequency market. That is a major project achievement. Skagerak has been responsible for the Norwegian pilot. They have been supported by eSmart Systems that has been the technical developer that provides strategic and economic control of the assets in the Norwegian pilot. eSmart Systems has developed a forecast tool and optimization tool for flexibility operations. This part of the project calculates latent flexibility and makes projections on how it can be applied. In addition a decentralized local market has been implemented supported by software agents. The concept originated in the early phases of the project. The agents receive input from the forecast module and make bids and asks accordingly and within the limits specified by its owner. There is one agent per asset (e.g. battery and PV panel). The Norwegian pilot has not completed testing yet, but early trials indicate that there is a 15-18% gain for participants to take part in the local market instead of just buying and selling to the grid. A concept for flexibility trade can be augmented to the basic energy trade. The project has published a number of articles on the concepts that have been developed and has actively participated in the knowledge forum of the ERA-Net community. A final and open webinar on E-Regio was held at the end of the project.

Power2U har nådd markedet ved hjelp av modeller og software utviklet i prosjektet. De har kvalifisert seg for frekvensmarkedet i Sverige som første selskap som aggregerer fleksibilitet blant boligeiere. Dette har stor betydning or Svenska Kraftnätet som med dette starter en ny æra. eSmart Systems markedsfører og selger E-Regio resultater rundt forecasting av fleksibilitet og optimaliserte kontrollplaner i produktet ConnectedProsumer. Skagerak har utviklet et stort anlegg rundt sin pilot med hjelp av E-Regio. Anlegget for stor oppmerksomhet har inspirert tilsvarende prosjekter flere steder i Norge. Samarbeidet mellom eSmart Systems og Skagerak fortsetter. Den distributerte handelsplattformen utviklet for Skagerak videreutvikles av Smart Innovation Norway og UiT og skal testes ut på flere steder i Norge. Prosjektet har bidratt til å sette norsk teknologi og innovativitet på det europeiske kartet. Smart Innovation Norway kommer til å fortsette F&U arbeidet med Utrecht Universitetet.

The overarching objective of the E-REGIO project is to uncover a flagship demonstration of a local smart community energy market that is transferable across different market actor types and across different regions in Europe. E-REGIO combines market knowledge and information exchange expertise with technology innovations to create a replicable flexibility management model for local communities. The project will study the combined use of different energy sources to obtain increased flexibility at the local power system level. E-REGIO aims at collecting implementation guidelines and tools, such that regions across Europe can both see the benefits and replicate the market design. E-REGIO - SMART COMMUNITY ENERGY MARKETS project builds on significant key projects like NOBEL, CA-EN-GENCO, Flex-Market, and POWERMATCHER, in which several of the partner institutions have participated in or led. The project develops the tools, guidelines and insights required to successfully analyze, implement, scale and replicate local smart community grids and markets. E-REGIO specifically builds on the business models, ICT-tools and energy management concepts developed within the scope of the existing Empower (local Electricity retail Markets for Prosumer smart grid pOWER services; Project ID: 646476) and further develops and analyse these results with the aim for wide-spread replication and adoption.