Reports & Documents

EU RELATED DOCUMENTS

• Report by the EEGI Member States Initiative: A pathway towards functional projects for distribution grids (2012)

The EEGI Member States Initiative has specified programming recommendations on national, but in particular on European level. The "families-of-projects concept" introduced in the EC Work Programme 2012 under the Seventh framework programme has proven as appropriate for the electricity system innovation topics. However, the gap analysis also highlights areas where dedicated research on technology is needed depending on the progress of the functional projects.

• Communication "Smart Grids: from innovation to deployment" (2011)

 The Communication sets policy directions to drive forward the deployment of future European electricity networks. Bringing together latest progress in Information and Communication technologies and network development will allow electricity current to flow exactly where and when it is needed at the cheapest cost. Smart grids will give in particular to consumers the ability to follow their actual electricity consumption in real time: smart meters will give consumers strong incentives to save energy and money.

• SET Plan brochure (2010)

The Commission presents a strategic plan to accelerate the development and deployment of cost-effective low carbon technologies. This plan comprises measures relating to planning, implementation, resources and international cooperation in the field of energy technology.

The SET Plan brochure includes an introduction to the strategic plan and a description of its 8 initiatives, its Steering Group, its Information System and the European Energy Research Alliance.

• "Investing in the Development of Low Carbon Technologies (SET-Plan)" (2009)

One of the EU's key ambitions must be to develop a low-carbon economy. The EU has put in place a comprehensive policy framework, including among others: the climate and energy targets for 2020 and a carbon price through the Emissions Trading System. We are also working towards the successful conclusion of international climate change negotiations at Copenhagen at the end of 2009. Now, we have to deliver, both in terms of the 2020 targets and, in the longer term, aiming for an 80% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.

• EEGI Roadmap and Implementation Plan May (2010)

The official launch of the initiative was marked by the agreement of the public (European Commission and Member States) and private (industries) representatives on a SET Joint Statement.

The European Electricity Grid Initiative (EEGI) proposes a 9-year European research, development and demonstration (RD&D) programme initiated by electricity transmission and distribution network operators to accelerate innovation and the development of the electricity networks of the future in Europe, a so-called Smart Grid. The Smart Grid will be a usercentred, market-based, interactive, reliable, flexible, and sustainable electrical network system.

• ICT for a Low Carbon Economy Smart Electricity Distribution Networks (2009)

The electricity grids that serve European consumers today have evolved over more than a hundred years. They have been built up to perform efficiently and effectively. But now they face new challenges in parallel with major technological breakthroughs. This calls for research and fresh thinking to take advantage of new technologies and changing business framework.

This brochure demonstrates the actions being undertaken by the European Commission, in conjunction with the electricity industry and research institutions, both now and in the future, to meet that challenge and to provide Europe with a new era of sustainable electrical energy.

• Towards Smart Power Networks: Lessons learned from European research FP5 projects (2005)

This brochure describes the lessons learned from around 50 research projects under the Target Action ‘Integration of renewable energies and distributed generation into European electricity networks’, in the EU’s Fifth Framework Programme (FP5). These projects are seen as the starting point for the development of the fi rst generation of components and new architectures for interactive electricity grids. Among them is the EU cluster IRED, which gathered the efforts of more than 100 participants. It was launched at the beginning of 2001 to coordinate and disseminate the new knowledge generated among the partners themselves with national programmes active in this area, as well as stimulating relations with similar partnerships worldwide.

• New ERA for electricity in Europe. Distributed generation: key issues, challenges and proposed solutions (2003)

With this brochure the European Commission intends to raise the public and political awareness of the area and associated RTD activities financed by the European Union. It offers a vision of future electricity grids based on the integration of renewable energies and distributed generation, describes the technical challenges in front of us, and provides an overview of ongoing RTD efforts in the area supported by the EU.

• CORDIS  fact sheet (2007)

CORDIS has published a two-page fact-sheet giving a basic idea about the main features accessible through the service.

OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS

• MICROGRIDS, an overview of Ongoing Research, Development, and Demonstration Projects (2007)

This paper outlines the ongoing research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) efforts currently in progress in Europe, the United States, Japan, and Canada as they have been presented in a series of microgrids symposiums started in Berkeley, California, on 17 June 2005, followed by a second near Montréal, Canada, on 23 June 2006, and by a third in Nagoya, Japan, on 6 April 2007.

The document was written by Nikos Hatziargyriou et al.