Within the scope of the activities of the European Project FLEXITRANSTORE ("An Integrated Platform for Increased FLEXIbility in smart TRANSmission grids with STORage Entities and large penetration of Renewable Energy Sources") and the demonstrator associated with activity 12.3 (Implementation and demonstration in a hybrid environment), the report associated with this task was successfully delivered to the European Commission at the beginning of May.

This report addresses a key phase of the WP12 (Work Package), which encompasses the activities of demonstrator 8 - "Advanced Control for flexible synchronous generation", where the developed system was tested in a real-time simulation environment. This WP addresses the demonstration of innovative models of control and tuning of the Power System Stabilizer (PSS) of generators in order to improve the damping capacity of low frequency oscillations (LFOs), strengthening the network as it increases generation flexibility.

In this work, R&D NESTER contributed to the development and implementation of a model based on the physics of the phenomenon (Grey Box Model) to predict the behavior of the electrical network in various operating scenarios, focusing on the events that originate this type of low frequency phenomena (LFOs).

The model developed by R&D NESTER is part of an integrated system, target of demonstration, which allows to adjust the parameters of the PSS in real time, optimizing the response of the generation, thus increasing the resilience and flexibility of the electrical system. The demonstration in real environment of this system is planned to start in the next months in a cogeneration plant in Bulgaria.

This project, in which R&D NESTER participates, is financed through Grant Agreement N. 774407 of the European Research and Innovation Program H2020.

Flexitranstore Project (R&D Nester website)

Flexitranstore Project Website

R&D Nester partakes in the project INTERPRETER - "Research on advanced tools and technological development (RIA) - Interoperable tools for an efficient management and effective planning of the electricity grid", submitted to the European Commission's H2020 program and approved.

INTERPRETER main objective is the implementation of a modular grid management solution consisting of a set of 10 software applications for an optimal design, planning, operation and maintenance of the electricity grid - with a special focus on the distribution network - that will be offered to grid operators through an open-source interoperable platform. These tools will support DSOs and TSOs to move from a traditional grid management approach to an active system management approach, considering the rapid deployment of distributed energy resources as well as growing environmental concerns.

On May 2021 was released the first issue of INTERPRETER's newsletter.

This project started in October 2019, and after 18 months of implementation, its partners share this issue of its bi-annual newsletter where you can find the latest developments and details.

INTERPRETER Website

INTERPRETER Project (R&D Nester website)

From 29-31 July, R&D Nester was represented in 2021 edition of IEEE International Conference on Power, Intelligent Computing and Systems, held in Shenyang, China. This is an international conference sponsored by IEEE and whose papers will be published in the official database of this worldwide reference institution in engineering (IEEExplore).

Last month of May R&D NESTER presented 2 papers at the Fourth International Conference on Mechanical, Electric and Industrial Engineering (MEIE2021) that was held in Kunming, China.

All papers submitted to MEIE2021 were peer-reviewed and the papers submitted by R&D NESTER were selected for further publishing in a special edition of the IOPscience Journal of Physics: Conference Series, Volume 1983, on August 12. IOP (Institute of Physics) is a main publisher of scientific journals and this particular journal publishes open access papers from selected conferences in order to further disseminate the technical and innovative work developed and presented in these events.

R&D Nester published papers are entitled "Implementation and testing of a conformance platform for IEEE 1901.1 Power Line Communication Standard" and "IEEE 1901.1 Power Line Communication electromagnetic emission study". Both papers were produced in the scope of HighSpeedCarrier Project, a project currently in development in R&D NESTER.

The main goal of HighSpeedCarrier project is to develop and validate solutions related to IEEE 1901.1, a new power line carrier communication standard recently released by IEEE. Solutions developed in the scope of the project include software solutions for simulation of IEEE 1901.1 related devices and communication networks, a platform for testing electromagnetic compatibility of IEEE 1901.1 compliant devices and a platform for testing the standard compliance from devices. The project is developed in cooperation with China Electric Power Research Institute (CEPRI).

The work reported in the two publications is related to the development and validation of hardware and software platforms for testing the conformance devices that implement IEEE 1901.1 and measuring electromagnetic emission levels.

All details about the two publications and the HighSpeedCarrier project can be accessed in the links below:

IOPscience Volume 1983

On September 14^th R&D Nester was represented in the 6^th Scientific Conference "Energy Security - Pillars and Development Perspective".

This conference was held between September 13^th and 14^th at the Rzeszów University of Technology, in Rzeszów, Poland.

The Ignacy Lukasiewicz Energy Policy Institue's (EPI) is the coordinator of this event, which mission is to support and promote activities related to the development of civic society, and to popularize science and knowledge concerning energy policy.

The co-organisers of this conference are the Department of Economics of the Faculty of Management of the I. Łukasiewicz Rzeszów University of Technology and the Student Scientific Association "Eurointegration".

