Given the wide variety of definitions and conceptual models for smart grid technologies and systems, quickly increasing body of literature and analysis, and rapid rate of change in the smart grid space, senior decision makers and their staff would likely benefit from a common basis or language for discussion. To this end, this Task integrates the knowledge and lessons learned through the other ISGAN Working Groups. This material may be delivered through a variety of media, such as reports, web sites, or videos, as appropriate for the specific information and targeted audience. It may be structured for specific geographies or grid ecosystems. Ultimately, information packages that explain clearly and concisely smart grid benefits and costs (and offer an intuitive, pleasing user experience) will help capture the attention of these decision makers and provide them the information needed to advance more effective smart grid-enabling policies and programs.

Objectives

Highlights include:

• Policy insight reports and webinars on the role of smart grids in integrating renewable and variable energy, smart grid cyber security, smart grid technology as an enabler of clean energy, and managing consumer benefits and costs
• Implementation of in-depth knowledge transfer workshops in Mexico and India to inform national smart grid strategies
• Deep-dive, peer-to-peer workshops on exchanging best practices on smart grid deployment enabled via policies, regulations, programs, and public-private partnerships
• Development of and building capacity to implement a corporate ISGAN Communications Strategy
• Additional work on policy insights and analysis delivered through synthesis papers and webinars
• Support for inter-work groups coordination and collaboration

Examples of these trends are the electrification of energy consumption and the increasing volume of distributed generation being connected to the distribution grid.

The relationship between transmission system operators (TSO) and distribution network operators (DSO) is changing. Examples of these trends are the electrification of energy consumption and the increasing volume of distributed generation being connected to the distribution grid. In Europe this subject is highly relevant as pointed out by ENSTO-E (European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity) in their paper, Towards smarter grids: Developing TSO and DSO roles and interactions for the benefit of consumers published in March 2015, and ACER (Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators) in their conclusions paper, Energy Regulation: A Bridge to 2025 published in September 2014. ENTSO-E is an association which represents 41 European TSOs and has an objective to promote closer cooperation across Europe’s TSOs to support the implementation of EU energy policy objectives of affordability, sustainability and security of supply. ACER is an agency of the European Union with the overall mission to complement and coordinate the work of national energy regulators at EU level, and to work towards the completion of the single EU energy market for electricity and natural gas. The expected increased interaction between TSOs and DSOs will result in both technical and non-technical challenges.

IEA ISGAN Annex 6 has published a discussion paper in which the current and future cooperation between TSOs and DSOs has been investigated. Six critical grid operation challenges have been identified:
1. Congestion of the transmission-distribution interface
2. Congestion of transmission lines and distribution lines
3. Voltage support (TSO↔DSO)
4. Balancing challenge
5. (Anti-)Islanding, re-synchronization, and black-start
6. Coordinated protection

For each case, country experts provided first-hand information about the status and expected development of TSO-DSO interaction in their respective countries. This resulted in an overview, by country, of the interaction between grid operators and provided input for the discussion about how this interaction could evolve in years to come. Technical aspects, as well as policy aspects, have been taken into account.
The technical solutions required for a closer interaction between TSOs and DSOs are very similar for most of the identified cases, except for the case of islanding & black-start. From a high level viewpoint, grid monitoring has to be implemented, communication between TSO and DSO has to be established and means of communication between the DSO and its flexible customers have to be available. DSOs should also be able to perform (quasi) real time network simulations with input from measurements on the grid.
Such technical requirements should not be underestimated regarding implementation and operational cost, complexity and skills required. These could be a challenge, especially for smaller distribution network operators. Nonetheless, only the distribution grid operator has information about the actual grid configuration and grid loading. This means that even when other entities take up certain roles, for example the role of aggregator, the distribution network operator will always be responsible for monitoring the grid and will need to implement communication solutions to one entity or another.
With the current status of technology, technical requirements for an evolved interaction between TSOs and DSOs can be met. However, several non-technical issues, or points of discussion, have been identified which are closely related to the regulated environment grid operators are working in.

