The INVADE project

What is it about?

Our current electrical infrastructure face several challenges in the coming years, one being a greater share of renewable energies, another is aging infrastructure. These challenges should be resolved in a cost-efficient manner.

Renewable energies set higher demands to system resilience and flexibility, as we deal with intermittent energy resources, and it is oftentimes produced locally in the distribution grid. New system infrastructure is very expensive, urging for better use of existing infrastructure in conjunction with new inexpensive technologies.

Better energy services

INVADE seeks to solve these issues by combining already existing technologies into a new framework. At the core is a cloud-based flexibility management system integrated with electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries empowering energy storage to increase the share of renewables in the smart grid. Additionally, smart control of domestic appliances will aid in load-balancing over the course of a day.

Combining physical batteries with state of the art data technology will open new marketplaces to trade energy and energy services, which in turn will provide the end-users with better services. The electric grid manager will also benefit from this by better being able to manage their resources, and discover patterns in the power consumption, all made possible by the latest technology within big data analytics.

Large-scale pilots

The project will integrate the platform with existing infrastructure and systems at pilot sites in Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Norway and the Netherlands, and validate it through mobile, distributed and centralized use cases in the distribution grid – in large-scale demonstrations.

Novel business models and extensive exploitation activities will be able to tread the fine line between maximizing profits for a full chain of stakeholders and optimizing social welfare, while contributing to the standardization and regulation policies for the European energy market. A meaningful integration of the transport sector is represented by both the Norwegian and the Dutch pilot – the two countries with the highest penetration of EVs worldwide.

 

Specific project goals

  1. Design a flexibility management system using batteries that supports the distribution grid and electricity market while coping with grid limitations, uncertainty and variability with high penetration of renewable energy, electric vehicles and an increased number of diverse smart grid actors.
  2. Develop a model for batteries including EVs focusing on prediction of batteries lifetime and impact factors contributing to life extension, and prepare a model for optimal sizing, positioning and scheduling of batteries in the distribution grid.
  3. Deliver the Integrated INVADE Platform based on Flexibility Cloud enabling flexible management algorithms, functions and monitoring and control dashboards using Internet of Energy Things, Big data analytics and visualisation techniques to provide real-time information and control tools to stakeholders applying data protection and cyber security principles by design.
  4. Integrate the INVADE platform with existing infrastructure and systems in selected pilot sites in Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, Norway and the Netherlands and validate the platform through mobile, distributed, centralised and hybrid use cases in large-scale demonstrations in accordance with national and European regulations and standards.
  5. Design innovative and competitive business models and verify them through planned activities such as analysis of users practises and behaviour, deferral of grid investments, exploitation user group and dedicated workshops to enable monetary and social benefits for a full chain of stakeholders.
  6. Engage with full chain stakeholders to support large scale deployment of INVADE within EEA and beyond and to build awareness of the project and its contribution to both climate change and energy efficiency targets.

 

Related EU projects

EMPOWER Horizon 2020

BRIDGE SmartGrid & Storage Horizon 2020

The five pilot sites are located in:

Norway (Stavanger)

Norway has the highest electric vehicle (EV) density in Europe and the economic incentives for end-customers are getting a considerable boost.

Germany (Freiburg)

The German pilot focus on both, building up one centralised energy storage device as well as examining new business models for distributed energy storages.

Spain (Granollers)

The Spanish use case aims at demonstrating that a storage system shared with other users, is a safe, reliable and emission-free alternative, which will cover a gap of two hours without using a genset and thus no emissions.

The Netherlands (Noord-Brabant)

The Dutch pilot will cover three domains and two different approaches to charging electric vehicles on renewable energy.

Bulgaria (Albena)

In Bulgaria, centralised electrical energy storage will be installed at a transformer substation that supplies two hotels, including restaurants, a spa centre and swimming pools.