Selected by the European Commission from 28 Horizon 2020 candidate projects, InterFlex was officially launched on 1 January 2017. Led by Enedis, InterFlex brings together five European electricity suppliers to improve the performance and reliability of local electrical systems, testing new local flexibility solutions.
Group photo of the InterFlex team – Photo credit: Enedis
Six demonstrators in five countries will implement different types of flexibility on medium and low voltage networks, including local PV generation, electric vehicles, centralized storage, integration of smart functionality in storage units in private homes, as well as synergies with local heating networks.
- The French demonstrator Enedis, based in Nice and its surroundings, will test the flexibility of the network, storage systems and islanding. Compared with the Nice Grid project, which focuses mainly on solar energy, Enedis wants to broaden the use cases implemented and scale up over a wider area of the Metropolitan area and Nice.
- The Czech demonstrator led by ČEZ Distribuce will use different techniques such as automation and energy storage to better integrate renewable energies into the distribution network. Smart charging functions for electric vehicles will also be tested as sources of flexibility.
- The German demonstrator Avacon will manage a centralized platform of flexibilities and distributed energy resources to utilize energy near its point of production and relieve the distribution network.
- A first Swedish demonstrator from E.ON, in Malmö, will test the complementarity of the heat and power networks, taking advantage of the thermal inertia of the building envelope as an electrical flexibility, in order to achieve a penetration rate for renewable energy that is more respectful of the environment.
- A second E.ON Swedish demonstrator at Simris will test the islanding of distribution networks. Supported by customers via a peer-to-peer approach, it will assess the contributions that islanding can make to the distribution system operator.
- The Dutch demonstrator Enexis will offer a “multi-service” approach to use the flexibility available through stationary storage and electric vehicles to optimize the interactions between DSOs, balance managers, and charging station operators.
Coordination between the various actors will make it possible to define new economic and contractual models highlighting the interactions that are necessary for the development of flexibilities.
Through InterFlex, the project partners want to set up unprecedented cooperation at the European level in the electricity distribution sector. The expected benefits are numerous, such as the pooling of resources and the exchange of experience feedback. This will not facilitate the use of the new knowledge thus created but also to enrich them at the time of their creation through regular exchanges all throughout the project.
In addition to the five European electricity distributors, Interflex brings together some twenty other partners – suppliers, manufacturers, research centers – for a total budget of 22 million euros.
ITEMS International for Think Smartgrids
Source: Enedis