Real proven solutions to enable active demand and distributed generation flexible integration, through a fully controllable LOW Voltage and medium voltage distribution grid
UPGRID project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 646.531
UPGRID’s Last Updates
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Jan 16, 2018 · IV Congreso Smart Grids
Dec 18, 2017· Newsletter #02 is issued
Oct 20, 2017 · UPGRID project in the European Utility Week 2017
Feb 21, 2018 · UPGRID final event, in Madrid
Project
The UPGRID project started in the beginning of 2015 under the H2020 program and is being developed by a European consortium, composed of 19 partners from 7 European countries: Spain, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, France and Norway.
The project includes 4 demonstrators that are being deployed from April 2015 to June 2017 at Bilbao area in the North of Spain, Parque das Nações in Lisbon (Portugal), Åmål in Dalsland in the South of Sweden, and Gdynia in Pomeranian Region (Poland).
Partners
Demonstrations
Deliverables
Budget (M€)
Project Information
| Call | H2020-LCE-2014-3 |
| Topic | LCE-2014: Distribution grid and retail market |
| Type of action | Innovation Actions (IA-2) |
| Coordinator | Iberdrola Distribución Eléctrica, S.A.U. |
| Partners | 19 Partners · 7 European Countries |
| Project budget | 15,7 M€ · 11,9 M€ funded |
| Execution Period | 01/01/2015 – 31/12/2017 |
Objectives
The project will develop and validate solutions to enable the implementation of advanced functionalities over existing technology, to form a truly integrated intelligent system.
With this project, an improvement of the monitoring and controlability of low voltage (LV) and medium voltage (MV) grids is expected, as a way to anticipate technical problems associated with large scale integration of DER (Distributed Energy Resources), bringing also end users closer to system operation and planning.
Expected Results
Observability and control of LV grid
- Achieve sound LV network representation
- Functional specification of LV dispatch
- Deployment of tools to support LV operation of field crews
- Improvement in Operations and Maintenance of LV grid
- Improvement of QoS to customers
Enhance the role of DSOs to facilitate and open market for services
- Evaluation of incentive and market framework in demo regions
- Identification of investment alternatives for UPGRID innovative concepts
- Assessment of optimal business models for market participants
Extensive use of AMI Infrastructure
- Integration and processing of meter events in the OMS (Outage Management System)
- Deployment of Multiservice PRIME subnetwork
- Development of LV grid remote control operation over Smart Metering PRIME infrastructure
Participation of customers, distributed generation and energy storage in network management
- Improvement of customer capacity building web-based systems
- Development of interactive communication campaigns
- Societal research on the socio-economic impact of Smart Grid solutions on the demo regions
UPGRID within H2020: Bridge
Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.
UPGRID addresses the topic ” Distribution grid and retail market” (LCE 7– 2014) of the call for competitive low-carbon energy (LCE) (H2020-LCE-2014-3) within the “Horizon 2020 Work Programme 2014-2015”, Societal Challenge “Secure, clean and efficient energy”.
The LCE 6 to LCE 10 projects within the Horizon 2020 Electricity Grid Energy Storage 2014-2015 Calls are managed by EC/ DG ENERGY.
The integrated approach demands, that all demonstration projects shall integrate innovative Technology development, innovative Business models, develop plans for market uptake (including scaling-up and replication) and check existing market barriers and work out proposals for solutions (policy, legislation, regulation, etc.).
Further the knowledge sharing among LCE 6 to LCE 10 is very important. Bridge is a cooperation of all accepted LCE 6-10 projects funded under Horizon 2020. The target is to evolve a continuous dialogue and exchange of experiences between the different projects on Smart Grid & Storage. It kicked-off with the 1st Workshop held in Brussels 21 May 2015. Four working groups have been teamed up:
- Data management
- Business models
- Regulations, and
- Customer engagement.
The four working groups will meet regularly.
