The large scale integration of renewable energy sources (RES) has introduced a new operating paradigm. Renewable energy sources are characterized by uncertainty and volatility. Moreover, overloading of transmission and distribution feeders have become more frequent. The curtailment of renewable power generation has thus increased, contradicting the goals for high shares of RES. A valuable solution to these challenges is the introduction of flexibility from flexible resources and loads. In this context, FlexCHESS project proposes cutting-edge solutions based on digital twin concept, Virtual energy storage systems (VESS) and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to revolutionize the existing practices. Based on the aggregation of Connected Hybrid Energy Storage System (CHESS), FlexCHESS improves the grid stability while increasing the profitability of its installations by guaranteeing various ancillary services at the distribution and transmission network levels. FlexCHESS will also ensure the highest level of interoperability of the proposed solutions and enhance the innovation capacity and competitiveness of SMEs and Startups in Europe by unlocking access to meaningful information and co-creating new business opportunities. This will be achieved by the appropriate promoting of open innovation and making smart technologies an asset for intelligent business. In order to validate and evaluate the proposed solutions, five pilot sites demonstrations with diverse assets in different European countries are planned. The aggregation and optimization of different resources will be extended to take into account not only electrical energy storage systems (ESS), but also multi-ESSs. Thus, FlexCHESS project will define different scenarios allowing to evaluate the performances and flexibility capability of CHESS. FlexCHESS project Consortium gathers 3 universities, 2 large companies, 3DSOs, 4 SMEs, and 2 NGO.

Four European TSOs of Central-Eastern Europe (Austria, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia), associated with power system experts, electricity retailers, IT providers and renewable electricity providers, propose to design a unique regional cooperation scheme: it aims at opening Balancing and Redispatching markets to new sources of flexibility and supporting such sources to act on such markets competitively. Thanks to a prototype aggregation solution and renewable generation forecasting techniques, flexibility providers – distributed generators (DG) and Commercial and Industrial (C&I) consumers providing demand response (DR) – are enabled, through retailers acting as flexibility aggregators, to provide competitive offers for Frequency Restoration Reserve (including secondary control activated with a response time between 30 seconds and 15 minutes). A comprehensive techno-economic model for the cross-border integration of such services involves a common activation function (CAF) tailored to congested borders and optimized to overcome critical intra-regional barriers. The resulting CAF is implemented into a prototype Regional Balancing and Redispatching Platform, securely integrated within the four TSOs’ IT systems: this makes research activities about cross-border integration flexible while linking with the aggregation solution. Use cases of growing complexity are pilot tested, going from the involvement of DR and DG into national balancing markets to cross-border competition between flexibility aggregators. Based on past experience with tertiary reserve, participating C&I consumers and DG are expected to provide close to 40MW of secondary reserve. Impact analyses of the pilot tests together with dissemination activities towards all the stakeholders of the electricity value chain will recommend business models and deployment roadmaps for the most promising use cases, which, in turn, contribute to the practical implementation of the European Balancing Target Model by 2020.