Objectives

One of the most important objectives of the project to efficiently decarbonise the energy mix is to increase the integration of renewable energy sources into the various energy grids (electric, heating and transportation networks). Indeed, difficulties to integrate the renewable energies into the existing grids hinder the development of such energies and thus the decarbonisation of the energy mix. The developments that will be made in the GIFT project concerning the Virtual Power System (VPS) and the Energy Management Systems (EMS) in WP4, and the development of storage with synergies in WP5, specifically aim to increase the penetration rate of renewables into the grid.

The GIFT solution will integrate a Flexibility Market system, which allows DSOs and BRPs competing for the localized aggregated flexibility, offered by Aggregators for a number of congestions points. For this, the participants of the market submit market bids that define baseline (reference) schedules, feasible adaptations, and price information. The integrated flexibility market system will be deployed and demonstrated in in real-world settings with a number of real prosumers, aggregators, and DSOs. Further at this level, the GIFT solution integrates a distribution grid management system, offering advanced grid state monitoring and state forecasting, and management functionalities, and compatibility to Flexibility Market. Automatic congestion mitigation will allow larger share of renewables to be connected to the grid.

The GIFT project will actively participate in such an objective through the development of a GIS platform that will give access to the modelling and forecasting of energy supply and demand. This will allow to have a better vision of the grid at each moment and the available flexibility as well as the possibility to postpone investments on the grid thanks to a smart management. Based on this information, the VPS and the EMS developed in WP4, which are ways to digitalise the grid and transform it in a smart-grid, will allow to manage this flexibility. Finally, the storage is a strong point that will be addressed in the project in the WP5 to provide more flexibility to this newly digitalised smart-grid.

GIFT will establish a (near) real-time market system, which, similarly to the existing spot- or intra-day markets, will allow hundreds of DR suppliers and consumers trading localized and/or aggregated flexibility. The market system will allow different stakeholders to make optimal use of available flexibility (and flexible DERs), thus opening new business opportunities and models – some of which will be proposed and demonstrated in real-world trials with real prosumers. In particular, it will be demonstrated how DSOs can take advantage of prosumer flexibility in economically efficient ways to mitigate distribution grid congestion problems

The GIFT project will deal with this objective in the WP5 dedicated to synergies through storage. Storage for electricity will be provided through batteries and hydrogen and synergies with the transportation sector will be done through the development of vehicle-to-grid (V2G) solutions (both naval and terrestrial). On the other hand, a synergy between the heating network and the electricity network thanks to innovative energy storage devices that allow to recover heat.

In order to be successful, the GIFT project will study the replicability and scalability of the solutions, that will have been implemented in the demonstration sites, in WP9. Moreover, WP10 will notably focus on dissemination and exploitation of the results, with the elaboration of complete business plans that will increase the replicability potential of the solutions. An analysis of obstacles and a connection with the BRIDGE initiative (WP10) as well as the interaction with a replication board (WP1) will drastically foster this objective.

In order to be successful, the GIFT project will study the replicability and scalability of the solutions, that will have been implemented in the demonstration sites, in WP9. Moreover, WP10 will notably focus on dissemination and exploitation of the results, with the elaboration of complete business plans that will increase the replicability potential of the solutions. An analysis of obstacles and a connection with the BRIDGE initiative (WP10) as well as the interaction with a replication board (WP1) will drastically foster this objective.