Digitalisation eases the integration of renewable energies
The energy transition makes it possible to have green electricity from different renewable energy sources. Digitalization is key to their integration into the networks.
The increasing growth of renewable energy sources, which is essential to the energy transition, has brought opportunities and challenges to electricity grids. With the diversification and coverage of energy producers and sources, spread across the entire territory, energy balancing is becoming more complex, with a greater need to adapt to different production and consumption scenarios.
But as the challenges have emerged, the sector's energy transition, particularly in networks, has brought various answers. “These challenges are largely addressed by technological means,” says Hugo Miguel Pereira, from the Infrastructure, Platforms & Connectivity team in E-Redes' Digital Platform Department. This happens “either by integrating real-time monitoring systems into the ecosystem that already exists at E-REDES, or by providing new decision-support tools for dispatch operators in their day-to-day work”.
There is no energy transition without digitalization. Nor can there be an energy transition without secure, resilient, efficient and intelligent networks. Digitalization promotes innovation and the development of new business models, such as peer-to-peer energy markets and electric mobility solutions, which are crucial for the energy transition.
Ricardo Santos, from E-REDES' Digital Acceleration Department, recalls that “the entire ecosystem associated with energy distribution and transport” is impacted by “policies to encourage decentralized production and the adoption of green energies”. There is increasing “interaction between the relevant stakeholders - traders, energy communities, small and large producers and customers, which can only be guaranteed efficiently through 100% digital integration”.
E-REDES and the flexibility of distribution networks
In addition to the frequent distance between renewable production centers and consumption sites, there is also the issue of network requirements. Pedro Terras Marques, E-REDES' System Management and Operation director, points out that there are many photovoltaic or wind farms in different regions with different capacities and that “since 2020, all renewable energy production plants with a capacity of more than 1 MW must be connected to the grid supervision SCADA,” managed by E-REDES, in order to be connected to the distribution or transmission grids.
This measure has brought greater control capacity to the distribution networks, but E-REDES has been looking for innovations to ensure balancing. One promising technology that is already in use is the FIRMe project, which uses so-called 'solidarity', in which there is an adjustment in production or consumption to balance. “I can ask certain (larger) customers to lower their consumption so that the peak doesn't rise, or so that the level of use in a certain area isn't so high,” he explains, ”and I can ask them to consume more in periods when it's very low. This solidarity with the needs of the network is part of what we call flexibility services.”
And the same can happen on the production side: “If there is a situation of excess, we have the capacity to send them this information so that they reduce their production.” All this elasticity of the electricity system, in terms of production and consumption, is ensured by digital systems that monitor the evolution of needs in the network and anticipate scenarios, being able to generate alerts.
Self-consumption: consumer producers
Another balancing factor in the integration of renewables and the balancing of grids is the growing adoption of self-consumption technologies, such as decentralized solar. Small producers, who reduce their consumption and still transfer part of it to the public grid, either on their own or through energy communities, reduce pressure in a given area.
This can happen both in an urban area with high energy needs or in a region further away from the centers of electricity production. “If there are electric wires, energy can flow,” says Pedro Terras Marques, “but naturally we have no interest in generating energy in Serra da Estrela and consuming it in Lisbon, because this transit of energy through the distribution network has very high losses.”
Ricardo Santos, from E-REDES' Digital Acceleration Department, emphasizes that “digitalization supports the decentralization of energy production. With technologies such as microgrids and energy storage systems, consumers can not only consume, but also produce and store their own energy, contributing to a more resilient and sustainable electricity grid.” In essence, any Kw of electricity produced on a rooftop of a house or a business is a kW that doesn't need to travel through the distribution networks.
New digital technologies are enabling faster, more personalized and immersive interactions to facilitate and encourage the integration of customers/producers with the various market agents, whether they are aggregators, traders, network operators or others.
Ensuring electric mobility and electrification
The energy transition involves the electrification of consumption, renewable production and progressive storage capacity. In the distribution network, this diversification is supported by digital transformation and technology. “The fact that we're increasing electrification doesn't necessarily mean expanding the grid,” says Pedro Terras Marques, explaining that electricity consumption and its apparent increase are supported by greater efficiency in both production and consumption, as well as better use of the available capacity of the existing grid.
Part of this consumption is being directed towards electric mobility, but also on this specific point, Pedro Terras Marques argues that the electric system is “assured”. On the one hand, people “are creatures of habit, they make the same journeys, about 30 km a day, and charging at night, at home, is enough for their usual needs”. On the other hand, energy consumption drops substantially at night, so charging electric vehicles during this period allows for greater and better use of the available capacity.
There is a need to make better use of the capacity available in urban areas, to speed up electric mobility without the need for major investment. “In a multi-storey building with garages, typically around 20% of the power supply is available for communal services and the rest to power the various apartments. However, during the night, the need for consumption in the apartments is very low and in the common services, especially in the parking areas, it becomes much greater, with the widespread adoption of electric vehicles", explains Pedro Terras Marques. According to him, "a solution is being developed that involves reinforcing the power supply cable to the communal services (and parking) and, with some associated technology, it allows a flexible solution to be generated. The 80/20 ratio of available power (apartments/communal services) during the day is inverted to 20/80 (or another more appropriate ratio) at night, and allows electric vehicles to be charged more quickly".
The fact that most people charge their cars at night is good for the distribution network. Why is that? Because at night is when we have the off-peak period, that is, when the load diagram is lowest.
Massifying and democratizing electric mobility still has some obstacles, such as the lack of garages or personal parking spaces for charging stations. However, the digitalisation of networks brings other benefits as well, already achieved by the easy way in which electric vehicle drivers can charge their car anywhere with a card, or even with a purely digital card. Just as solar energy can be deeply decentralized, the distribution of electricity to charging stations can also be made easier. "We will progressively begin to see greater charging capacities", believes Pedro Terras Marques, from the "expansion of charging stations along motorways to innovative projects under development, such as stations associated with street lighting".
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