• Maintaining a balance between infrastructure investments and use of flexibility

Flexible demand and generation can be used to support grid operation and avoid infrastructure investments. A minimum use of flexibility will be necessary to avoid over investing, but the impact on the processes and business cases of flexible customers has to be limited. The flexibility available by curtailing renewable energy sources needs to be limited to avoid a high loss of renewable energy.

• The role of markets
Which grid operation challenges should be met by introducing markets and which should be managed only by technical means and appropriate bilateral contracts? It is proposed to use market mechanisms only for the balancing challenge, which is applied today in various countries. Coping with local grid operation challenges such as critical transformer loading, line loading and voltages, is proposed to be managed by the network operators, optimally interacting with each other and using flexible customers when necessary. Because of the local nature of the mentioned grid operation challenges, markets would not work efficiently. Instead, a regulatory framework is required for bilateral contracts between flexible customers and network operators, facilitating the use of flexible generation and demand for grid operation purposes.

• Setting a level playing field for flexibility
When the combined flexibility of customers on the distribution and transmission grid is used, favoring one set of customers at the cost of the other should be avoided. For example, when facing critical line loading on the transmission grid, the use of flexibility of only distribution connected customers would be undesirable. Some mechanism, probably in discussion with the regulator, should be implemented to cope with this.

• The role of regulation
Closely related to the previous statement is the discussion point on how grid operation should evolve:
more regulated, with clearer and stricter roles, or more open, with guaranteed interaction between grid operators and new market players? There is no one size fits all solution but in any case, a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of all participants in future grid operation will be necessary and will serve as a good start.
A clear policy framework will, in every case, push forward investments in Smart Grid solutions to deal with the discussed challenges that grid operators are facing.
The article is based on a discussion paper published by IEA ISGAN Annex 6.

Changing patterns of demand that new types of load such as electric vehicles (EV) will introduce large and unpredictable fluctuations in the power balance as well as variations in voltage can jeopardize the quality and availability of power. The T&D system has to be stronger and smarter to provide the real-time flexibility needed to efficiently handle the new conditions. Investment needs in the power T&D infrastructure are large and require long term planning and deployment. The environmental concerns and public acceptance issues that often arise when constructing additional conventional transmission lines will require more efficient solutions with lower environmental impact.

This Discussion Paper from ISGAN Annex 6 Power Transmission & Distribution Systems Task 3 and 4 focuses on “Smarter & Stronger Power Transmission” and is a review of feasible technologies for enhanced transmission capacity and flexibility in terms of status and deployment. This includes both the primary AC and DC technology for the high voltage transmission grid as well as the information and communication technology (ICT) required to efficiently supervise and operate the power system. Focus is on the development of power electronics including flexible AC transmission (FACTS) and high voltage DC (HVDC), the standardization within ICT such as IEC 61850 and Common Information Model (CIM) in order to obtain vendor independent interoperability as well as the progress of wide area monitoring, protection and control (WAMPAC). The combination of smarter ICT applications together with power electronics such as FACTS and HVDC can be described as a digitalization of the power system operation offering the required flexibility. Most of the examples given are from the Nordic European power system, reflecting the participation of the authors from ISGAN Annex 6 Task 3 and 4, with additional input from North America and selected International case studies.

The case book Spotlight on Smart and Strong Power T&D Infrastructure highlights experiences of countries in different parts of the world, as they performed transmission and distribution projects on their electrical systems. The projects illustrate a wide range of applications, solutions, and technologies that were used to meet the challenges that various countries were facing. Many of the projects focused on the need to manage the integration of large amounts of renewable and often intermittent energy sources.

Additional projects will be added progressively in future editions of the case book.

The first edition of the case book was published in 2015. It includes eight cases, based on information collected during 2014 and 2015.

The second edition was published in 2016 and contains an aditional five cases. Case book summaries in Spanish and English are provided for the second edition .

