Facilitating large-scale integration of RES while maintaining system reliability through the use of flexibility and asset intelligence (ORKEST)

The speed at which renewable energy sources (RES) are entering distribution power networks is unforeseen and disruptive. The need for extra hosting capacity in the distribution grids is huge and cannot always be timely met with network reinforcements. As a result, there is a need to increase the hosting capacity of existing networks. While network operators try to support the energy transition by making as much network capacity available as they can, there are also concerns on the trade-off with asset management aspects like service- and component reliability. At the same time, innovative techniques such as hard- and soft switching, flexibility, temporary overloading of network components and using storage and conversion are not that well embedded in the design toolkit of the network developer and asset manager. In this article, we describe a framework which integrates network capacity and asset/service reliability in an integrated decision framework, enabling lifecycle system aware power network design and -operation.