Further information:
Joint website of the Horizon 2020 Smart Grids and storage projects
Consortium
Structure of the Project
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Roberto González Sainz-Maza
Iberdrola Distribución Eléctrica
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Ángel Díaz Gallo
Tecnalia
WP7 - Market & Business Framework
WP leader: Goran Strbac, Imperial College
This WP aims at:
- identifying strengths and weakness of the present market and incentives framework,
- existing barriers and gaps in facilitating investment in innovative technologies, proposing alternative policy and incentive regimes,
- developing novel business models for different market participants to facilitate roll out of cost effective UPGRID solutions.
WP2 - Innovative distribution grid applications and functions
WP leader: Eduardo García, Tecnalia
This WP aims at identifying common specific use cases and functions that will be deployed by different demos in the project in relation to:
- Improved supervision and management of MV/LV grid: state estimation, events and alarms supervision, load & generation forecasting, fault location tools, outage management
- Services provided by DSOs to the retail market: DSM services, smart analytics of load curves, design of neutral access platform
- Use of CIM as the reference data model for the project
WP1 - Scope and boundaries of project demos
WP leader: Raúl Bachiller, Iberdrola
The objective is to define the scope of the four demonstrations by getting answers to the questions:
- What elements are needed, which are already in place and which ones will be developed in the project
- What is the size of the demos, boundary conditions and use cases to be tested/validated
- Which are the applicable standards for the used solutions
- Which are the KPIs for monitoring the demos
- Which are the preliminary business opportunities envisaged for the different actor
WP8 - Monitoring & Impact assessment of project demonstrations
WP leader: Alvaro Sánchez, Universidad de Comillas
The objective is the analysis of the to compare results, advantages and disadvantages of implementation and operation, expected life cycles and cost- benefit analysis, taking also into account the indirect impacts like environmental issues and social benefits.
In this way, it will be possible to extrapolate its results to an immediate exploitation of industrial results, and to verify the scalability and replicability of the demos.
WP9 - User engagement, societal research and dissemination of project results
WP leader: Luis Seca, Inesc
The main aims of this WP are twofold:
- To make aware the final users and the society in general, that the Smart Grid technologies bring benefit to them and to propose actions to address some concerns that the citizens could have in relation with these technologies.
- To broadly disseminate the results and findings of the project to the general audience and to those actors more directly involved in the technical and socioeconomic domains of the Smart Grid.
Demonstrations
The Spanish demonstrator is being carried out in Bilbao area in the North of Spain. The demonstrator area is characterised by 1.075 Secondary Substations (SSs) and more than 190.000 customers are involved.
The Swedish demonstrator takes place in a rural part of southern Sweden (west side), close to the small town of Åmål. The demonstrator area is characterised by 2 MV lines with a total of 51 SSs involving 528 customers and LV lines are mostly overhead.
The Portuguese demonstrator is deployed in Lisbon within the parish of Parque das Nações. The demonstrator area is characterised by 2 substations, 140 SSs, 13.450 residential consumers (LV) and 16 EV charging stations.
Polish demonstrator project is located in the city of Gdynia that is a city in the Pomeranian Region. The demonstrator area is characterised by 55 MV/LV SSs, 38 km of power MV, 102 km of LV lines which supply near 14.700 customers.
