flexible demand optimization
Spanish pilot site prepares to test OPENTUNITY’s uses cases
Spanish pilot site prepares to test OPENTUNITY’s uses cases
02/02/2024
ANELL partner, the lead partner for the Spanish pilot site, is prepared to star testing the OPENTUNITY’s use cases. After a period identifying challenges in the company’s grid and defining corresponding solutions, the Catalan DSO initiated the process of delineating the pilot site’s activity area. This mainly covers municipality of Santa Eulàlia de Ronçana, a town located in the county of Vallés Oriental (Barcelona), spanning 14 km2 with a mix of urban and rural areas. ANELL manages almost 80km of Low Voltage (LV) lines, 30km of Medium Voltage (MV) lines and is supplying around 2.500 Smart Meters.
Santa Eulalia de Ronçana was selected based on the high frequency of non-technical losses in the area and the amount of residential photovoltaic solar panel installations, around 120 with a maximum power capacity of around 1 MW. This aligns with ANELL’s main concerns of minimizing losses and maximizing service quality.
OPENTUNITY’s Use Cases will be very valuable for ANELL in addressing different challenges. Some will focus on determining discrepancies on grid’s topology and estimating the state of the network to tackle the low observability in the LV grid, facilitating the identification of discrepancies and faults. Others will address strategies for managing the recent increase of Distributed Energy Resources (DER), different strategies to deal with congestions and loss of capacity due to this massive penetration will be done.
There is also an emphasis on supporting the energy transition by fostering demand-side flexibility to handle congestions and mitigate the impact of DER.
Finally, other use cases will focus on detecting of non-technical losses along the grid, calculating MV lines capacity due to thermal variations, and enhancing system reliability and resilience by identifying critical assets and developing aging and failure models.
These efforts collectively address ANELL’s main needs forming the core of the Spanish Pilot.
Pilot site in Spain.
ANELL premises in Granollers, Barcelona.
Cost Minimization through Flexible Demand Optimization
Cost Minimization through Flexible Demand Optimization
13/12/2023
In the pursuit of cost minimization, OPENTUNITY is at the forefront of revolutionizing the energy landscape by optimizing the scheduling of flexible demand for consumers and energy communities. Our focus encompasses crucial elements such as HVACs (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), domestic hot water (DHW) devices, electric vehicles (EVs), and energy storage systems.
Our partner Hypertech a key player in this venture, is actively developing a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model to achieve optimal results in flexible demand optimization. The essence of this approach lies in the strategic time shifting of loads, leveraging baseline profiles provided for each asset. This strategy proves to be pivotal in achieving lower customer bills, especially when coupled with a variable price profile available to consumers.
To illustrate the tangible benefits of our methodology, consider the following example involving two households equipped with two DHW devices and an HVAC system. Through our approach, the demand is intelligently shifted to time steps when electricity prices are lower. The outcome? A substantial cost reduction of 12.5%, showcasing the efficiency and practicality of OPENTUNITY’s commitment to cost-effective energy solutions.
