German Slow Dynamics Trials

Location

Different places in Germany



Local situation

Alpiq is fully committed to participating to the energy transition towards a low-carbon powered future. As part of this engagement, Alpiq provides commercial service to owners of intermittent assets such as solar and wind farms as well as to flexible assets such as biogas power plants and battery owners.

The aggregated management of these assets scattered throughout Germany is uses the concept of Virtual Power Plant, and the same will be used to simulate the developed optimization algorithms.

What is the edgeFlex focus in this trial?

In this trial, the focus is to demonstrate that using the developed windfarms production forecast we are able to improve the economic output of the Virtual Power Plant considered as a whole.

Main objectives

      • Demonstrate improvement of financial output for the owner of the VPP
      • Assess the composition of nature of assets in a VPP

Work done and Results

The ALPQ field trial involved the preparation, execution, and interpretation of a mathematical model of a VPP which includes battery and bio-mass storage as a simulation trial on the off-line version of the ALPIQ VPP Management System using historical data to feed the simulation.  The mathematical modeling focused on managing the assets of the VPP so that the revenue they generate is maximized.  The effects of optimising the operations of the VPP by applying the optimisations of weather forecasting to predictions of wind generated energy by a VPP, developed in WP 3, is examined.  The sensitivity of the level of revenue generated to changes in a range of input parameters to the model, including the parameter of varying the number, size, and type of assets to be managed by the VPP, has been performed.  The inclusion of battery storage and bio-mass assets is specifically examined.  The results of the modelling are expressed in terms of the level of revenue generated and the level of investment and the return on this investment generated by the different versions of the model defined by varying the input parameters of the model regarding forecasting methods.

Interview with a representative of the management from the pilot site responsible partner

 

    Olle Sundström

    CTO Digital Technology at Alpiq

 


Can you please give me a short one sentence statement describing the benefit of the trial for the society?

If the trial is positive, then we show that a joint management of flexible and intermittent assets can yield increased financial output; in turn this shall support increased attractivity of investment in intermittent low-carbon sources of energy, that are necessary as a part of solving the incredibly huge challenge that climate change poses to human race.

Which special focus of edgeFLEX persuaded you to become a partner of the project?

At Alpiq we have for a long time been interested and involved into intraday optimization of demand management and balancing of the production in a dynamic way; it seemed to us natural to integrate in this direction of the research. Further, our intraday trading teams will be implementing the results of our efforts as soon as we can prove that the financial benefit is positive.