The project is started on 01.11.2018. Project studies in 2018 includes period of November and December of 2018. The project starts with developing a consortium agreement (CA) among the project partners. A draft CA is prepared by the project manager and distributed to the project partners for their review and comments. While this process is ongoing, kick off meeting schedule is planned through teleconferences among the project partners. It is agreed to make the kick off meeting in Bucharest on 30.11.2018 under the host of BUES Romania. Partners worked their approaches on their leading tasks to be presented at the kick off meeting. Kick off meeting was performed at BUES with the participation of all parties except partners from Sweden (i.e., KIC IE and KTH).
The reason of their non-participation is that the status of KIC IE has changed and the company is restructured. A new Partner type company (Power2U) is constructed and the experts who are proposed for the Smart MLA project are switched to that company. Therefore, Swedish Energy Agency (SWEA) did not approve the local funding agreement with the Swedish partners. The situation is resolved as follows: KIC IE asked to quit from the funding program but continue to support the project on voluntary basis under Power2U Company.
A similar situation occurred for the project partner MET in Romania. MET asked local funding agency to quit from funding but continue to support the project as voluntary basis, similar to Power2U. These developments are discussed among the project management committee and agreed to distribute the leading tasks of Power2U (replacing KIC IE) and MET among the most relevant partners. All partners agreed on a revised project plan based on these changes. All these developments are reported to knowledge community and representatives of all local funding agencies.
After this development, the CA and project plan are revised considering the changes of the statuses of Power2U (replacing KIC IE) and MET. Final version of the CA and project plan are published at mid-February 2019 - due to clarification process of Power2U (replacing KIC IE) and MET continued until mid Feb (internal processes, voluntary support letters, discussion on distribution of leading tasks of Power2U (replacing KIC IE) and MET, etc.)
In the project plan, November and December 2018 period includes studies on WP1 (project management activities), WP2 (Layer based optimization algorithms), and WP3 (Data framework &
cloud-based web-service). WP leaders made a presentation at the kick off meeting about their approached in the WPs and expectation of the task leaders in the WP. WP leaders and task leaders
started to work on their tasks. It is agreed to make bilateral teleconferences among the task leaders
and WP leaders as necessary to ensure alignment of the studies among the project partners.
During November and December 2018 period, design studies are performed by DTU and EPRA under the WP2- Layer based optimization algorithms. BUES and Stima Soft worked on designing WP3- Data framework & cloud-based web-service. It is planned to develop initial draft of design deliverables until the end of March 2019.
Main objective of the project is to develop multi-layer aggregator solutions integrated into an informatics prototype in order to facilitate optimum DR and grid flexibility and contribute to 100% renewable source integration. Final goal is to enable all types of electricity consumers to have access to the energy markets to trade based on their flexibility.
According to EC, Member States shall ensure that final customers are entitled to generate, store, consume and sell self-generated electricity either individually or through aggregators without being subject to disproportionately burdensome procedures. In parallel with this goal, we focus on development of efficient and accurate ICT solutions that will assist both consumers/prosumers and aggregators/DSO. Our objective is to develop a scalable data and ICT framework that integrates unstructured data from into a CC architecture. Flexible and smart contract based on block-chains will be verified in the multi-layer structure.
Objectives of the CA layers include: aggregating the flexibility from distributed energy assets; utilizing block-chain based smart contracts to enable interaction between internal energy assets and external flexibility markets; implementing of scheduling optimization to make e-mobility; to support real-time MLA concept. Objective of the Layer 3 is to develop a price-based self-scheduling optimization solution to determine optimal DR schedules for participants in day-ahead energy markets, integrating customer DR preferences and characteristics in the DSOs market clearing process.
Regarding the consumers awareness and adoption, our objective is to develop user-friendly interfaces accessible as web-services developed in CC architecture that allow them to configure, schedule, control and monitor their appliances via mobile applications. For aggregators, they will access the web-services to analyze, plan and forecast the consumption/generation in a secure environment, without additional investments in high-reliability and low-latency ICT infrastructure.
Testing and validating the prototype in TRL6 are among the objectives of the project. The feasibility of the project is facilitated mainly by our experience in interdisciplinary projects (ICT & energy), by the cohesion of the consortium members and the partnership with an aggregator and a DSO.
Results we expect at the end of the project: Revise of the project plan (after the status changes of Power2U (replacing KIC IE) and MET) will not affect the objectives and goals of the project given the fact that leading tasks of Power2U (replacing KIC IE) and MET) are taken by the most relevant partners (in terms of expertise and background). Also, activities of the leading tasks of Power2U (replacing KIC IE) and MET will mainly start in the second half of 2019. Only one task starts in Nov. 2018 but it is shifted in the revised plan - not affecting the WP duration.
On a national/regional level, all project partners are responsible for the required reporting to their funding agency according to national/regional rules in order to obtain and maintain funding during the lifetime of their portion of the project. Apart from the national/regional project review, the transnational cooperation aspects will be monitored on the ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus level. Any substantial change in an ongoing project must be reported immediately to all national/regional funding agencies involved. Project partners should be aware that changes may have implications on past, present and planned future funding.