This conference is sponsored by NATO's Public Diplomacy Division.

The aim of the event is to contribute to the scientific and expert discussion on energy policy, energy security and the energy sector in its broadest sense. The idea is to build an instrument supporting the development of these areas of knowledge, by providing a platform for discussion with the participation of scientists, experts, representatives of public administration, energy companies, non-governmental organisations, business journalists and students.

In total, the previous five editions of the Conference were attended by over 1 thousand participants (representing 50 scientific centres), about 4 thousand students and nearly 140 thousand virtual attendees.

This 6^th edition's theme was focuses on the energy transition, while continuing the scientific discussions undertaken in previous editions of the event. Key areas to be covered include: nuclear energy, hydrogen, quantum materials, offshore wind energy, threats in cyberspace, cooperation in cyber security, energy storage, influence operations in the context of Russian energy projects, energy security of the countries of NATO's eastern flank in the context of the policy of the Russian Federation, energy infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, new technologies in the security of energy sector facilities and in civil aviation, and energy security in a post-pandemic world.

R&D Nester was represented in a roundtable panel entitled "Energy security in the post-pandemic world", where Nuno Souza e Silva, Managing Director of R&D Nester, along with 3 other speakers, commented and express their views on how pandemic has affected and changed energy markets and electricity as well, and how post-pandemic period should be faced in these areas.

For more information: Conference website

On 22 September R&D Nester presented an overview on ancillary services at the webinar about "Network Ancillary Services and the future role of Energy Communities", organized by FleXunity project.

FleXunity is a European Union H2020 funded project under the program Fast Track to Innovation. R&D Nester presentation is entitled "Ancillary Services overview" and it was produced in the scope of R&D Nester participation in this Project. The presentation will characterize the ancillary services at the electric transmission grid and share the project's conclusions on what ancillary services are best suited to improve the integration of energy communities in the European electricity market.

The objective of FleXunity project is to deploy novel services for retailers and aggregators, enhanced by Virtual Power Plant (VPP) technology empowered with AI algorithms focused on minimizing the cost of energy (bought in the wholesale market) and optimizing the use of distributed renewables from the utility or community portfolio.

The proposed energy community approach will promote active participation of end-users (community members) valuating their flexibility and energy sharing actions, which will be supported by secure transaction mechanisms with technologies such as blockchain to validate energy transactions. A tariff structure optimisation will be design for the Energy Community to be able to meet the needs of the system operator by aggregating the flexibility to participate in balancing and ancillary services markets as a Balancing Service Provider (BSPs).

The proposed services will be demonstrated in two pilots with very different market conditions: in the U.K. (mature market open to the use of demand-side flexibility) and Iberian energy market (in transformation - opening to use of flexibility from the demand side).

Link for event

FleXunity Project (R&D Nester)

FleXunity project website

In the sequence of studies using all-sky imager (ASI), R&D NESTER during 2020 developed an image processing methodology that can be applied to ASI in order to identify clouds in the sky and provide a cloud index.

In this context, three cloud detection and cloud index formulation were developed:

• Cloud Index Method 1, which uses a single threshold value to distinguish cloud pixels from sky pixels;
• Cloud Index Method 2, which uses two threshold values in order to make the classification process more robust. Classifying pixels as Sky, Thick Clouds or Thin Clouds;
• Cloud Index Method 3, which is similar to the second one but also uses the pixel distance to the Sun to improve the circumsolar brightness effect.

In order to be able to compute the above mentioned methods, several intermediate steps of image transformation are done. On the one hand, the fish eye lens of the ASI introduces a radius distortion in the image [1], which need to be corrected. On the other hand, the Sun location in the image, the Sun masking (to reduce pixel brightness), the distance of each pixel to the Sun Location and, the computation of the red-blue ratio (RBR) are done in order to allow the classification of clods [2].

These steps are depicted in the Figure bellow:

In order to test the developed methods of cloud identification a case study was conducted using a set of ten ASI pictures. These ASI pictures were chosen to be representative of different sky and clouds conditions.This way, the methods are tested in a range that varies from heavy clouds to almost clear sky conditions.

The results are depicted in the Figure below:

Before analyzing each picture, it is important to notice that Method1 is not able to correctly classify the clouds since it only uses one single threshold to analyze the picture. Thus, the analysis mainly focused on Method2 and Method3.

With this case study, some key points were obtained. Method3 when applied to picture1 provides a better cloud classification. Contrary to Method2, which considers some pixels as sky when in fact they are thin clouds. In the case of picture2, the same analysis can be concluded. In the sky region on the left down part of the image, Method3 have a better performance than Method2.

All the methodologies are being performed in a similar way in picture3, which depicts an image of heavy clouds. Nevertheless, it is noticeable in the original picture that some clouds are denser (or thicker) than others. Alternatively, Method2 was able to select a certain region of thin clouds but was not fully effective doing this task.