Publications
D01.02 – Report on non-technical local incentives and barriers
D01.04 – Report on common KPIs
D02.02 – Services Provided by DSOs to the Retail Market
D2.4 – Report on the implementation of the CIM as the reference data model for the project
D02.05 – Conclusions of load and generation forecasting models
D03.04 – Demonstration results: Evaluation and opportunities. Spanish demo final report
D04.01 – Report on the performance of the selected tools that were tested in laboratory
D04.03 – Evaluation and Demonstration Results and Data Collection. Portuguese demo final report
D05.03 – Results of the demonstration project. Swedish demo final report
D06.05 – Systems testing and optimization. Polish demo final report
D07.01 – Report on market barriers for deployment of UPGRID innovative concepts
D08.01 – Report about KPIs analysis and methods of comparisation
D08.05 – Summary of results obtained in WP8 and recommendations
D08.06 – Report about system wide benefits of UPGRID services
D09.01 – Targeted Social stakeholders segmentation and analysis
D09.02 – Communication campaigns
News
IV Congreso Smart Grids
UPGRID participated in the IV Congreso Smart Grids (23rd October, 2017. Madrid, Spain), organized by Tecmared group and with the collaboration of Futured Platform. The objective in this Spanish congress was to present the UPGRID Spanish demo results. For this purpose, a paper was prepared: “Solutions for improving the LV operation and maintenance: UPGRID project” with contributions from all demo partners [Raúl Bachiller Prieto and Ana González Bordagaray (Iberdrola), Mónica Pintado (GE Power), Laura Marrón Merino (ZIV Automation) and Sandra Riaño Fernández (Tecnalia)] and a presentation, with the homonymous title, was presented by Roberto González Sainz-Maza (Project Coordinator) during the event who also participated in one of the conference sessions.
UPGRID project in the European Utility Week 2017
UPGRID participated in the European Utility Week 2017 (3rd – 5th October, 2017). For this event, a presentation titled “UPGRID, proven solutions for operating present and future LV networks” was prepared. Roberto González Sainz-Maza (Project Coordinator), Ángel Díaz Gallo (Technical Director), Ana González Bordagaray (representing Spanish demo), Paulo Libano Monteiro (representing Portuguese demo) and Peter Söderström (representing Swedish demo) presented the project taking part in the “Testing Future Business Models” session, within the “H2020: the European Union programme for Research and Innovation” hub.
XIV Conference on Environmental Psychology – PSICAMB. Places and human behaviour: from local to global
On the 21th and 24th June 2017 the XIV Congress of Environmental Psychology was held in Evora (Portugal), organised by the Evora University and PSICAMB (Environmental Psychology Association).
The event, that is the most important professional biannual forum of Psychology in Spain-Portugal-IberoAmerica, served as a space for discussion, debate and exchange of ideas on the future of Environmental Psychology in a coordinated and integrated way. Among the topics discussed during the event, it is worth mentioning: Sustainable behaviour, perception, attitudes and values related with environment and risk perception.
UPGRID in the Innovative power conference (InnoGrid2020+)
InnoGrid2020+ is the EU event on innovation in electricity networks. The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and the European Distribution System Operators for Smart Grids (EDSO) have focused this 6th of InnoGrid2020+ on the arising topic “network of networks”. UPGRID project was very present in the event. Here Roberto González, UPGRID Project Coordinator, remarked the importance of Low Voltage monitoring to leverage current smart grid efforts, the positive impact on consumers of UPGRID developments and deployments (improvement in quality of supply, provision of more detailed information to consumers…) and the fact that the consumer recruitment is a challenge being very interesting the interaction with them.
UPGRID project in CIRED 2017
During June 12 to 15 CIRED, the leading forum about Electricity Distribution Community, took place in Glasgow (Scotland). Iberdrola, EDP Distribuição, Vattenfall, Energa, GE, Tecnalia and ZIV represented UPGRID project in this conference.
Papers, oral and poster sessions were presented based on each of the four UPGRID demonstrators. Moreover, partners of the UPGRID project from General Electric (GE), Iberdrola and Vattenfall hosted a live demonstrator at the GE conference booth, opened to all CIRED visitors. It was titled: “The Future of Operation and Control on the LV Grid”. The exhibition provided the opportunity to show the Spanish and Swedish UPGRID demonstration on real time by remotely connecting to both real live Low Voltage Network Management Systems (LV NMS) deployed in each Distribution System Operator (DSO), based on GE PowerOn technology.
Four low voltage smart grid demonstrators are already in operation
Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Poland have finished the deployment of four relevant smart grid demonstrators in December 2016. They are in operation now and reporting useful information in order to get conclusions by the end of this year.