Currently, Task: Case Studies has two priority workstreams, the first of which is an assessment of current case studies on smart grid deployments. This includes creation of a common methodological framework for future case studies based on this assessment, and development of in-depth case studies using this framework. Capturing and communicating the lessons learned from real-life demonstration or deployment projects will help stakeholders understand the true promise and challenges of deploying smarter electricity grids. Such case studies will provide another layer of depth to the information available in the Global Smart Grid Inventory and provide data and metrics to inform development of benefit-cost analyses and decision-making tools under that Annex. Published case books are as follows. (click to see)

A second key work stream is enabling in-depth peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. More information on the Knowledge Transfer Platform can be found here.

Published documents from Task: Case Studies are found here:

The International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) launched the Knowledge Transfer Platform (KTP) in 2016 to efficiently capture, collect, and share knowledge about smart grid solutions among countries and key stakeholders. The KTP offers a structured method for knowledge sharing, learning and co-creation of new solutions to joint challenges, focused on developing competence and building capacity.

Reports and policy messages from ISGAN Knowledge Transfer Projects:

• KTP on ISGAN Regulatory Sandboxes 2.0 on how to maximize learnings from sandbox programs
  1. A project 2021 during that included KTP workshops, national meetings, an updated casebook and an ISGAN Academy webinar.
  2. The project was selected to share these results as an official On Demand Side Event of the 12th Clean Energy Ministerial meeting, hosted by Chile.
  3. Following the project, a Community of Practice has been established where participating countries share experiences in informal webinars.
• KTP on Power System Integration of Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure as part of The Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) Horizontal Accelerator involving four CEM work streams, April 2020
  1. Report presented at the CEM11 meeting in Riyadh September 2020
• KTP on Public Support to Smart Grids RD&I; Focus: Upscaling of Smart Grid Innovation. Workshop in Montreux, Switzerland, September 2019
  1. Policy Message
• KTP on Innovative Regulatory Approaches with Focus on Experimental Sandboxes in Stockholm/Sweden, April 2019
  1. Policy Message
  2. Case Book
• KTP on Public Support to Smart Grids RD&I in Vienna/Austria; Focus: Key Performance Indicators, October 2018
  1. Executive Summary
• KTP on Distributed Generation, Microgrids, and Smart Metering in Bengaluru/India, November 2017
  1. Executive Summary
• KTP on Public Support to Smart Grids RD&I in Genk/Belgium 2017
  1. Executive Summary
• KTP on Unleashing Smart Grids in Mexico City, Mexico, August 2016
  1. Executive Summary
  2. Full Report
• Additional project documents
  1. KTP Terms of Reference
  2. KTP Factsheet

The case book Spotlight on Smart and Strong Power T&D Infrastructure spotlights a number of projects sharing best practice in how to meet the challenge to develop the electricity network to become stronger and smarter using different approaches.

For example how:

• Existing and new AC power transmission lines can carry more power by the use of smart technologies such as WAMS and Synchrophasors.
• HVDC lines with Voltage Source Converters can be used for interconnectors that also support the existing grid e.g. by avoiding voltage collapse.
•  The use of smart voltage control concepts can increase the hosting capacity for distributed energy resources

It is with great pleasure that the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) invites the members of the Executive Committee and the Annex-Operating Agents to the 16th Executive Committee of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) which will take place 15-17 October 2018, in Vienna (Austria).

Following the Executive Committee meeting, you can participate in the International Conference on Integration of Renewable and Distributed Energy Resources (IRED 2018), taking place 17-19 October, as well as the new edition of the Knowledge Transfer (KTP) Workshop (October 18, afternoon – October 19, morning), which you are kindly invited to.

All Members of the Executive Committee and Annex-Operating Agents are asked to register for the ExCo meeting and for a reduced registration for IRED2018 in the for below. Please note that you need to create an account first and can then choose for which events to register for.