The application of Method3 in picture4 provides a better capability of distinguishing thick clouds from thin ones. The implementation of Method2 in picture5, was able to detect a sky region between thick and thin clouds while Method3 failed to do so. Regarding picture6, Method3 is deemed a visually better fit for the cloud and sky pixel classification. However, some clear sky pixels were wrongly classified as thin clouds.

The case in which the Sun is completely visible, i.e., without clouds naturally masking it, portrayed in picture7 to picture9, the Method3 offers an overall better performance. Nevertheless, the circumsolar region is still causes some issues regarding the classification of pixels. In the last picture, picture10, Method3 is shows a better representation of the original picture.

References:

Following the lines of all-sky imager (ASI) research, R&D NESTER acquired on 2020 a new equipment [1] in order to proceed with different studies. The first approach was to develop a methodology to estimate cloud height using two ASI's.

This research utilizes pictures from two ASI's, distanced from 2.54 km, in order to develop a tool to estimate cloud height. The images are subjected to a pre-process stage in which different calculations and images transformations are performed, as shown in the Figure below:

The pre-process stage is divided into four main stages. On a first step, an offset angle is applied order to have both images aligned correctly in the North-South axis. Following this step, the Sun location is computed in terms of pixel coordinates (x,y). In the third step, the Binary Image is created in order to allow the identification of cloud pixels and sky pixels [2]. The last pre-process step consists on creating the Contour Image that only contains the cloud contours.

A case study was conducted in order to test the developed methodology. Several ASI images from different dates and time were selected. In the example shown in the Figure bellow, the estimated cloud height is about 5.78 kilometers. One can observe that for such high cloud height, the same clouds are easily identifiable in both ASI images despite their distance:

The estimated cloud height is under the range of Altostratus and Altocumulus defined in the Figure bellow [4]. These clouds can range a cloud height from two to seven km.

References:

[1] schreder-cms, "Products-Cloud Detection/All Sky Measurments," [Online]. Available: http://www.schreder-cms.com/en/camera.htm. [Accessed 27 01 2021].

[2] M. S. Ghonima, B. Urquhart, C. W. Chow, J. E. Shields, A. Cazorla and J. Kleissl, "A method for cloud detection and opacity classification based on ground based sky imagery," Atmospheric Measurment Techniques, vol. 5, p. 2881-2892, 2012.

[3] Z. Wang, A. Conrad Bovik, H. Rahim Sheikh and E. P. Simoncelli, "Image Quality Assessment: From Error Visibility to Structural Similarity," IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 600-612, April 2004.

[4] NASA, "Sky Watcher Chart," [Online]. Available: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/pdfs/sky_cloudchart.pdf. [Accessed 10 02 2021].

The EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) published a new Position Paper inquiring the role of regulation in incentivising smart investments to improve the efficient use of electricity transmission assets.

ACER believes special focus should be given on how to facilitate the most efficient use of the existing grid and technologies, in order to enable the energy transition effectively. In this context, the regulatory framework has an important role to play in promoting innovative investments and providing the right incentives to increase the efficiency of the electricity transmission network.

ACER concludes the introduction of a benefit-based remuneration scheme can potentially represent a strong incentive for regulated entities to improve their efficiency, both when utilising future and existing infrastructure.

Read the ACER Position Paper to find out more.

ENTSO-E welcomes the current European common efforts to develop a new role for hydrogen in the decarbonisation of the energy system, embodied in the upcoming Hydrogen and decarbonised gas market package.

In a brief paper, ENTSO-E addresses the new roles of hydrogen, the business case to use hydrogen in an electricity system, and the Planning and operating hydrogen in ‘one system of systems'.

Read the full paper here.

The 2021 Edition of the APREN Yearbook, a milestone in the national energy panorama and a showcase of what it's done in Portugal in the sector of electricity production from renewable sources.

Since 2007, APREN has been contributing annually with its Yearbook, for a better understanding of the entire universe of renewable electricity in Portugal. The year of 2020, due to the pandemic situation, is another one in which APREN intend to illustrate the importance of this sector for Portugal, both in the present, but also with regard to our future. This is a document that is already a milestone for the electricity sector and that has been used as a work tool by numerous entities.

The study on the impact of electricity from renewable sources carried out by the consultancy Deloitte for the Portuguese Association of Renewable Energies (APREN) shows that renewables have contributed 18.5 billion euros to the Portuguese GDP in the space of five years (3, €7 billion per year), thus representing around 1.9% of GDP.

This study assessed the impact and contribution, between 2016 and 2020, of electricity from renewable sources on the bill of consumers, on the electricity system and on the national economy, projecting its effects in the context of energy policy and objectives established in the National Energy and Climate Plan for Portugal until 2030, and also looking at the new climate ambition established by the European Union, present in the European legislative package "Fit for 55%", launched last July.

Link for Publication