EU policy makers have set ambitious targets for the decarbonisation of the energy system, demanding increased levels of energy efficiency and world leading levels of renewable energy technologies.
By 2050, electricity use is estimated to increase from 20% of the overall EU energy use today to 40% of energy needs. Currently, Renewable Energy Sources from Electricity (RES-E) accounts for approximately 30% of overall electricity demand. By 2030 the EU have set a target to increase this to over 50%. This represents a seismic challenge to how we will operate the pan-European power system of the future.
The primary increase in RES-E will come from technologies such as wind and solar. Due to their intermittent and non-synchronous characteristics, power system operators must devise solutions which ensure stability and reliability of the future power system at all time. These solutions can be described as System Services and Flexibility which address stability, power system resilience, balancing of load, increasing needs for reserves and flexibilities in existing and new generation sites. The scale of non-synchronous technologies on the future power system relative to large thermal power stations will results in a system with less inertia and less operational capacities for dispatching or for restoration. Finally, the power system of the future is becoming more decentralised and therefore there is greater need for cross sectoral coordination of the power system between transmission to distribution level. Consequently, there is a need to achieve greater levels of digitalization of the power system to exchange and manage data closer to real-time between producers, consumers, system and market operators is an imperative.
The overall objective of the EU-SysFlex project is to facilitate the provision of effective and sufficient level of system services and power system flexibility to ensure that the objective of 50% RES-E by 2030 is met. This requires defining the right amount of flexibility and system services to support transmission system operators using a threefold approach.
The EU-SysFlex project consortium is represented right across the electricity sector, consisting of 34 partners from 15 European countries. The consortium consists of TSOs, DSOs, generation companies, technology providers, research institutes, academia an aggregator and retailers. The project consortium is supported by an advisory board consisting of industry representative bodies ENTSO-E, E.DSO Wind Europe, Eurelectric, USEF, IWEA as well a number of European and International TSOs and European DSOs.
