Sites
The OPENTUNITY project showcases its innovations through four large-scale complementary demonstrators located in Greece, Slovenia, Spain, and Switzerland. These demonstrators involve a diverse range of energy sources, networks, systems, and assets, and are implemented across heterogeneous climatic, geographic, and socio-economic conditions and sizes. This diversity facilitates replicability, scale-up, and eventual market launch after the end of the project.
The consortium comprises various demonstration partners who provide access to critical infrastructures necessary for the project’s implementation. Almost all of the innovations are tested at the four demo sites, ensuring coherent demonstrations and future replicability.
The Greek pilot site is situated in Mesogia, in the southeastern part of Attica, near Athens. The Markopoulo Substation is located here, which is positioned at the boundaries between the transmission and distribution systems. It transforms voltage from the 150kV (part of TS) level to the 20kV level (part of DS). The substation is designed to provide power to 2812 houses and 123 commercial buildings.
There are three 150kV/20kV transformers installed, each with a rated apparent power of 40/50MVA, which fulfil the load requirements of the connected consumers. On the MV side, a capacitor bank with a capacity of 24MVar is utilized for voltage support. In terms of renewable energy source (RES) penetration, there are 27.043 MW of Photovoltaic plants connected to the distribution network.
Partners involved:
HEDNO: DSO IPTO: TSO ICCS: IT supporter
Benefits from OPENTUNITY:
Improving network observability through the use of OPENTUNITY topology identification and state estimation techniques in areas of the grid with limited monitoring equipment. This supports smarter management of the entire grid. Implementing new planning methodologies with the help of OPENTUNITY grid planning optimization to accommodate new distributed renewable energy sources (RES) and integrate electromobility and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) into the grid. Conducting Local Flexibility Market testing with the help of Flexibility Market Operator NODES, which operates the Local Market and manages interactions between the DSO and flexibility providers. Showcasing TSO/DSO collaboration through improved data sharing using the OPENTUNITY blockchain. This ensures efficient and cybersecure sharing of data, leading to more synergistic grid management between medium-voltage (MV) and high-voltage (HV) lines.
The Slovenian pilot in OPENTUNITY covers an area of 2 out of 5 DSOs in the country, namely ElektroPrimorska (EP) and Elektro Ljubljana (EL) and supplies a total of 480,900 inhabitants. The network to be tested comprises both MV and LV networks. Specifically, the site involves grid assets of selected substations, starting from MV feeders and ending at ML/LV transformer stations, all of which are equipped with sensors and smart meters.
In addition, more than 50 buildings are included with installed Home or Building Energy Management Systems (HEMS/BEMS). EL also provides information about the Electric Vehicle charging stations, which in 2021 had more than 13,000 users. Furthermore, AVANTCAR provides more than 600 electric vehicles, which have already covered more than 10 million zero-emission Km, and there are more than 140 charging points available.
Partners involved:
UL: Demonstration leader EL: DSO EP: DSO SETUP: Independent Aggregator AMIBIT: Technology developer and integrator AVANTCAR: Mobility services provider
Benefits from OPENTUNITY:
Topology identification and state estimation via machine learning. Optimal selection of available flexibility. Empowering users to control their building energy needs and provide them with information to make decisions about balancing comfort and cost when running their buildings. Monitoring the consumption of potentially any energy-consuming equipment to enable households to make informed decisions aimed at optimizing energy consumption. Plug and play recognition for flexibility devices.
The Spanish pilot site is located in the Osona and Vallès Oriental regions, in Catalonia. These are regions with a high penetration of self-consumption photovoltaic panels, and where a strong interest from the citizens on local renewable energy and energy communities is observed, with the support of the local energy agency and cooperatives.
In the Spanish pilot, technologies for promoting flexibility in a prosumer’s environment and also to assist the DSO in managing the grid will be tested. For the latter, the focus will be on Santa Eulàlia de Ronçana municipality, a leading town in Catalonia in terms of installed capacity of PV panels for self-consumption. In this area, the DSO has two primary MV/MV substations and 44 secondary substations with a total installed transformer capacity of 13,510 kVA.
Partners involved:
EyPESA: DSO IMPULSA: Retailer ETRA: IT support
Benefits from OPENTUNITY:
Increased grid observability to guarantee the energy tracking of grid assets with the objective of identifying congestions by the Real-Time thermal rating and the topology identification and state estimation innovation. Fault Resolution by the topology identification and state estimation innovation. Fraud detection by the advanced asset management innovation. Ensure security and transparency in data access by the Decentralized Data Hub (DDHub) of OPENTUNITY blockchain, that leverages the concept of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs). Settlement of a local flexibility market to enable the efficient and effective use of energy resources.
The Swiss pilot is located in the Via Motta urban district in Massagno, near Lugano in southern Switzerland. It comprises approximately 20 residential flats and single houses that host around 100 residents, a large office building, a warehouse used daily, and an elderly care home with 60 single-bed rooms and approximately 94 workers.
All the prosumers are connected to the AEM distribution network, which is served by a 400 kVA substation located in the middle of the neighbourhood. The pilot leverages the existing smart metering infrastructure. Each user in the energy community is equipped with smart meters that communicate production and consumption data every 15 minutes and historical data is stored for two years. Also, there is a web-based monitoring tool for end-users and community managers to show energy consumption and generation, split between internal and external flows, along with dynamic energy prices and resulting revenues/costs. Within the urban district, there is a Photovoltaic plant with a total installed capacity of 60 kWp on the roof of the local shelter for elderly people.