Solutions providing advances in flexibility are of utmost importance for the future power system.
However, flexibility is not a unified term and is lacking a commonly accepted definition. The flexibility term is used as an umbrella covering various needs and aspects in the power system which complicates the discussion on flexibility and craves for differentiation to enhance clarity.

ISGAN Annex 6 has dedicated an activity on flexibility with the intention to support an increased understanding of the flexibility concept, proposing categorisation of flexibility needs in the power system.

This activity resulted in several publications with contributions from parties in: Sweden, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Switzerland.

• The final results and conclusions of this activity were presented at a dedicated ISGAN Webinar, November 2019.

• In the Fact Sheet: Grid Evolved – Power System Flexibility, the condensed knowledge from this activity, with collaboration with Mission Innovation, was published for the 10th Clean Energy Ministerial in Vancouver, Canada, May 2019.

• In the Discussion Paper (DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22580.71047), the full report is provided from this activity, including description of the flexibility categories: Flexibility for Power, Flexibility for Energy, Flexibility for Transfer Capacity, and Flexibility for Voltage.

• The Leaflet: Power system flexibility – the ability to manage change presents an executive summary of the discussion paper, giving a good insight into the work. This leaflet was published for the ISGAN Conference The future of electricity markets in a low carbon economy in Stockholm, Sweden April 2019.

• The Scientific paper: Flexibility to support the future power systems, based on the discussion paper, was published for the CIGRE Symposium in Aalborg, Denmark, June 2019.

This casebook provides detailed information on planned or implemented Sandbox Programs for Australia, Austria, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands. An overview of the previously well documented program in the UK is provided as well.

Hawaii is included as an example of another form of regulatory experimentation. In this case, one US state is experimenting with a performance-based method for tariffs which, if successful, can be rolled out as a regulatory innovation to other US states or other countries. The main focus of the casebook however is laid on experimenting to achieve the above mentioned innovation goals by means of sandbox projects.

The project was part of a broader scope of activities ISGAN is undertaking along with partner organizations to advance international dialogue around good practices and new approaches for innovative market and power system design needed to catalyze smart grid investments.

The ISGAN Sandbox initiative included a number of mutually supporting activities, all designed to support capacity building, share international experiences and co-create ideas in regard to this relatively new but key topic for the future energy systems and smart grid community. The initiative built on the successful ISGAN Knowledge Transfer Project approach and involved a major interactive knowledge sharing workshop, held during the Stockholm Smart Grid week, in conjunction with the 17th ISGAN Executive Committee Meeting.

An ISGAN Academy Webinar is arranged on June 12th, 15.00 (CEST) to share and discuss the results of the project further.

Key project results include (see downloads below):

• ISGAN Policy Messages on Sandboxes to the Clean Energy Ministerial
• ISGAN Casebook including examples from seven countries: “Innovative Regulatory Approaches with Focus on Experimental Sandboxes”

For more information, please contact Magnus Olofsson, ISGAN Annex 2: magnus.olofsson@energiinstitutet.se

micro and MEGA represent two trends which largely influence the decisions and the evolutionary process of power grids.

The trends are both aimed at enabling very high penetration of renewable energy sources
in the electric power system, from two perspectives:

• micro focuses on local solutions, while
• MEGA focuses on system or even intra-system wide solutions

ISGAN Annex 6 has dedicated an activity to study the micro and the MEGA trends, with the objective to present a critical assessment of these trends, based on the questions:

• Does one trend outcompete the other?
• Does increased investments from one perspective increase the need for investments
  from the other perspective?
• To what extent can one perspective benefit from the other perspective?

The intention is not to proclaim one solution being superior to another, rather to provide well
informed insights to the needs of considering both perspectives during the planning
and decision-making process for the sustainable development of the wider energy
system.

The outcome of this activity are communicated through publications, presentations and workshops, with contributions from a large number of parties:

• In the Policy Brief: micro vs MEGA – trends in power system development, the condensed knowledge from this activity was published for the 11th Clean Energy Ministerial hosted by Saudi Arabia, September 2020

• In the Discussion Paper (DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.11569.61287), the full report is provided from this activity, including detailed insights into the micro & MEGA trends and their perspectives together with experiences from around the World.

