Classification of viable control architectures

I. Lampropoulos

Research output: Book/ReportReportAcademic

2 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The E-Price project focuses on maintaining a real-time power balance in the EU electricity network, in spite of (large) errors in the prediction of both electricity generation and load. Prediction errors increase both in size and in frequency, in parallel with the increasing penetration of less-predictable renewable energy technologies, energy market liberalisation and the more active involvement of producers and consumers. Present arrangements can no longer reliably and efficiently cope with this power imbalance. The E-Price project proposes a price-based control approach as a coherent methodological framework to ensure the feasibility, the reliability and the efficiency of the future European power system, to anticipate and to support market based operation and decentralized decision making. The underlying motivation of the project is to facilitate the integration of significant amounts of less-predictable renewable energy sources, to support market liberalization, avoid or reduce gaming/free-riding and to allow the active participation of small-size prosumers in grid-services (through aggregation), by introducing proper price-based incentives. The main objective of the first work package is to identify and define all relevant architectural, organisational, regulatory and economical constraints, features and specifications arising from the EU strategic goals and vision for its future power systems. All these aspects will be respected during the project execution. Although sharing the main strategic goals, national power grids in Europe currently exhibit rather significant diversity of employed solutions regarding market, operational and control architectures. Different operational, market, control and supporting ICT solutions are assessed and classified. Both currently employed solutions and the state-of-the-art approaches as presented in relevant scientific literature are considered. In the first chapter, the scope of this report, the relevance of this task to the E-Price project as well as the project approach is discussed. An overview of the operational layers which are relevant to price-based control architectures of electrical power systems is also included. Since the E-Price project outcomes will be directly oriented towards real-life implementations, the starting point consists of an investigation of current power systems. In chapter 2, current practices, with a special focus in the E.U., regarding operational, market, control and ICT architectures are described and classified. Special focus is given to the Dutch, Swiss and Italian systems, since these are the three countries where the E-Price consortium partners are mainly located, thus specific knowledge is available. Furthermore, with the objective to illustrate the opportunities, but also the challenges, related to price-based control architectures, the Dutch system will be considered as a reference within the E-Price project. For reasons which are explicitly stated in this report, the Dutch power system, in relation to its neighbouring cross-border connections, is considered ideal for a price-based control investigation. Still the outcomes of the E-Price project will be relevant for other national systems within Europe (and elsewhere). Chapter 3 discusses the vision for the future power system, and the efforts towards the creation of an Internal Energy Market (IEM) in Europe. The Smart Grid concept and relevant technologies are also presented. Chapter 4 provides a research overview on operational, market, control and ICT architectures. Following a survey on European Projects, the E-Price consortium identified relevant scientific work, and established a complementary position among other major European projects related to the above mentioned topics. Furthermore, a thorough literature study on relevant scientific research provided the E-Price consortium with knowledge on some fundamental limitations of non-centralised control structures (distributed and decentralised control) which are essential for the definition of tractable power system control structures, and the definition of supportive information and communication networks. The report ends with conclusions and recommendations for the execution of the E-Price project.
Original languageEnglish
Place of PublicationEindhoven
PublisherEindhoven University of Technology
Number of pages93
Publication statusPublished - 2010

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Classification of viable control architectures'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this