Research project SiNED

System services for reliable power grids as the energy transition and digital transformation move ahead

Research project SiNED
Credit:

MWK Nds

The energy transition and the increasing development of renewable energy sources mean that existing strategies for regulating and maintaining the energy supply need to be adapted. In the future, these so-called system services will be provided by local generators and, in this context, further improved to meet the requirements of the energy transition and digitalisation. This is precisely where the SiNED project is focusing its research: to ensure that these processes are optimised.

Research project SiNED

 

Duration

November 2019 until October 2022

Funded by

Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (additional funding of science and technology in research and teaching from "Niedersächsisches Vorab")

Project participants

  • efzn Energie-Forschungszentrum Niedersachsen
  • TU Braunschweig – Institut für Hochspannungstechnik und Elektrische Energieanlagen – elenia
  • OFFIS e.V. – Institut für Informatik Oldenburg
  • Leibniz Universität Hannover - Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informatik
  • TU Clausthal – Institut für deutsches und internationales Berg- und Energierecht

The energy transition and the increasing expansion of renewable energy sources mean that existing strategies for regulating and maintaining grid stability need to be adapted. In the future, these so-called system services will be provided by local generators and, in this context, further improved to meet the requirements of the energy transition and digitalisation. This is precisely where the SiNED project is focusing its research: in order to implement and ensure the optimisation of these processes. Solutions for the reliable operation of future power grids are also being investigated, focusing particularly on windy locations in Lower Saxony that face the challenges of extreme fluctuations in production and the associated need to manage bottlenecks.

In the project’s first phase, the scientists from the Institute of Networked Energy Systems are addressing a number of key research areas. Amongst other things, they are investigating changing requirements for system services that can be activated quickly, such as the instantaneous reserve and static voltage stability, in order to determine the scale on which such services will be required in distribution grids in the future. The control algorithms devised in order to provide the system services are also still being evaluated using an inverter research platform – developed specially for this project – in the network laboratory.

Departments, research groups and challenges related to project SinED:

Department

Energy Systems Technology

The Energy Systems Technology department focuses on the interaction between system-relevant technologies within decentralised networked structures, particularly at the low-voltage and medium-voltage level.

Research group

Power Grid Technologies

The Power Grid Technologies research group maps the complex interaction between controlling, controllable and non-controllable grid participants in our laboratories in order to understand and optimise its functioning at software and hardware level.

Challenge

Grid management: Electricity, gas, and heating grids

To ensure that energy is not only available on the balance sheet, but also in the right place at the right time, electricity, gas and heating grids must be analysed in anticipation of future challenges, adapted in their operational management and modernised and expanded in terms of infrastructure.

Contact

Power Grid Technologies

Research Group
Institute of Networked Energy Systems