• Workshop and meeting in Montreux
  A highly successful event, gathering a total of 30 participants, with presentations (available here) from Italy, India, Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Norway and Sweden.
  The participants at these two meeting days have shown a high level of engagement and it has been highly valuable to learn from each other. In short, we can conclude that these meetings were very productive and successful in gathering a large amount of knowledge.

The transition from a system comprised primarily of dispatch-able generators to a system increasingly reliant on intermittent power sources increases the variability, uncertainty and thus also the need for flexibility.  DERs and “active customers” can provide more flexibility and thus more services to both Distribution System Operators (DSOs) and Transmission System Operators (TSOs).   This shift toward distributed and renewable electricity supply poses challenges to both the TSO and DSO; however, it also encourages exploitation of less utilized coordination synergies to achieve mutual benefits.

The coordination between TSOs and DSOs is of utmost importance for the grid to obtain the full value from services potentially provided by DERs such as, congestion relief, reactive power, voltage control and frequency reserves.

The public workshop will explore the needs, challenges and opportunities of TSO-DSO coordination from a broader perspective accounting for technical, market and regulatory aspects and different views from national/international TSOs, DSOs, and smart grids projects.

The participation is open to the public and free of charge, but a registration is necessary.  Please, register until Friday, 20 September 2019, at https://www.bfeevents.admin.ch/ …

Further Information about the work and outcomes of ISGAN Annex 6 on Power Transmission & Distribution Systems can be found at https://www.iea-isgan.org/our-work/annex-6/.  ETH Zürich is currently contributing to these activities by its own projects as, e.g., TSO-DSO Interaction and T&DFlex.

ISGAN proudly looks back at numerous highlights and achievements in 2019. The activities of ISGAN are organized in Annexes. In contrast to other IEA TCPs, these Annexes are standing working groups that continuously work on Smart Grids-related topics and regularly update their plans and objectives for the upcoming year at the spring meetings of the Executive Committee.

Of particular importance were events and workshops which attracted a very high level of interest both within ISGAN and externally.

• Activities during CEM 10
  • ISGAN and Mission Innovation (MI) Innovation Challenge 1 on Smart Grids (IC1) co-organized the first joint CEM/ISGAN/MI IC1 forum on Cooperation to Accelerate Smart Grid Market Uptake , a full-day  CEM10/MI-4 side event on 29 May 2019 at the Vancouver convention center. There, ministers from over 25 countries gathered to accelerate progress toward a clean energy future.
  • Award ceremony announcing the winning project of the 2019 ISGAN Award of Excellence.
• Highly recognized public workshops back-to-back with ExCo meetings
  • Stockholm: Public Workshop in cooperation with the Swedish Energy Agency and the Swedish Smart Grid Forum: “The future of electricity markets in a low carbon economy”, 2 April 2019.
  • Stockholm: Interdisciplinary workshop with IEA DHC TS3 and ISGAN
  • Montreux: Public Workshop “Needs, challenges and opportunities of TSO-DSO coordination”
  • Montreux: Open workshop “EERA Smart Grid/SIRFN workshop”
  • Annex 6: Open workshop “Micro vs MEGA grids – trends influencing the development of the power system
• Thematic knowledge exchange events (KTP)
  • Experimental Sandboxes for Smart Grids, Stockholm, 2019, in cooperation with the Swedish Smart Grids Forum and ICER International Confederation of Energy Regulators. This event was cooperatively organized by ISGAN Annexes 2, 4, 7 and 8.
  • Focus on upscaling, Montreux, 2019. This project was the third in the series of KTP workshops concerning public funding. It was organized by Annex 2 and 4.
• Development of a communication strategy and action plan
• Public Support to Smart Grid RD&I
• Development of a web-based tool using a combination of CBA and multi-criteria analysis

More details on ISGAN activities in the past year can be read in the full report available online and in print versions.

