Évora demonstrator site Évora is a Portuguese Municipality located in the Alto Alentejo Region, around 130km from Lisbon, with a population of almost 60,000 inhabitants in an area of 1307,08 km2. Évora was also chosen as the first EDP Labelec smart city in the InovGrid project, a project led by EDP Distribuição, the main Portuguese Distribution System Operator (DSO), aiming at promoting a better network management and energy efficiency. The test bed itself is located in Valverde, a small rural village in the countryside of Évora, with around 450 inhabitants and 238 clients connected to the Low Voltage (LV) grid. Highlights The demonstrator is mainly focused on testing solutions of energy management and energy storage systems not only for final clients but also for distribution grid management, both under normal and emergency operation Located in Évora, Portugal, at the end of a MV feeder with no redundancy 3 secondary substations (SS): 2 DSO owned; 1client owned Rural LV grid with 238 LV clients Clients’ equipment: 25 clients are equipped with Smart Meter (SM); Home Energy Management System (HEMS); 1,5 kWp PV systems; 2 kWh batteries, water heaters LV Grid Storage: 50 kVA battery; 3 X 30 kVA batteries; 125 kVA Flywheel
Power grid architecture The power grid chosen for the Évora Demonstrator includes two grid secondary substations (Medium Voltage/LV substations) and a client-owned secondary substation. The main elements are: • A circuit breaker between the transformer’s LV side and the LV secondary substation switchgear. It will be installed in one of the secondary substation to enable the creation of a microgrid; • Distribution Transformer controller (DTC) concentrates data collected by all smart meters and send it to the upstream central systems. It is responsible for sending to smart meters DSM signals. It is also responsible for managing the storage units installed in the grid. • Electrochemical storage units (one battery with 100 kVA) and an electromechanical storage unit (flywheel with 125kVA of rated power) will be integrated and connected at one of the SS LV busbar, aiming to test different functionalities and capabilities of energy storage in grid operation. Electrochemical storage units (4 units with 30 kVA and 2 prototype units with 10 kVA) will also be installed in other points of the LV grid, along the feeders, enabling different applications like technical losses’ reduction, voltage control and renewable energy sources integration. • Smart meters that enable DSM functionalities and provide valuable data for the operation of LV systems by characterizing the energy consumption and voltage in each node of the network. Smart meters also provide important information to clients, through a Home Area Network (HAN) port where a HEMS can be connected. At residential level, behind the meter, a set of devices will be installed: • Residential electrochemical storage units and thermal storage units (water heaters); • Photovoltaic (PV) Systems as a form of microgeneration; • Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS) and Smart Plugs
ICT The architecture of all the systems and devices and data flow between these systems are defined in the image on the right. The components of the Évora architecture can be grouped according to their ownership/responsibility: Client/retailer infrastructure DSO infrastructure DSO Tools Independent actors The information between blocks flows through RTP – (Real Time integration Platform) which is a middleware communication infrastructure for real-time data acquisition and processing, with the ability to handle large volumes of information at low latency.
Client/retailer infrastructure The client/ retailer infrastructure represents the participation of residential/ services clients. DSO infrastructure The DSO infrastructure is responsible for managing and control the distribution network as well as concentrating and processing the data collected from smart meters. DSO Tools DSO tools incorporate the main algorithms and systems required for the operation of MV and LV networks considering the integration of storage, micro-generation and flexible loads. Independent actors This block comprises three tools: PV Production Forecast, Electric Demand Forecast and Residential Flexibly Aggregator. In addition, the Residential Flexibility Aggregator is responsible to both aggregate clients’ flexibility and allocate the necessary flexibility for each client. Market Platform The Market Platform includes both the EMSP (Energy Market Service Platform) and the Energy Markets components that will emulate an energy market.
Use Cases The objectives of the demonstration work are materialized into 5 use cases, of which 4 are mainly related with grid management and the last one is focused on client flexibility and demand management Grid UC 1 - OPTIMIZING THE OPERATION OF STORAGE DEVICES IN THE MV NETWORK IN NORMAL AND EMERGENCY OPERATION Normal operation: Manage MV storage devices in order to solve technical problems at the MV network level (e.g. degradation of voltage profiles, losses). The storage devices are assumed to have two objectives: (a) reserve capacity to support continuity of service of an installation (or building) and (b) the residual capacity is used for grid support; Emergency operation: In case of MV failure, the MV grid will be operated in islanding operation and LV grid will contribute to MV stability, through active and reactive power supply from LV DER. Main goal is to last islanding operation until main grid can be reconnected UC 2 - OPTIMIZING THE OPERATION OF STORAGE DEVICES IN THE LV NETWORK The main goal is to manage local distributed storage devices in order to solve technical problems in the LV grid (namely related to voltage issues) and minimize technical losses. The storage devices are to be coordinated with renewable generation at the LV level as well as with demand side management schemes, considering residential storage and controllable loads. UC 3 - ISLANDING TRASIENT IN LOW VOLTAGE ISLANDING The main goal is to enable the operation of LV networks in islanding mode, ensuring the secure transition to islanding operation and the system stability, by providing adequate frequency and voltage regulation mechanisms. UC 4 - MICROGRID EMERGENCY BALANCE During islanding operation, the unbalance between LV generation and load will have to be minimized in order to avoid the system collapse. The main objectives of this module are i) Minimize energy not supplied and time of service interruption; ii) Ensure that the MG has sufficient capacity to ensure frequency regulation following islanding; iii) Maintain frequency excursions within admissible limits. UC 5 - Flexibility and DSM in market participation The scope is about LV customer flexibility market participation (wholesale and retail) and also regarding grid assess management by application of grid access dynamic tariffs or other types of flexibility award to clients Retail