Low-voltage Grids in Transition
Challenges in tackling the transition from passive end consumer to active grid user
Future low-voltage grids (grid levels 6 and 7) will no longer operate according to the previously common top-down principle, in which the power flow from the higher-level medium-voltage grid is directed towards the low-voltage grid and thus to its consumers. The electricity customers connected there, mostly consisting of small and medium-sized industrial, commercial and agricultural businesses as well as households, are predominantly resistive/inductive consumers (e.g. heating, drive motors). The originally passive consumers are becoming volatile, active electricity generators. New technologies are responsible for this development, including decentralized renewable energy sources (RES) such as photovoltaics, but also decentralized electricity storage or vehicle-to-grid (v2g). Likewise, locally distributed, high-power loads such as electric vehicle charging stations, air conditioning systems or heat pumps are increasingly being connected to the low-voltage grid. Due to the increasing number of such components, whose generation or consumption is often highly fluctuating, former pure consumer customers will also temporarily become producers (“prosumers”), and their output and consumption will also increase in future due to increasing volatility on the electricity market. This poses new challenges for the low-voltage grid.
Research questions in this field are addressed at IEAN in a scientific and practical manner in the form of research projects or collaborative projects with the industry.
The IEAN's main areas of research are:
- Implementing digitalization;
- Planning resp. developing of the necessary grid expansion;
- Best utilization of the existing grid infrastructure considering technical and economic aspects.
Thereby, the strengths of the IEAN are the following:
- Overall consideration due to long term existing know how in power flow calculation resp. simulation as well as forecast;
- Protection technology (grid and system protection);
- Protective measures regarding protection against electric shock;
- Amortisation calculation.
With its combination of broad-based expertise and direct access to new technologies and international trends, IEAN is continuously contributing to the design of robust, resilient and long-lasting low-voltage grids of the future.