Disclaimer

This report was prepared by the Secretariat of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN). ISGAN is organized as the Implementing Agreement for a Co-operative Programme on Smart Grids and operates under the framework of Technology Collaboration Programmes created by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of any of ISGAN’s participants, any of their sponsoring governments or organizations, the IEA Secretariat, or any of its member countries. No warranty is ex-pressed or implied, no legal liability or responsibility assumed for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, and no representation made that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring.

Many participating ISGAN countries are already developing, demonstrating, testing, and deploying smart grid technologies and systems, drafting policies and implementing regulations to advance smart grids, assessing current and projected transmission and delivery infrastructure needs, evaluating demand-side practices, and measuring other aspects of smart grids. In addition, many bilateral and regional cooperative efforts have been launched featuring smart grid as a significant or principal focus. The objective of this activity is to identify countries’ specific motivating drivers for pursuing smart grids, catalogue the wide range of smart grid activities underway, and collect and organize the wealth of experience being generated into a resource available first to ISGAN Participants and then a global audience. The ENARD Implementing Agreement has already started similar inventory work, through its Annex V, recently launched. Thus, close coordination will be sought with that and other relevant inventory efforts. It is expected that all signatories will contribute data and information to this Annex.

To date, Working Group 1 “Smart Grid Inventories”, delivering a general picture of on-going Smart Grid project deployment, has been completed. Any remaining activities or necessary updates are included in Communication Working Group .

The International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) strives for the accelerated development and deployment around the world of smarter, cleaner electricity grids—as in “smart grids.” ISGAN’s national experts come from 26 countries and the European Commission and include engineers, analysts, academics, industry executives, government officials, project managers, policymakers, technology providers, and utility planners. In coordination with the International Energy Agency (IEA), Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), and other strategic partners, ISGAN is committed to identifying emerging advances, sharing best practices, and raising high-level government awareness on the value and impact of smarter grids.

ISGAN facilitates dynamic knowledge exchange, technical assistance, peer review, and activity coordination among its participants and stakeholders. Policy analysis and recommendations are a top priority for ISGAN. Unbiased technical expertise and direct interaction with policymakers are two major assets on which ISGAN can base its leadership.

Smart and robust electricity grids play a key role in building system flexibility, maintaining system reliability, and enabling more rapid greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions through the:

• Dynamic management of electricity demand and application of energy-efficient technologies to their full potential;
• Better utilization of existing electricity generation assets;
• Integration of growing supplies of both utility-scale and distributed clean energy systems, especially renewables, battery storage, and the expanding fleet of electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles; and
• Overall improvement of operational efficiencies within the power sector.

Smarter and more flexible power grids are critical to achieving individual and collective resiliency, clean energy, and climate objectives. 

To update existing and build future grids, ISGAN is accelerating progress on key aspects of smart grid policy, technology, and investment through voluntary participation by governments and their designees in collaborative projects and programs.

ISGAN is especially focused on clarifying and promoting specific aspects of the smart grid where governments have policy or regulatory authority, expertise, convening power, or other leverage. Together, ISGAN’s activities help to show and promote the overall significance of what has been done globally in the field of smart grids, to identify forthcoming challenges, and to help realize emerging opportunities.

2010, ISGAN is launched in Washington D.C. at the first Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) meeting. The initiative evolves from CEM’s commitment to policies and programs that accelerate the global transition to clean energy.

2011, ISGAN is formally established as the International Energy Agency (IEA) Implementing Agreement for a Co-operative Programme on Smart Grids, operating as a “Technology Collaboration Programme” under the IEA Framework for International Energy Technology Co-operation.

2013, ISGAN membership expands across five continents and includes 24 participating countries and the European Commission.

2014, ISGAN expands to include Annex 5: Smart Grid International Research Facility Network (SIRFN), bringing together a diverse array of research and testing facilities.

2015, The first annual ISGAN Award of Excellence is launched to celebrate exemplars in smart grid projects and promote the adaptation of their proven best practices in other countries and jurisdictions.

