Call for Proposals
XFLEX is an international European research project, co-funded by European Union under Horizon 2020 research programme (H2020-EU.3.3.4. – A single, smart European electricity grid).
Duration
01.10. 2019 – 30. 09. 2023
Total Eligible Costs
€ 9.643.657,50 (Prispevek € 7.314.485.25)
Project Website and Social Media
Contact at IRI UL
Project Consortium
- ETRA Investigación y Desarrollo, S.A. (ETRA I+D) (Spain)
- UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI (Slovenia)
- PETROL D.D. (Slovenia)
- ELEKTRO CELJE D.D. (Slovenia)
- ALBENA AD (Bulgaria)
- ELEKTROENERGIEN SISTEMEN OPERATOR EAD (Bulgaria)
- INSTITUTE OF COMMUNICATION AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS (Greece)
- HELLENIC ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION NETWORK OPERATOR S.A. (Greece)
- SUITE5 DATA INTELLIGENCE SOLUTIONS LIMITED (Cyprus)
- BLUEPRINT ENERGY SOLUTIONS GMBH (Austria)
- SYSTEMS SUNLIGHT INDUSTRIAL & COMMERCIAL COMPANY OF DEFENSIVE, ENERGY, ELECTRONIC AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS S.A. (Greece)
- JOANNEUM RESEARCH FORSCHUNGSGESELLSCHAFT MBH (Austria)
Key Challenges
The increasing share of distributed renewable energy sources (DRES) in the energy grid has become key for the decarbonization of the European electricity system and thus for the achievement of the EU energy and climate change policy goals. The variability and uncertainty of these distributed sources pose important risks and challenges to the stability and security of the European, national and local grids, but at the same time they open new opportunities to the energy value chain. This overall picture is completed by an emerging decentralized ecosystem where new energy systems, such as batteries, power to heat/cold, vehicle to grid and other storage solutions, are offering a large flexibility potential to the grid.
Aim
X-FLEX will create and integrate synergies across all energy flexibility sources and technologies, promoting cooperation among all the actors of the smart grid and energy market, in an efficient and cost-effective manner. Through this holistic approach, X-FLEX aims to create the optimal combination of decentralised flexibility assets located along the whole energy value chain, providing benefits to all the actors of the smart grid, energy retail and wholesale market, offering an all-win scenario.
More specifically, X-FLEX will develop 4 complementary products that will offer services to all the energy stakeholders, from network operators (TSO, DSO, microgrid operators) to final consumers/prosumers and flexibility providers, including other intermediate players, such as retailers and aggregators:
- SERVIFLEX tool: Integrated flexibility management tool
- GRIDFLEX tool: Advanced tools for automatic control and observability
- MARKETFLEX tool: Market platform and new market mechanisms
- X-FLEX platform: Flexible and scalable integrated platform
These X-FLEX project solutions will be tested in real conditions in 4 pilot sites in 3 EU Member states (Bulgaria, Slovenia and Greece), with different needs and socioeconomic and technological boundaries, involving multiple existing flexibility assets (batteries, power to heat/cold, vehicle to grid and other storage solutions) and all complementary actors of the energy network (DSO, TSO, microgrid operator, utilities, flexibility providers, local communities).
Key Objectives
X-FLEX project proposes, a set of efficient, cost-effective, integrated solutions, that will facilitate the optimum combination of decentralised flexibility assets, both on the generation (DER) side and on the demand side (V2G, power-to-heat/cold/gas, batteries, demand response), enabling all parties, including final prosumers, to offer their flexibility in the market creating benefits to all the actors in the smart grid value chain.
X-FLEX is unique in its multi-technology, multi-actor approach which, in an increasingly RES-powered grid, will ensure security, resilience and stability for all, even under grid-stressing scenarios such as extreme climate events.