The Latvian electricity transmission system operator JSC “Augstsprieguma tīkls” (AST) and the electricity distribution system operator JSC “Sadales tīkls” (ST), together with partners from 21 European countries, will create a single IT platform OneNet. It will be able to ensure the efficient management of common electricity networks and the stability of the electricity system, while supporting the increasing integration of renewable energy sources into the overall electricity generation balance at the European level. The total funding of the project at the European level is 28 million euros, 22 million euros of which has been provided by the European Commission.

“In recent decades, thanks to the development of the electricity market, the impact of historic energy monopolies on the electricity market has changed - large electricity producers are supplemented by many small, mostly unregulated decentralised renewable energy sources, and it is increasingly difficult for system operators to balance electricity generation and consumption at any given time. The purpose of OneNet is to develop an IT platform that will enable any electricity producer or consumer in Europe to operate and, depending on the current situation, to increase or decrease production (or consumption), thus ensuring the necessary balance of the system or flexibility of the system at the European level, while earning revenue from these activities,” says Gatis Junghāns, Member of the Board of AST, regarding the project.

If we compare the power supply system with blood circulation, then at present the system is built in a way that electricity from the “heart” - the large production plant - through the transmission and distribution system, divided into smaller and smaller “blood vessels” or electricity networks, reaches users. With the decentralisation of production, “hearts” or power plants are appearing in the system in different places more and more. We need to be able to change this flow of electricity from one side to the other as per need, depending on whether the customer is producing and transmitting electricity to the grid at a given moment, or consuming and receiving such from the grid accordingly. The distribution system will have to be made smarter so that these flows can be provided efficiently. Participation in the OneNet project will help to ensure coordinated and automated cooperation between electricity supply system operators and promote the development of innovative network services. This is very important when thinking about the efficient operation of the energy system in the future,” says Sandis Jansons, Chairman of the Board of ST.

The innovative solutions developed within the OneNet project will be demonstrated in four European regions, proposing their own work objectives in each region. Latvian electricity system operators, together with partners from Estonia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Ireland, are involved in the Northern Demonstration Region. In the Northern Demonstration Region, an IT solution “Single Flexibility Platform” will be developed and demonstrated to facilitate the coordinated integration of flexibility products available in the system and the market and their intelligent integration into the grid, with a view to ensuring the efficient involvement of system resources for the provision of the stability of the electrical system at a level, in order for the final result to be financially binding and motivating for the owners of the flexibility resources and participants of the system to use it.

The project will start in October 2020 and its participants will have three years to develop a prototype of the system, which will be demonstrated in a real environment, and the system developed as a result of the project will be fully completed and qualified to operate in a real environment.

More info about the project: https://onenet-project.eu/