2016, Launch of the ISGAN Knowledge Transfer Platform (KTP). The KTPs offer dynamic spaces where interdisciplinary groups of participants with complementary competencies contribute to the development of joint ISGAN knowledge products, policy messages, and targeted technical assistance. ISGAN will complete its 9th KTP project in 2023.

2016, Beginning of ISGAN Virtual Learning webinars. Every year, ISGAN hosts dozens of webinars where participants from academia, government, non-profits, and industry gather to demonstrate and share best practices and the latest smart grid research.

2018, ISGAN continues to expand its international reach and to serve as a partner for domestic and international efforts including the Global Smart Energy Federation, and the India Smart Grid Forum.

2019, ISGAN Annex 3 releases the smart grid evaluation toolkit, which integrates Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) within a Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) framework.

2021, The Annexes are transformed into Working Groups (WGs) with WG 3-Cost Benefit Analysis Toolkit, WG 5-SIRFN, WG 6-Power T&D Systems, WG 7-Smart Grid Transitions, WG 9-Flexibility Markets, and a cross-cutting Communications Working Group (focused also on deep knowledge exchange).

2022, ISGAN signs a Memorandum of Understanding with the Global Smart Energy Federation and a letter of intent with the Mission Innovation: Green Powered Future Mission at the Global Clean Energy Action Forum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

2022, A new strategy and structure process is completed, and Request for Extension (RfE) is finalized.

Executive Committee

Overview

The main objective of Working Group 6 is to establish long-term visions for the development of the future sustainable power systems. To create and project such visions, WG6 clarifies system-related challenges, with emphasis on the technologies, market solutions, and policies which contribute to the development of system solutions.

WG6 facilitates knowledge sharing related to the application of advanced technologies for power grids and their contributions to clean energy, climate goals, and sustainable energy access for all. WG6’s results are disseminated at different strategic levels. Some recent, impactful publications include “Flexibility for Resilience—Policy Message,” (2023), “Reimagining Grid Planning Processes for an Accelerated Transition” (2023), “Flexibility harvesting and its impact on stakeholder interaction” (2023), “Modeling Storage for Markets” (2021). The work is carried out by a global network including researchers from universities and institutes, system operators, and policy experts.

WG6 maintains a critical view on evolutions for smarter, cleaner power transmission and distribution systems based on four Focus Areas. While WG6’s annual Program of Work includes more defined activities and tasks, the Focus Areas below illustrate and support the continuity and long-term plans of the Working Group.

Focus Area 1: Expansion Planning and Market Analysis

Lead: Gianluigi Migliavacca (RSE)

Examines the function of electricity markets (day-ahead and real-time) and analyzes the evolution of the transmission and distribution networks and their planning modalities.

Focus Area 2: Technology Trends and Deployment

Lead: TBD

Identifies the potential and feasibility of innovative solutions that support grid operation and capacity. Also makes recommendations and supports the demonstration, promotion, and deployment of new promising technologies worldwide.

Focus Area 3: System Operation and Security

Lead: Irina Oleinikova (NTNU)

Assesses available methods and tools for operational monitoring and control. Also identifies the need for new tools and methods to manage future challenges in balancing control.

Focus Area 4: Transmission and Distribution System Interaction

Lead: Barbara Herndler (AIT)

Studies on how distribution and transmission networks could interact in the future, ensuring stable grid operation under high levels of renewables

Results are disseminated at different strategic levels, with some of the ongoing work and most recent publications include:

• micro vs MEGA perspectives on network development
• Ancillary services from distributed energy sources
• Flexibility In Future Power Systems
• ICT aspects of TSO-DSO interaction
• Storage and balancing as key elements for future network planning and electricity markets design

All published documents from Working Group 6 are found here:

