News and Events

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CIRED 2013: Electricity Distribution Systems for a Sustainable Future

10 - 13 June 2013. Kistamässan, Stockholm, SE.

There are just a few weeks until over 1200 international electricity distribution professionals meet in Stockholm for CIRED 2013. Will you be joining them for Europe’s largest electricity distribution conference? If you haven’t already registered, book your place today at www.cired2013.org

Industry statement for a conformed standardization framework enabling the large scale smart grid deployment

May 16th, 2013, Brussels, BE. Organised by the STARGRID project with the support of the ETP SmartGrids

The objective is to bring together promoters and stakeholders of various European smart grid industry initiatives in an ad-hoc round table aimed at assessing the impact of current standardization activities, raising awareness on standardization gaps and identifying the key standardization requirements

The workshop will comprise three sessions: “Smart Metering”, “Voltage Control and DG integration” and “Demand Response”. Participation is only by invitation. More information here.

European Conference on Smart Grid Standardization Achievements

Monday, January 28, 2013, Brussels, BE. Organised by the European Commission with the support of European Standardisation Organisations (CEN, CENELEC, ETSI).

The objective of the conference is the dissemination of achievements of Smart Grids standardisation work and related work on Smart Meters and charging electric vehicles.

The conference will be open to the general public. There is no registration fee but online pre-registration under the following link is necessary.

More information in DG Ener event's website.

ISGAN webinar: Unlocking Markets and Supporting Innovation in Smart Grids

Thursday, November 29, 2012 - 13:30 - 15:00 GMT. Check your local time.

The International Smart Grid Action Network in partnership with the Clean Energy Solutions Center is pleased to host a timely webinar on a topic of broad interest: Unlocking Markets and Supporting Innovation in Smart Grids

Unlocking Markets and Supporting Innovation in Smart Grids: How do you build a smart grid that is reliable, safe, more sustainable, and unlocks markets for economic growth and innovation? Learn how policy makers around the world are approaching this challenge. Representatives of the Ontario (Canada) Ministry of Energy and the India Smart Grid Forum will describe their strategic approach and stakeholder engagement process. The webinar will also feature audience discussion, offering participants the chance to submit questions and suggestions through a live and interactive webinar format.

Panelists:
Ken Nakahara, Senior Manager, Smart Grid and Network Policy at Ministry of Energy Canada Reji Pillai Kumar, President of India Smart Grid Forum Richard Wunderlich, Director, Smart Grid Activities of Siemens Canada, Energy Sector

Register and learn more at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/247896422

OPTIMATE: Final dissemination event

11th December 2012, Brussels. Download draft agenda, registration form and access information.

OPTIMATE is a collaborative Research and Demonstration project supported by the European Commission (DG Energy) under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development. The project, coordinated by TECHNOFI, with RTE as technical director, aims at developing a numerical simulation platform for the analysis of current electricity market designs and the validation of future ones: its overarching goal is to study how to integrate massive renewable electricity generation spread in several regional power markets in Europe. OPTIMATE thus contributes to the construction of a pan-European electricity market able to respond both to long term European climate policy and security of supply concerns.

The OPTIMATE simulator implements a wide scope of market rules, within a model of the western European power markets, and may cover a large number of configurations of market players’ portfolios and renewable integration approaches. The validation studies of the OPTIMATE platform are focused on three main topics:

• the impact of possible variants of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) support schemes on their integration in the market;
• the effects of market rules on RES integration;
• the effects of cross-border congestion management on RES integration

Different market design options can be compared and ranked by using indicators linked with the three pillars of the European energy policy (i.e. market competition and efficiency, sustainability and security of supply), thus allowing for recommendations on future market designs. Redistributive effects amongst agents coming from market design evolutions can also be evaluated.

The OPTIMATE consortium is pleased to invite all the stakeholders of electricity markets in Europe to this dissemination workshop which is intended at:

• depicting some of the key features of the developed market simulation platform;
• discussing some of the validation study results obtained using the prototype;
• envisaging ways and means to use this prototype for the next two years for market design and regulatory studies and beyond.

Project interaction event on Network Operations in Prague 11th December

An EEGI projects interaction workshop will be held in Prague on 11th December 2012. Download draft agenda!

