transformation
Ollersdorf, Austria 
The main targets to develop the MEVPP approach are :
- Integrating existing control algorithms, weather/demand predictions, demand response mechanisms and management strategies for the integration of flexible assets and energy generation with 1-sec horizon ;
- Setting the required framework for the participation of RECs in the diverse energy markets.
The MEVPP will enable to offer collective services both within the community and to the external DSO in a way that the energy networks can work smoothly based on self-management mechanisms. Providing all these services will be possible thanks to the high-resolution data-handling communication architecture of the MEVPP with the demonstration assets.
Among others, the MEVPP will offer as a service collective self-consumption, an innovative measure that pursues to minimize the needs to import energy from the grid, which means a strong advantage especially for those areas that are weakly connected to the national grid and frequently affected by unexpected events. Furthermore, collective peak saving will allow to reduce peak load, bringing economic incentives to the REC, and the jointly operation of the energy assets will also permit to offer voltage control services to assure the power quality within the power grid. The operation with a sector-coupling approach will boost the flexibility, therefore selling it will constitute an alternative for both the congestion management in medium and low-voltage grids and the participation in ancillary services markets. In addition, common energy trading will also be considered. Finally, in terms of users’ participation in the MEVPP strategies, energy behavior demand-response models will be created and integrated as a mean of using the most of their flexibility.
The different strategies offered by the MEVPP will be tested and validated using real-time simulations based on a hardware-in-the-loop approach. After this preliminary validation, the MEVPP will be deployed in each pilot site according to the national regulations and interests of each REC, and their capacity to participate in the different energy markets will be showed, assessed and potentially exploited.
The creation of decentralised clean energy power grids is a vital resource in tackling climate change and will help societies deliver on ever tougher emissions reduction targets. Aggregating hundreds of assets to create Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) can mitigate the need to build new fossil-fuel power stations, thus supporting the decarbonisation of the grid. Leveraging from previous experience, including the first large-scale multi-asset VPP to stabilize the European power grid, Centrica Business Solutions will be responsible to develop multi-energy power plants (MEVPP) in the LocalRES project.
Sector coupling contributes to the cost-effective decarbonisation of the local energy system and lower the overall costs of the energy transition by exploiting the synergies and interactions between different energy networks and assets. LocalRES will develop a Multi-Energy VPP to optimise the joint operation of the energy networks and vectors included in the local energy systems (electricity, heating, mobility, etc.), tackling both generation and end-use. The MEVPP will optimize in real-time different energy vectors and different energy and flexibility services provided by the REC, according to their community preferences. The MEVPP will maximize the RES contribution, enhance the energy system flexibility and security of supply.
