FutureFlow project could reduce costs of providing system services by 60%

With automatic frequency control, the FutureFlow project offers savings of 60%  in the cost of system services and redispatching of up to 57%, said Uroš Salobir, Strategic Innovation Director at Slovenian transmission system operator (TSO) ELES, discussing the results of the cross-border integration of markets for system services. Slovenian energy trader GEN-I also presented an overview of the potential of demand response of 600 industrial customers in 4 countries.

The project, funded with EUR 13 million under Horizon 2020, is exploring new solutions for balancing the electricity system and managing flows in the electricity network.

Participating countries are Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Germany, Romania, Slovenia, and Serbia.

According to the project’s website, progressive consumers addressed by the FutureFlow project will be capable of increasing or reducing their consumption in a few seconds, and will in this way be performing functions that are predominantly carried out by traditional, fossil fuel-based, hydro or thermal power plants.

The partners in the project are 4 EU TSOs (Slovenian ELES, Austrian APG, Romanian Transelectrica, Macedonian MAVIR), 2 research centers (Slovenian EIMV, Serbian EKC Ltd.), 2 retailers (Elektro Energija and GEN-I, both from Slovenia,) IT solution provider SAP, cyberGRID GmbH, a company specialized in demand response management, Gemalto SA, a company in digital cyber security, and 3E, a company specialized in software solutions for sustainable energy projects.

At European Utility Week in Vienna, Uroš Salobir presented the results of the project that started in 2016 and ends in 2020, during the introductory panel “Interoperable Platforms and Data Exchange for Energy Services.”

With automatic frequency control, the FutureFlow project offers 60% in savings and with redispatching of up to 57%, said Salobir.

He said that the project showed that, regardless of the innovative ideas and technical quality of the solutions, the key step and the challenge for the operation of the system is communication with customers and helping them to become active stakeholders in ensuring the reliability of the electricity system.

GEN-I analyzed 600 industrial consumers

In the scope of the project, Slovenian electricity and gas provider GEN-I has analyzed more than 600 industrial customers with the aim of preparing an overview of the potential of demand response in four countries.

“The company identified 40 customers and producers who adjusted their consumption or production in the scope of the project. In that way, it gained 29 MW in positive and 25 MW in negative capacities for regulating network frequency,” GEN-I said on its website.

With a total of 54 MW in available flexible power, system operators are provided a source for ensuring the requisite quality and reliability of the electricity system. Simulations and analyses indicate that the introduction of these services in Austria, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia (where more then 40 producers and consumers are already actively included in demand response (DR) and/or distributed generation (DG) services) could reduce the costs of providing system services by 23%.