Innovative solutions for green energy sources
The CROSSBOW project, which is being implemented by the Montenegrin Transmission System Operator (CGES) under the Horizon 2020 multi-annual programme, is in the product testing phase, and the preliminary results will soon be consolidated into technical reports and subsequently published on the European Commission's portal, stated the Ms. Biljana Ivanović, CGES Engineer for Short-Term Planning, Market Operations and Settlement, in an interview for 'Dnevne novine'
The project's objective is to establish cross-border management of intermittent renewable energy sources and storage units, in order to ensure an international wholesale electricity balancing market.
The CROSSBOW project is a complex and ambitious project which, according to Biljana Ivanović, the head of project activities in Montenegro, aims for the more efficient integration of renewable electricity sources into the existing power grid infrastructure, which has been developed for years on conventional foundations.
"The CROSSBOW project is being implemented under the multi-annual Horizon 2020 programme and is tasked with establishing cross-border management of intermittent renewable energy sources and storage units, in order to ensure an internationally balanced wholesale electricity market," explains Ivanović.
The field of research is quite broad and demanding, so, as he says, the consortium comprises a diverse project team of 24 companies.
"Leading the consortium as coordinator is the Spanish company ETRA, while the other members are prominent scientific and research institutions from the United Kingdom, Greece, Spain, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, and Croatia, as well as eight transmission system operators from the region (TRANS, ADMIE, ESO, EMS, NOSBiH, HOPS, CGES and MEPSO)", said Ivanović.
The Montenegrin electricity transmission system, as part of the consortium, adds, carries out project tasks in accordance with its activities and the strategic goals of the company and Montenegro. CGES, as the transmission system operator, is responsible for the planning, development, reliable operation, management and maintenance of the transmission system, i.e. the 400, 220 and 110 kV voltage level system, in order to ensure a stable electricity supply to all Montenegrin cities and citizens, and to support the development of the Montenegrin economy.
The energy sector, Ivanović points out, has undergone significant changes in the last decade, which in Montenegro, where energy is one of the strategic development priorities, has had a significant impact on all energy entities.
The need to ensure reliable transmission with the increasing number of renewable energy sources, the increasingly stringent requirements regarding power quality, ensuring the prerequisites for connecting the electricity market in the region, the need to coordinate procedures with other interconnecting transmission systems, harmonisation of rules in line with European trends and the implementation of state-of-the-art technological solutions, in order to permanently keep pace with the requirements of ENTSO-E, represent a constant challenge for our company, but also strengthen it day by day," said Ivanović.
When we speak of the other stakeholders, specifically in Montenegro, right at the very beginning of the project, as she said, an excellent opportunity arose at the very beginning of the project to establish scientific and technical cooperation between the Montenegrin Transmission System Operator (CGES) and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Montenegro (FEE), so the involvement of the Faculty in the CROSSBOW project, as an associated third party of CGES, was formalised immediately after the official start of the project.
The CROSSBOW project has also brought us collaboration with renowned industrial and academic partners, which can be a very solid foundation for involvement in new projects. This project has fostered close collaboration between CGES and ETF, and on this occasion, master's and doctoral students from ETF were engaged under the mentorship of Professor Dr Saša Mujić, which is a great opportunity for them to learn from best practices and solve real-world problems," emphasised Ivanović.
This is, as she said, also a good example of how the joint action of industry and academia brings economic benefit to the state, as well as new knowledge that can be directly applied in our electricity system and contribute to its efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
The project began in November 2017, although the official start was preceded by almost a year of preparation, which involved drafting the project idea and finding suitable partners to form an integral part of the consortium. The project activities are scheduled to be carried out over a period of four years, i.e. 48 months from the official start of the project, and despite the challenging situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the CROSSBOW project is currently being successfully implemented according to plan," said Ivanović.
Horizon 2020 is the European Union's funding programme for the implementation of European policies in the field of science, research and innovation for the 2014-2020 budget period.
The total value of the CROSSBOW project is €21,842,647.88, of which €672,012 is the estimated value of the project activities in Montenegro. Given that in our case this involves innovative activities, the European Union's funding rate is 70 per cent of eligible costs for profit-making organisations, so for the project activities in Montenegro (CGES and ETF), up to 511 is available.439 euros from the EU fund," Ivanović specified, explaining that for non-profit organisations, eligible costs are financed entirely from the EU budget.
