Roadmap 4

Aggregated energy and VPPs

Energy communities, aggregated systems, Virtual Power Plants in combination with a portfolio of resources and users can be the collective emerging system that will facilitate the energy transition to the low carbon economy.

Rationale for Support

The new directives springing from the Clean Energy Pack- age of the EU aim at setting fundamental principles for well-functioning, integrated electricity markets, which through appropriate mechanisms facilitate aggregation of distributed demand and supply. Moreover:

Market participation of consumers and small busi- nesses shall be enabled by aggregation.
Customers should be allowed to make full use of the advantages of aggregation of production and sup- ply over larger regions and benefit from cross-bor- der competition.

It is aimed through this upcoming legislation that aggrega- tors are expected to play an important role as intermediar- ies between customer groups and the market.

The combination of these aspects clarifies the important role of aggregation in the future energy market, calling for aggregators to act as enablers for consumers/prosumers in respect of their access to the energy market addressing issues like:

Aggregation and demand response
Aggregation and citizens /local energy communities
Self-consumption and local settlement of generation
Aggregation and market participation
Balancing services
Meeting the aggregated needs of communities con- nected to the grid or in an islanded mode

Status

Distributed generation with its dispersed nature currently operates independently through dedicated tariff systems that vary between member states. Aggregators have been introduced in the market and technically have approached dispersed generation through portfolio of solutions aim- ing to raise the benefits to the providers of the dispersed generation. This approach introduces technology solutions like Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) capable of contributing to the day-to-day operation of the system and has managed to convince this role and some member states have giv- en market rights for their participation. + Dawn of ENERGY Communities.

Targets, Type of Activity and TRL

The objective of this roadmap is to develop systems and solutions for which PV as an integral contributor of dis- tributed generation can be pivotal in building functional energy communities aggregated and operated through ad- vance distributed controls in hierarchical set up with the integrated grid. The following targets are anticipated:

Energy communities, aggregated systems, Virtu- al Power Plants in combination with a portfolio of resources and users can be the collective emerging system that will facilitate the energy transition to the low carbon economy. Through this approach solutions can effectively address the need for over- coming energy poverty, support energy democracy, expand cooperative solutions in utilizing local en- ergy resources for the collective benefit of provid- ers and users. Peer to peer trading and use can be made feasible and emerging solutions highly attrac- tive and implementable.

For improved operational and financial benefits of these hybrid systems, aggregated portfolios will be required to efficiently provide the resource availa- bility through the prevailing market rules allowing optimal controllability of available resources with the supportive technologies like smart systems and solutions, batteries, EVs, demand flexibility etc to maximise overall system benefits and hence the achieved revenues for the benefit of all contribu- tors.

Planned activities for developing the required hybrid sys- tems and solutions based on PV as one of the primary sources of energy are the following:

Action 1: Technical development of the portfolio of tools for aggregators moving TRL from 6 to 8 by 2025
Action 2: Technical development of standardised operational models of energy communities moving TRL from 6 to 8 by 2027.
Action 3: Technical development of hierarchical control of the integrated grid moving TRL from 6 to 8 by 2030. The adaption of this hierarchical control to be extended to support islanded mode of opera- tion if added security is required.

KPIs

Possible KPIs that can be utilised for capturing progress in the above identified R&I fields are:

KPI	Target Value
A portfolio of tools to be available for the func- tioning of aggregated distributed generation	By 2025: capable of offering collective ser- vices to the system.
Standardised operational models of energy communities to be available	By 2027: facilitating the setting up and the operation of energy communities as defined in the electricity directive.
The required hierarchical control of the inte- grated grid to be standardised	By 2030: facilitating the operation of energy communities in full compliance with the grid rules and the requirements of DSOs and TSOs.