New research centre for distribution grids to launch in Norway

The SecurEL initiative is being launched as an 8-year research ‘centre’ on distribution grids in Norway hosted by SINTEF Energy Research.

SecurEL (Secure, resilient, and sustainable electricity distribution grids) is aimed to facilitate research and innovation that both ensures security of supply and contributes to the transition to a zero emission society.

The research in SecurEL is planned to focus on the new needs for knowledge, innovation and solutions arising from the fundamental changes in the distribution grid driven by the electrification of society.

As such the centre should develop new solutions to increase grid capacity in a cost-effective and socio-economic manner and at the same time promote value creation in business, public administration and society.

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A key focus will be to study and verify new approaches for monitoring, controlling and automating energy flows in a local multi-prosumer system with dynamic consumption and production from a variety of both regulated and non-regulated sources.

Centres for environment-friendly energy research

The SecurEL research centre is one of eight that are being awarded up to NOK 1.28 billion ($122 million) from the Research Council of Norway to develop new environmentally friendly energy solutions to solve key challenges over the period 2024 to 2032.

“We cannot achieve our ambitious climate and energy goals without investing in research and development,” said Terje Aasland, Norway‘s Minister of Energy, at the announcement.

“I have great expectations for the new centres. They will play a key role in the work of procuring new knowledge, new technology and new solutions so that we can realise a low-emission society in 2050.”

Each of the centres comprises a consortium led by a research institution.

Other research partners in SecurEL are the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Institute for Energy Technology, SINTEF Applied Research, the University of South-Eastern Norway and the Fridtjof Nansens Institutt, this latter to focus on the social science aspects.

Another participant is the Gridspertise company Aidon, which will provide expertise and technologies including smart meters and AMI with a variety of APIs for piloting solutions in SecurEL.

The other research centres being funded in the programme are InterPlay (Integrated hub for energy system analyses), GigaCCS (Norwegian research centre of excellence for carbon capture and storage), RenewHydro (Norwegian research centre for renewal of hydropower technology), MarTrans (Norwegian R&D centre for maritime energy transitions), ZeMe (Zero emission metal production), SOLAR (Solar energy development across the value chain) and Battery (Next-generation and improved circular sustainable battery technology value chain).

The centres are planned to kick off at the start of 2025.