Building on the lists of smart grid motivating drivers and technologies that were used for the 2012 survey, the assessment framework in 2014 was developed with slight refinements to reflect review feedback from current ISGAN Participants. The refined framework (i.e., lists of drivers and technologies) was then programmed into an online survey tool for use by each Participant to complete the assessment. Each Participant’s survey results were subjected to a validation process by that country’s national coordinator for Annex 1. A clustering analysis methodology was developed and applied to derive the composite, national-level prioritized assessment results from survey results (those approved through validation, or completed but not yet validated) from multiple respondents for a country. The same methodology was further applied to groups of multiple Participants’ prioritized assessment results to identify motivating drivers and technology priorities at a multinational level. Clustering analysis for the group of all ISGAN Participants, as well as of Participants grouped by economies (developed and developing) and by continent (Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America), was conducted; these multinational-level prioritized assessment results are provided herein. Lastly, application of national-level and multinational-level prioritized assessment results for selecting each country’s smart grid projects for the ISGAN Inventory and for further information dissemination via the ISGAN Smart Grid Project Webinar Series is described.

A growing amount of variable renewable energy generation, coupled with increasing consumer involvement through micro generation and flexible demand management, challenge the old ways of planning, operating, and investing in power systems.

In most developed countries, the existing electric infrastructure and workforce is rapidly aging, while in many developing countries, demand for electricity is rapidly rising. Across this landscape of change, it is crucial for policy-makers to understand the synergies between grids and information and communication technologies. Only smart and strong grids will connect people with reliable clean energy. This paper presents a part of the work being done within ISGAN Annex 6 on Power T&D Systems. International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN) is an initiative within the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) and an Implementing Agreement within the International Energy Agency (IEA). For more information please go to www.iea-isgan.org, or www.cleanenergyministerial.org/Our-Work/Initiatives/Smart-Grid.

This work involves the major economies and consequently major energy users in the world and is addressing the challenges for a secure and clean energy system including the concerns put forward by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). IEA publish regularly the reports World Energy Outlook (WEO) and Energy Technology Perspectives (ETP). In addition IEA has published a number of Technology Roadmaps, e.g. on Smart Grids, Wind Energy, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), Solar PV Energy and Energy Storage. All scenarios showed by IEA are indicating a further increase of electricity as energy carrier both due to the integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and due to increased electricity consumption in many countries, besides common applications also due to increased use of home electronics, heat pumps, air conditioning and electrical transportation (e.g. electrical vehicles, high speed trains). Increased variable electricity production (large scale and distributed) will require mitigation from storage and/or demand response. This will give further demands for capacity, flexibility and reliability of the future power T&D system.

A synchrophasor is a time-synchronized measurement of a quantity described by a phasor. Like a vector, a phasor is a complex number that represents both the magnitude and phase angle of voltage and current sinusoidal waveforms at a specific point in time. Devices called phasor measurement units (PMU) measure voltage and current, and with these measurements, calculate parameters such as frequency, real power (MW), reactive power (MVAR) and phase angle. Data reporting rates for these parameters are typically 30 to 60 records per second, and may be higher. In contrast, current supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems typically report data every four to six seconds – over a hundred times slower than PMUs.

Measurements taken by PMUs in different locations on the network are accurately synchronized with each other and can be time-aligned, allowing the relative phase angles between different points in the system to be determined as directly measured quantities. Synchrophasor measurements can thus be combined to provide a precise and comprehensive “view” of an entire interconnection, allowing unprecedented visibility into system conditions.

The number of PMUs installed worldwide, as well as the number and type of grid operations informed by PMU data and applications, have seen notable increases in recent years. The past six years have seen a significant increase in the number of PMUs installed across North America’s transmission grid, from fewer than 500 installed in 2009 to nearly 2,000 today. This rapid increase in deployment of PMUs was spurred by the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which funded federal Smart Grid Investment Grants (SGIG) and Smart Grid Demonstration Projects (SGDP), with matching private funds. In Norway, responsibility for the deployment of PMUs has recently been assumed by the Transmission System Operator’s IT division, meaning that PMUs are becoming an integral part of the grid information infrastructure for system operations.