Portugal’s EUniversal flexibility demo gets going
Portuguese distribution system operator (DSO) E-REDES is engaging seventy residential and business customers to participate in the EUniversal flexibility project demonstration.
The demonstration, one of three in the EU Horizon 2020 supported EUniversal project, is focused on testing a range of novel use cases to validate a universal interface for activating flexibility.
The concept, named the Universal Market Enabling Interface (UMEI), is designed to ensure interoperability between the operating needs of the electrical system and the flexibility market offerings integrating DSOs, TSOs and other market agents in an open, safe environment.
As such it is intended to form the basis for the development of new business perspectives and market solutions while providing the mechanisms for the active participation of consumers in the system.
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The 70 customers in the demonstration are from the towns of Alcochete, Mafra, Évora and Caldas da Rainha, which are complementary in terms of the tools and services to be tested, including smart grid functionality, congestion management, resilience, demand side response and flexibility mapping.
The four use cases under investigation are congestion management in MV grids and integrated voltage control in MV and LV grids for the day-ahead market and voltage control and congestion management for days/weeks in advance and for medium and long-term grid planning.
EUniversal, which was launched in February 2020 and runs to July 2023, is being delivered by a consortium of 19 partners from eight countries, with E-REDES as the coordinator.
The other demonstrations are taking place in Germany by E.ON and Mitnetz Strom as a solution to support the large-scale integration of renewables and in Poland by Energa as a tool to improve the monitoring and control of the distribution network.
Key outputs from EUniversal are planned to include a flexibility toolbox identifying the technologies and systems most suitable to provide flexibility services to the distribution grid and flexibility assessment tools that can quantify availability in different network locations.
EUniversal has an overall budget of €9.8 million ($9.8 million).
Editor Areti Ntaradimou spoke earlier this year to Pedro Marques about EUniversal in the EU Projects Zone podcast:
