INTEGRATE is a project funded under the “Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2021” call of the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and stands for “Improved integration of active consumers and energy communities into smart distribution grids using tools for optimal design, operation and environmental evaluation”. The project started September 1st 2022, will run for three years, and is led by Dr Cristina Corchero and Dr Josh Eichman from the Energy Systems Analytics group at IREC.
The INTEGRATE project addresses challenges surrounding scalability, cost effectiveness and environmental impact of distributed energy resources (DER) used to support active consumers, energy communities, and the smart distribution grid. While the energy transition is well underway in Spain and there is an ever growing suite of available DER technologies (e.g., photovoltaic, wind turbines, energy storage, electric vehicles, and other flexible loads) the use of these technologies and their application in energy communities and energy hubs has been limited. This can be attributed in large part to the market environment in which DER must operate and the difficulty with accurately determining the economic value and environmental impact that DER can provide based on the technology, configuration, and location.
The INTEGRATE project will explore emerging market environments for DER, ultimately resulting in the development of a tool that can enable optimal DER participation in different market environments. Additionally, considering distribution system operator needs and grid system architecture, a planning tool will be developed to accelerate the speed and lower the cost of implementing DER.
The INTEGRATE project PID2021-128574OB-I00 is funded by MCIN/ AEI /10.13039/501100011033/ and by ERDF “A way of making Europe”