Bilbao area (North of Spain), Parque das Nações (Lisbon, Portugal), Åmål (South of Sweden) and Gdynia (North of Poland) – these smart grid demonstrators are already operating in Europe. The demonstrators were deployed during 2016 and the goal is to provide the electrical system with new products and services to improve the management of the distribution networks as well as increase the value of the service provided to the consumers. This way, it will be possible to give an improved answer to consumer needs, such as reducing power supply restoration time, show access to more accurate and immediate information, or increase consumer participation in the market.
Events
February 21, 2018 · UPGRID final event, in Madrid
Location: Madrid (Spain)
Date: 21 February 2018
UPGRID project is organizing an open event on 21st February 2018 in Madrid to show the final results of the project and discuss with relevant stakeholders the way forward to improve the observability and controllability of distribution grid. Utilities representatives, power industry equipment suppliers and technologist, research and academia, regulators and other Administrative organisations representatives, and in general all smart grids stakeholders are kindly invited to participate.
October 3-5, 2017 · European Utility Week 2017
Location: Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Date: 3-5 October 2017
Link of the event: http://www.european-utility-week.com/
UPGRID project will participate in the Horizon 2020 project Zone Hub: “H2020: the European Union programme for Research and Innovation”. In more detail:
- Wednesday, October 4th, 14:00-15:00 (in session 3). Participation in the panel about data handling. UPGRID Speaker: Technical Director.
- Thursday, October 5th, 12:20 – 12:40 (in session 4). UPGRID project presentation. UPGRID Speakers: Project Coordinator, Technical Director, the 4 Demo Leaders.
European Utility Week brings together 12.000 of Europe’s thought leaders and visionaries behind the world’s most successful utilities and solution providers. It is a unique opportunity to showcase your brand and services as one of the leading companies in the global smart energy market.
June 26-27, 2017 · InnoGrid 2020+
Date: 26-27 June 2017
Link of the event: http://innogrid2020.eu/
InnoGrid2020+ is THE EU event on innovation in electricity networks. The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and the European Distribution System Operators for Smart Grids (EDSO) will focus this sixth edition on the arising network of networks, where power grids and transport, telecom and IT, digital and physical link up in an unprecedented manner. Special attention will be devoted to the rapidly evolving transmission-distribution interface.
June 18-22, 2017 · PowerTech 2017
Date: 18-22 June 2017
Link of the event: http://ieee-powertech.org
PowerTech is the IEEE PES anchor conference in Europe and has been attended by hundreds of delegates from around the world. It will be an international forum with exciting programme for individuals working in industry and academia, to network, exchange ideas, and discuss the results of their research and development work. The conference will be the largest gathering of international researchers and practitioners working in the general area of electrical power engineering outside the USA in 2017 and possibly the largest such conference ever held in the UK and certainly the largest to be held in the UK for a generation.
June 12-15, 2017 · QUIS 2017
Date: 12-15 June 2017
Link of the event: https://web.fe.up.pt/~quis15/
“Since 1988, the QUIS symposium brings together the best interdisciplinary academic research and management practices in a forum to advance the study of service management, service dominant logic, service leadership, service quality, customer relationship management, technology and innovations in services.
In 2017, QUIS will head towards the edge of Europe and its Atlantic front, to the beautiful city of Porto, Portugal, for its 15th edition. Known mainly for its trade in Port wine, which travels along the east-west trending Douro river that starts in Spain, Porto has for its long history been known as a cosmopolitan trading center that blends perfectly its modern and historic aspects.”
June 12-15, 2017 · CIRED 2017
Date: 12-15 June 2017
Link of the event: http://www.cired-2017.org/
CIRED, the leading forum where the Electricity Distribution Community meets, holds the major International Electricity Conference & Exhibition every two years in different venues in Europe with a worldwide perspective and participation.
We are delighted to be hosting the 24th International Conference & Exhibition on Electricity Distribution in the amazing city of Glasgow at the prestigious Scottish Event Campus (SEC).
