ECOSMIC TA success story:
Economic Assessment Framework for Microgrids
Topic: Techno-economic assessment of microgrids under 24h operation scenarios in islanded and grid-connected modes
Hosting facilities: Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES); Distributed Energy Resources Test Facility (RSE DER-TF); SYSLAB and ICL; Oulu Smart Grid Laboratory (VTT)
Duration:
16.10.2017 – 20.10.2017; 11.12.2017 – 5.12.2017; 22.01.2018 – 26.01.2018; 5.02.2018 – 9.02.2018
Outcomes: factsheet, technical report, publication
Despite the fact that research has demonstrated how decentralised power generation can improve urban residential electricity networks in Europe, the take-up of such solutions has yet to take place. One reason for this shortcoming is an insufficiently clear economic case in favor of decentralised generation, which comes from the vast differences between individual set-ups. Investigating the comparability of microgrids, the ECOSMIC user group was part of the effort to run comparable set-ups in life-like 24h-loops for experiments in islanded and grid-connected modes at four locations during their TA stays.
Achievements
Having a residential microgrid set-up run for 24 hours has revealed the technical challenges that should inform the economic case for microgrids. Through the 24h experiments the ECOSMIC project was greatly enriched with additional insights and parameters that would eventually lead to an improved evaluation method.
Furthermore, due to the repeated experiments under varying conditions (both geographic and country-specific economic context) it was possible for the user group to outline the comparability of set-ups for a more reliable techno-economic analysis.
Finally, through the TA stays, the ECOSMIC project was able to benefit from the cooperation between the four host facilities: from the communication prior to replicating experiments the user group was able to learn of many site-specific assumptions.
After the four TA visits, the most important achievement for ECOSMIC is a robust case study of residential microgrids that has been replicated across Europe under life-like conditions and could be then used for further research.
Based on the findings from the TA stays, the ECOSMIC project was able to control the influences of technical set-up and geographical position on the economic viability of microgrids, and instead better address the influence of country-specific policy and economic conditions.
The work with the TA case studies has so far resulted in a publication in an academic journal, as well as participation in two conferences."
