Interoperability and Standardisation
Despite political successes for European renewable energy sources (RES) and decarbonisation targets, the establishment of variable, non-dispatchable RES in European energy systems remains a challenging technical issue. The penetration of wind power and photovoltaic solar in EU power systems is limited as a complex function of available transmission capacity, resource adequacy, conformance testing and, pricing mechanisms, among a number of other critical factors. Increasing these shares of RES, will require the implementation of innovative and disruptive services and technologies that have the potential to alleviate this limitation in a cost competitive manner; namely, Demand Response, storage, and electric vehicles.
However, even with sustained investments in standardisation initiatives, large gaps persist in connecting Smart Meters, Smart Appliances, electric vehicles and other Smart devices within the home for Demand Response. ECOS successfully challenged the prevailing view of the European Commission and other interested stakeholders that no work is needed on standards, raising awareness of the fact that serious efforts are needed to support Demand Response. As a result, the Commission has dedicated an expert group in 2016 to solve the problem, proposing to conduct a gap analysis of relevant standards while coordinating with CEN-CENELEC, in addition to potentially hiring additional experts for the task. ECOS will participate in the process to ensure all standards are covered, and that they contain the necessary requirements to ensure the cost-effective and fully featured roll out of Demand Response in Europe.
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