June 6-8, 2017 · Grid Analytics Europe 2017
Date: 6-8 June 2017
Link of the event: http://www.gridanalytics-europe.com/
This year’s programme draws together 120+ data analytics and domain experts for a review of recent implementations, and a discussion of the next steps in developing the function through increased board support, appropriate organisational structuring, cost-effective technology implementation, effective data management, analysis and visualisation, and use-case expansion.
Feb 2, 2017 · UPGRID Consortium General Assembly, in London
November 15-17, 2016 · European Utility Week 2016
August 21-26, 2016 · CIGRÉ Paris 2016
June 27-29, 2016 · GRE 2016 - XV International Conference Science and Technology Forum of Energetic
June 27-28, 2016 · InnoGrid2020+
June 1-3, 2016 · CIM Users Group · 2016 Meeting - Europe
- MV and LV state estimation
- Events/alarms supervision and DER management in LV network
- Load and generation forecasting
- Fault location tools
- Enhanced outage management and support for maintenance crews
- Design of service for Demand Side Management
- Smart analytics of individual load curves for distribution and retail business
- Design of a neutral market access platform
Special attention will be given to smart metering data utilization, as AMI is deployed in all participating distribution system operators. Different data models have been used in AMI implementations (COSEM for PRIME PLC and ANSI C.12 for OSGP) and IEC 61968-9 is a common denominator that allows specialised software modules to acquire and process smart metering data, regardless of the AMI physical data model. Examples of COSEM – ANSI C.12 – IEC 61968-9 translations will be shown. Jose Antonio Rodriguez Mondéjar (Comillas, Spain) and Aleksander Babs (Institute of Power Engineering, Poland) will be presenting the UPGRID activity on the CIM domain taking part in the session “Distribution – AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) and DER (Distributed Energy Resources)”, under the title of “CIM as the reference data model for the UPGRID project”
May 19, 2016 · CIGRE • IV Technical Workshop on R&D
April 18-21, 2016 · GE International Software Summit
April 5-6, 2016 · Grid Analytics Europe 2016
Jan 28, 2016 · UPGRID Consortium General Assembly, in Lisbon (Portugal)
Jan 28, 2016 · DISCERN 3rd External Workshop – The role of KPIs in evaluating Smart Grid Projects
Summary
The workshop was divided into three main sessions. During the first session “How KPIs are used in existing projects and lessons learnt” representatives from DISCERN, DREAM, IDE4L, UPGRID and evolvDSO projects presented their KPIs experience. Most of the projects are (like UPGRID) in the initial stages of the KPIs work, specifically the KPIs definition. Only the DISCERN project has completed the final stage of KPI calculation. They share their experience and they were really open to answer other projects’ questions. The second session was focused in the “application of KPIs by different elements of the industry”. Representatives from the Italian Regulatory Authority, Siemens AG and Enel explained their point of view about the KPIs application. The last session was the workshop session. During this last session all the participants worked in groups to discuss how the KPIs definition should be and what useful information a KPI calculation guide should have to help new Smart Grid projects, based on a preliminary work prepared by DISCERN team. This last session was really interesting to share points of view regarding the main areas of KPIs definition (cost, technical, societal, etc.), the KPIs attributes (formula, contextualization, units, etc.) and the kind of information it may be useful to find in a KPI calculation guide.
Available Materials
- Download the presentation “How KPIs are used in existing projects and lessons learnt: UPGRID”
- The meeting report and more workshop materials are available in http://discern.eu/events/workshopIV.html
Nov 26-27, 2015 · 3rd IGREENGrid-SiNGULAR-SuSTAINABLE Global Joint Conference
Mar 31 - Apr 1, 2015 · InnoGrid2020+ 4th Annual Conference
Available Material
Poster describing the UPGRID project. Available for download here
Poster describing the demos in the project. Available for download here
For any information about this project, please contact us
Mr. Roberto González Sainz-Maza, Iberdrola
UPGRID project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 646.531