Secure power grids for renewable energies

EASY-RES is a European research project in which eleven project partners are working to guarantee secure power grids even with a very high proportion of almost 100 percent renewable energies. The project, in which six universities and five industrial partners are working on a more sustainable power grid for Europe, is coordinated by Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Five partners are from Bavaria: Stadtwerk Haßfurt, Stadtwerke Landau a.d.Isar, FENECON, University of Passau and Bayern Innovativ.

The acronym EASY-RES stands for "Enable Ancillary Services bY Renewable Energy Sources," which roughly translates to: enable grid services for renewable energy sources.

The steady removal of conventional power generators is leading to more frequent fluctuations in voltage and frequency that affect the stability of transmission and distribution grids. Even minor variations can result in power outages. To prevent this and ensure stable grids, EASY-RES is researching novel renewable energy system services that are provided in combination with inverters and batteries.

With the advancing expansion of renewable energies , it is also becoming necessary to coordinate the different plants for hydropower, biomass, geothermal or wind and solar energy, to transmit their data to the grid operators and to monitor power generation. To this end, another focus of EASY-RES researchers is to develop a digital infrastructure to enable data exchange.

Overall, the project paves the way for the further expansion of renewable energy, necessary to achieve international climate goals and to drive the ongoing decarbonization of the economy. EASY-RES also strengthens the position of prosumers, who can feed their share of renewables into a future smart grid and contribute to the further decentralization of energy supply.