Research Association Smart Nord ZN 2896 Grid Support System Services (Smart Nord)

"Smart Nord - Intelligent Grids Northern Germany" is an interdisciplinary research association in the context of Lower Saxony's energy concept that is funded by the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony (MWK).  Abandoning nuclear energy and an increased use of renewable energy carriers require a fundamental system change to remodel our energy supply in a reliable, climate friendly and affordable manner. One essential prerequisite for a successful energy transition is the reliable substitution of the capacities of conventional large-scale power plants by decentralised energy systems, such as photovoltaic, wind power and combined heat and power generation plants. On the one hand, the supply and demand behaviour of many generators, consumers and storage systems must be harmonised to compensate the active power balance. On the other hand, grid stabilising measures, which are presently assumed primarily by conventional power plants, must be taken in future to an increasing extent by decentralised plants.  

Aim of the interdisciplinary research association Smart Nord is to make contributions to a coordinated, decentralised supply of active power, controlling power and reactive power in the distribution networks. This requires the conception of a novel ICT infrastructure comprising all components. Their system architecture, which must be for interoperability reasons in accordance with families of the IEC standards, as well as ICT security-related questions are subject of investigations. Special attention is paid to the aggregation of decentralised consumers and generators supplying active power according to agreed schedules as well as grid and system services to compensate fluctuating power suppied by regenerative power plants in real time under consideration of the system load.  Another major object of research is the grid itself which is investigated concerning its stability when using new operating modes and grid resources. Its design as well as the consideration of potentials and environmental aspects  when designing regenerative energy power plants is a particular focus of research of Smart Nord.