The CROSSBOW project proposal was submitted, it says, under the third theme of the Horizon 2020 programme, 'Societal Challenges'.
"In order for a project proposal to qualify for financial support at all, it must meet the scientific, thematic and formal requirements set out in the call for project proposals," said Ivanović.
The call contains four innovative challenges, cross-border power transmission and the flexibility of services required for the control of large-scale generation, energy storage solutions, IT technology, consumption response techniques and the electricity market, to which the CROSSBOW project, she said, will respond by developing technologies that will enable greater flexibility and reliability of the transmission system's electricity grid.
"Therefore, the aim is for the CROSSBOW project to provide services to representatives of transmission network operators in various scenarios, in order to promote sustainable electricity grids, which feature a higher penetration of renewable energy sources in overall generation and enable the establishment of near real-time pan-European electricity balancing markets," emphasised Ivanović.
Today we are witnessing, he says, an ever-increasing share of alternative sources of electricity, and their capacities will inevitably increase, bringing with it a wave of new technologies and a gradual shift to a somewhat different management of electricity systems.
When we speak of alternative sources, in this project they are not only renewable sources of electricity, but also hybrid systems, energy storage units, as well as virtual storage capacities. This clearly indicates that in the near future we will need more sophisticated control, both of the alternative sources and of their impact on the stability and security of the entire electricity system," Ivanović believes.
The CROSSBOW project, it adds, proposes a solution for establishing regional centres to coordinate regional transmission system operators and alternative sources of electricity, which will enable the management and monitoring of alternative sources in real time.
"This will result in greater engagement of 'green energy' from neighbouring systems instead of additional engagement of domestic production capacity characterised by the presence of 'dirty technology'," Ivanović explained.
Furthermore, as she said, new roles are also being assigned to electricity undertakings, so we have large consumers who will have an active role in regulating their consumption.
In this regard, the CROSSBOW project is developing a regional demand management platform which, for this purpose, will facilitate the presence of direct consumers from a wider area in the event of a deficit of 'green' energy. On the other hand, system balancing is also an important segment in operational management, so the CROSSBOW project has recognised a solution for the transparent procurement of ancillary services from the region, where service providers will have the opportunity to submit their bids, and transmission system operators can, on that occasion, secure balancing energy at any given moment at minimal activation costs," said Ivanović.
To ensure the smooth functioning of the system in the new environment, it is considered necessary to carry out additional analyses in the areas of ancillary services and demand side management, which will represent new tasks for the currently operational Regional Security Coordination Centre (RSC) to be examined within the project.
"Taking all of the above into account, CROSSBOW technologies will be incorporated into eight different solutions, with the aforementioned software solutions being encompassed by a system for the mutual exchange of essential information in real time," Ivanović highlighted, adding that these results are being developed within the framework of nine cluster testing groups and are primarily intended for the needs of transmission system operators, which does not exclude the possibility of their use by other energy entities.
According to Ivanović, the project is currently in its final phase, with the team conducting testing on the products they have been working on for the past three years.
The preliminary results from this phase of testing are expected to be compiled into technical reports shortly, and subsequently published on the European Commission's portal. As for the results from the partner in Montenegro, specifically the CGES team worked on the issue of long-term planning of cross-border electricity exchange, the so-called estimation of preliminary net positions, where, in addition to the delivered results, we proposed corrective measures and recommendations for further research," Ivanović pointed out.
On the other hand, he emphasises, the ETF has made a great contribution through the design of models for solar power plants, biomass power plants and energy storage systems.
"All these models, together with the models of wind farms and gas-fired power plants, developed by colleagues from the University of Zagreb, are included in the product, which aims to provide the user with quality instructions (the transmission system operator) in selecting the optimal scenario for the use of renewable energy sources and storage systems in real time," Ivanović assessed.
It is, as she said, a complex and ambitious project which aims for the more efficient integration of renewable electricity sources into the existing electricity grid infrastructure, which has been developed for years on conventional foundations.
"We must not overlook that the CROSSBOW project has brought us collaboration with renowned industrial and academic partners, which can be a very solid foundation for involvement in new projects," concluded Ivanović.