Digital twin of European electricity grid to be developed
Europe’s transmission and distribution system operators through their associations ENTSO-E and EU DSO Entity are to develop a digital twin of the region’s electricity grid.
In a declaration of intent the two industry organisations have committed to the joint development of the digital twin as part of the ongoing digitalisation of the energy sector.
The proposal for a digital twin of Europe’s electricity grid was one of those in the European Commission’s action plan for digitalising the energy sector, which was released in October 2022.
The digital twin will be a sophisticated virtual model of the European electricity grid. Its aim is to support the development of innovative solutions and coordination of investment to enhance the efficiency and smartness of the grid.
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The focus is on five areas: observability and controllability; efficient infrastructure and network planning; operations and simulations for a more resilient grid; active system management and forecasting to support flexibility and demand response; and data exchange between TSOs and DSOs.
Hervé Laffaye, President of the ENTSO-E Assembly, commented that ENTSO-E and the DSO Entity are already collaborating in various areas to ensure a common approach for the European electricity grids.
“[The declaration] marks the path to a new activity to the common working endeavour of which we are very proud.”
Vincenzo Ranieri, President of the EU DSO Entity, added that the two organisations will closely cooperate to provide further guidance to grid operators to optimise their investments into smartening the network.
“This will optimise the way grid operators manage their network, unleashing resiliency and flexibility potentials. In that way, the European power system can effectively evolve as an enhanced open grid which will empower consumers to take an active part in the energy transition.”
Digital twin task force
To kickstart the digital twin development a common task force will be established to work out an implementation plan and identify joint actions and deliverables.
The action plan envisaged that the digital twin would not be created in one go but would be a continuous investment and innovation effort for years to come, which also would ensure synergies with upcoming initiatives on virtual worlds such as the metaverse.
In parallel, the development of the digital twin is expected to be supported through the definition by the regional and national regulatory authorities of a set of common smart grid indicators to enable them to monitor and guide investments to smarten the electricity grid.
The EC’s digitalisation action plan estimates that around €170 billion (US$180 billion) investments in digitalisation will be needed out of a total of around €400 billion in the distribution grid – and a total of €584 billion in the electricity grid as a whole – in the period 2020 to 2030 to achieve the ‘Fit for 55’ and REPowerEU plan targets.
