Until 2017, four large smart grid demonstrators will be installed in Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Poland. The goal is to develop and implement monitoring and control solutions, including new equipment and systems, which will promote the participation of end users in the energy market. A total of 15.7 million euros will be invested in this project, 11.9 of which from the European Commission.

Project UPGRID (Real proven solutions to enable active demand and distributed generation flexible integration, through a fully controllable Low Voltage and medium voltage distribution grid), which started in early 2015 as part of the H2020 programme, is being developed by a European consortium featuring 19 partners from seven European countries: Portugal, Spain, Poland, Sweden, United Kingdom, France, and Norway (the latter as an associate country).

In Portugal, the location chosen was the Parque das Nações, in Lisbon. In Spain, the location chosen was Bidelek Sareak Smart Grid, in Bilbao, while in Poland it was the  Gdansk area in Gdynia, and in Sweden the demonstrator will be installed in Åmål.

The Portuguese demonstrator will be installed by the EDP Distribuição, the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC), Withus, and NOS, involving over 20 thousand residential users.

Luís Seca, coordinator of INESC TEC’s Centre for Power and Energy Systems explains that “solutions will be tested that will make it possible to implement advanced functionalities in existing technologies to form an intelligent integrated system”, stressing that the project will enable an “improved monitoring and control of medium and low voltage grids, in order to anticipate the problems associated with a large-scale integration of Distributed Energy Resources.”

The researcher also stressed that the greatest innovation “is the inclusion of platforms that will allow the end consumers to participate in the operation.” This is in fact one of the project’s most positive impacts. According to Luís Seca, this project “will have a very relevant economic and social impact, as the entire implementation process will involve not only the end users, but also all the agents operating in the power grid”, which means “that we will probably have to implement new measures to access the electricity market, and to introduce new regulatory policies and business models that will reduce the system’s general supply costs, benefiting the end users and allowing them to participate in the market environment.”

Diário Económico, 10 February 2016