ENSURE - New Energy Network Structures for the Energy Transition

 

ENSURE is one of the four Kopernikus-Projects launched by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research in 2016, as the largest research initiative for the implementation of the Energiewende, and one of the few that bring together the strongest (interdisciplinary and partly competing) partners from industry, research and teaching (institutes of the RWTH, KIT, E.ON, TenneT, SIEMENS, ABB, and 17 other participants are involved). The aim of ENSURE's research is to find the optimal mixture of central and decentralized supply, exploit new power electronic technologies (phase shifters, UPFCs, HVDC) and ICT technologies and develop cross-sectoral operational concepts (that consider electricity and gas networks), which enable a reliable and efficient energy supply with more than 80% share of renewable energy.

 

In order to achieve the targets set by the Federal Government for the energy supply system of 2050 within the Energiewende concept, the installed power of renewable energies will have to be around three times the peak load, including storage and control plants, in order to maintain the supply security at the current level.

In addition to the electricity supply, gaseous and liquid chemical fuels and heat as energy forms are to be integrated into the holistic optimization of a sustainable energy supply.

Within the framework of the ENSURE project, two main objectives are pursued:

Objective 1 is the identification of a structure (appropriately composed of centralized and decentralized supply) that is both techno-economically and socially meaningful, together with a suitable stable system operation including new technologies.

   

For Objective 2, the findings regarding the optimized interplay of a holistic energy supply system with central and decentralized elements will be implemented in a large-scale demonstration project.

Phase 1 will produce a comprehensive concept to smoothly integrate the multitude of newly developed technologies into an existing supply system. Phase 2 will develop a test environment to investigate partial aspects. Phase 3 will leverage of previous results to build a multimodal network demonstrator by 2025.

The ENSURE project is organized into five theme clusters, which are described in more detail here. ACS
is involved in Cluster 3, where efficient system operation concepts are developed. We place our
emphasis on the provision of ancillary services and system stability. In parallel, we discuss the
integration of the ICT infrastructure (in Cluster 4), together with its impact on security of supply.

The particular research questions of the ENSURE team at ACS are:

• Definition of ancillary services to be provided by distributed production units and storage to
  support overall system management, with a focus on:
  • Virtual rotating mass
  • Frequency control
  • Islanding and self-synchronization
  • Black Start.
• Development of stability criteria for a system characterized by a lack of rotating masses.
• Development of automation concepts for operation with the aim of using energy at the level
  of production (cell structure). Pool-based resource management using a multiagent approach,
  considering congestions.
• Operation requirements for ICT (what communication features should be available for certain
  system operation applications)
• Identification of the characteristics of various existing and future ICT technologies (data speed,
  reliability, etc.). Overview of ICT standards for smart grid applications and their implications
  for individual tasks.
• Influence of bandwidth limits and delays of conventional industrial protocols and realistic
  characteristics of telecommunication technologies on the control and stability behavior of
  converter systems.
• Provide a simulation environment for validation of the operation concept with selected ICT
  technology.

 

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports the project under identification 100297733.

 

Announcements

The ENSURE Cluster 4 workshop was held on 27th February at Nexans in Hannover. ACS was represented by Igor Sowa and Stefan Dähling. Besides the review of the current progress in the cluster "New Technologies", the participants also discussed the planning of the subsequent project phase

 

The ENSURE Cluster 3 workshop was held on 19th February at EnergieCampus Nürnberg, together with WP workshops the days before. ACS was represented by David Raisz and Lukas Razik. Besides the review of the current progress in the cluster "System operation Concepts", the participants also discussed the planning of project phase 2, which aims at lab scale / pilot scale implementation.

 

Dr. David Raisz represented ACS with a poster and at a roundtable discussion at the statusworkshop of the project ENSURE in Aachen.

 

Stefan Dähling, Lukas Razik, Igor Sowa and Dr. David Raisz represented ACS at the joint Cluster2-Cluster3 meeting of ENSURE, in Berlin, from 04. to 06. July

 

At the ENSURE CLUSTER 3-Meeting in Oldenburg ACS was represented by Stefan Dähling (who leads the „Co-simulation" working group 3.1.2), Igor Sowa (contributes to AP.3.2 with collaborative optimization strategies in an aggregator), Lukas Razik (working in AP.3.1 „ICT related solutions") and David Raisz (responsible for milestone M3.2.1 „Concepts of System Operation and Automation" and contributing to AP 3.4 „Stability aspects"). Our results and plans for future works were appreciated by our partners.

 

E.ON ERC hosted the Cluster 3 joint meeting from 26 to 27 July. Shortly before this, ACS hosted two preliminary workshops (for contributors in work packages 3.1 and 3.4 respectively). ACS was represented by Stefan Dähling, David Raisz and Igor Sowa.

 

Lukas Razik, Stefan Dähling and Igor Sowa represented ACS at the ENSURE Cluster 4 and Cybersecurity Workshop in Ladenburg .

 

Over 60 participants met for a two-day workshop in Erlangen to define next steps for Cluster 3 work packages. ACS was represented by Bettina Schäfer, David Raisz and Stefan Dähling.

 

The project ENSURE, one of the four BMBF-funded Kopernikus projects, was kicked off in a meeting with all partners in Karlsruhe. Bettina Schäfer attended from ACS.