This interaction event, organised by GRID+ with the support of the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, targets projects framed within the Cluster 3 of the updated EEGI Roadmap: “Distribution Network Operations”. The objectives of the workshop are:

• To raise awareness of the activities within the EEGI and promote experience exchange,

• To determine commonalities and identify potential synergies and relevant topics for further cooperation, focusing in already achieved results

• To find out which result could be transferred to other regions

• To improve the performance of individual projects by fostering the networking between project managers

The agenda foresees two thematic sessions on network operations consisting of a preliminary panel discussion, followed by breakout discussions within small groups. In addition to the discussions, some basic framing questions will be provided to be used as a starting point in the panel and breakout discussions. A tentative list of framing topics is presented below:

Panel 1: Control, monitoring and automation of LV and MV networks

1. Monitoring and control of LV networks:

• voltage control, frequency control and congestion management by expert systems and simulation models

• development of detailed LV network simulation models o network monitoring systems and related communication infrastructure supporting integration in low voltage networks

2. Automation and control of MV networks:

• observability and control of MV distribution networks

• better exploitation of the existing MV infrastructure in order to increase hosting capacity for active resources

• automatic fault detection, reconnection and reconfiguring systems

Panel 2: Network management and smart metering

1. Network management methodologies for network operation:

• distribution management systems, SCADA systems,

• self-healing management and automation,

• reduction in network losses

2. Smart metering data utilization:

• impacts in generation-load balancing,

• privacy issues

After each panel, breakout discussions will take place to give all participants a chance to share experiences and learn from their peers. The aim is to have a wide-ranging discussion of the lessons learned in projects, with a focus on best practices, major challenges, and notable stories. Participants will be divided into small groups, thus facilitating interactions.

IRED 2012, 4th – 6th December 2012 Berlin (Germany)

5th International Conference on Integration of Renewable and Distributed Energy Resources - Registration now open!

This conference will offer the opportunity to learn about deployment projects -including large-scale field demonstrations- conducted in many countries and to discuss results with the partners involved. Like at the previous events, the latest technical, market and policy aspects related to integration of renewable and distributed energy resources and smart grids will be discussed in plenary sessions. It is the intention of the conference to support the interdisciplinary discussion among different stakeholders to promote lasting collaboration among key players from all over the world. Conference side events like workshops, and committee meetings on standardization and other related topics that will take place before and after the conference will give attendees the opportunity to further develop and deepen the knowledge in special topics. Further information could be found on the official homepage under: www.conference-on-integration-2012.com

ISGAN EVENT: "Why Smarter Grids? Regional Drivers for Smart Grid Deployment and Lessons Learned from Current Projects”

25-26 September in Nice (France)

The workshop entitled: “Why Smarter Grids? Regional Drivers for Smart Grid Deployment and Lessons Learned from Current Projects” will be held in Nice on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th September 2012, in conjunction with the 4th IEA ISGAN Executive Committee of ISGAN. ISGAN organises this event with the collaboration of the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy and the support of GRID+ Project.

The workshop invites the world's well-known experts from smart grid actors and the most important smart grids demonstration projects worldwide to share best practices and feel the trends of smart grid along three different sessions aiming at:

1. Elaborating on main drivers towards the smart grids deployment

2. Presenting the key existing demonstration projects in the field around the worlds, and

3. The interaction among stakeholders on four relevant different topics.

In addition to the above sessions, three technical visits are proposed:

• A showroom for the presentation of the GRID4EU demonstration project funded by the European Commission, and its French counterpart NiceGrid funded by the French Energy Agency ADEME
• The operations centre of the charging infrastructure of the electrical vehicles fleet of Nice
• Several presentations of initiatives and demonstration projects around Nice.

With the support of           For further information, visit ISGAN website. 

First European Workshop on National and Regional Platforms on SmartGrids

3 July 2012. SOST Spanish Office for Science and Technology, rue du Trône 62, Brussels.

Last 3rd July, Spanish Office for Science and Technology (SOST) office in Brussels hosted the First National and Regional SmartGrids Technology Platforms Workshop with the following objectives:

• Raise awareness of work and activities being done by the national & regional SmartGrids Technology Platforms. Create links between them, with the European Technology Platform and EEGI.
• Identify which kind of information or activities should be shared between the NTPs/RTPs and with ETP / EEGI and which structure is needed (no additional organization/body) to support this activities
• Optimize and guarantee the knowledge sharing between national and EU level of the SmartGrids project results to the research EU community.

 Wiktor Raldow, Head of Unit, Energy Conversion and Distribution Systems, DG Research, introduced the session underlying the interest of this initiative of collaboration promoted from the Member States.

At the conference they participated 6 National / RegionalTechnology Platforms (France, Austria, Flanders, Czech Republic, Slovenia and Spain), as well as the European Platform and other organizations (ENTSO, JRC, ERA_NET SmarGrid). The first part dealt with the coordination and creation of links between National Platforms and European institutions and the second part dealt with the knowledge sharing among the entire European Community. The event's agenda can be downloaded here.

In both parts of the event was maintained by a round table discussion in which the following conclusions and next steps were obtained:

• We need to foster and enhance knowledge sharing of activities in the MS/Regions and in the EU level, but coordination (i.e. with JRC, ERA net, EEGI MS initiative, GRID+) is a must.
• First step is to build NTPs/RTPs Inventory – A task in the SG ETP was proposed to create this catalogue. Identification of contact points in the NTPs/RTPs and agreement in the relationship model. Further meeting in Brussels is needed with the full catalogue of NTPs/RTPs.
• Support asked to the NTPs/RTPs to prioritize the SRA 2035 topics published recently.
• How to structure mechanisms for KS between projects, further work is needed. JRC appears as a key player to centralize the project information.
• MS/Regions SmartGrid Cost – Benefits analysis: Collect, exchange and consolidate information about this kind of analysis from the MS/Regions.

The event was promoted by the Spanish Technology Platform FUTURED, and European Technology Platform. For more information, please contact FUTURED.

 Download the agenda and presentations!

 Energy Research Information Day – 2013 calls

A number of energy-related Calls for Proposals under FP7 are planned to be published on 10 July 2012:

• FP7-ENERGY-2013-1: a general call focusing on research with a long-term horizon
• FP7-ENERGY-2013-2: a general call focusing on research with a short-term horizon and on demonstration
• FP7-SMARTCITIES-2013: a call in the framework of the SET-Plan Smart Cities and Communities Initiative
• FP7-ENERGY-2013-IRP: a call to support integrated research programmes in the energy field
• FP7-FISSION-2013: a call focusing on nuclear fission research
• FP7-2013-NMP-ENV-ICT-EeB: a cross-thematic call on Energy-efficient Buildings in the context of the EU Recovery Plan
• FP7-2013-OCEAN: a cross-thematic call on marine and maritime research including an energy relevant topic
• FP7-ERANET-2013-RTD: a joint call on ERA-NETs

In addition, calls focusing on Transport and on Information and Communication Technologies will include topics related to smart cities.

For further information and registration visit the event website here.

To support the building of consortia, the network of the Energy National Contact Points will hold a "Partnering Day" on 5 July. For more information and registration see http://www.b2match.com/energycall2013.

CIRED 2013: Electricity Distribution Systems for a Sustainable Future

10 - 13 June 2013. Kistamāssan, Stockholm, Sweden

Call for Papers deadline: 13 September 2012

The call for papers for CIRED 2013 is now open, and with it your chance to take part in Europe’s largest meeting of electricity distribution professionals.

Successful authors will have their full papers published and distributed to all attendees via the CIRED 2013 USB memory stick and will be given the opportunity to display their work in the CIRED interactive poster session with guided tour. In addition, selected authors will be invited by the session chairmen to give a presentation in the main sessions with the aim of ensuring an interesting and balanced debate.

CIRED 2013 sessions:

• Network Components
• Power Quality and Electromagnetic Compatibility
• Operation, Control and Protection
• Distributed Energy Resources and Efficient Utilisation of Electricity
• Planning of Power Distribution Systems
• Electricity Market Place and Impact of Regulation

Visit www.cired2013.org to submit an abstract of 2 A4 pages (including diagrams and illustrations) by 13 September 2012.