SEE TOP 100: Smarter grids for Southeast Europe, short-term solutions not a smart choice - Part 2

Investors in RES are currently in a strange position. They received a promise from the EU for the implementation of the 20/20/20 target with the RES directive which says that “The main purpose of mandatory national targets is to provide certainty for investors and to encourage continuous development of technologies which generate energy from all types of renewable sources”.

The electricity market directive (2009/72/EC), part of the Third Liberalisation Package, takes this promise further: “A well–functioning internal market in electricity should provide producers with the appropriate incentives for investing in new power generation, including in electricity from renewable energy sources”. At the same time, more and more national governments seem less enthusiastic about the development of green energy production, their main concern being the effect of RES on the prices of electricity. However, even the massive pullback from nuclear energy in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster is not blowing enough wind in the green energy sails.

Meanwhile, national grid operators are complaining that current grids may not be able to accommodate many renewable energy projects. Both dispatchers and managers of grid operators claim that renewable energy sources, mainly wind and solar capacities, bring a risk to network operations with their intermittency and unpredictability. Experts say that either new balancing capacities should be developed together with RES (i.e. gas–fired power plants), or other technical solutions within the RES generators should be developed in order to increase substantially the share of green energy.

Smart grids in Southeast Europe

All above-mentioned problems, related to RES, together with EU policies regarding energy efficiency, may find a solution with the implementation of smart grids - both at distribution and at transmission level. Even though there is still no smart grid standard, usually smart metering, distributed generation, and electricity storage solutions are considered to be the main characteristics of this new technology. At transmission level there is still no move towards smarter grids, except from the pan–European projects like Desertec and the Supergrid. These initiatives include investment in high voltage direct current (HVDC) lines that have to bring electricity from RES–rich regions like Africa to Europe resembling an energy highway. Part of the HVDC lines will have to cross the Balkan region eventually, which may change the regional market in an unpredictable way.

Part of the transmission level solutions also includes large–scale energy storage facilities, which will be able to store off-peak electricity for the hours of peak consumption and thus - reduce both prices and grid loads.

Their main task will be to accommodate more distributed renewable energy sources like rooftop solar panels and other building-integrated generating capacities. As stated by the directive on the energy performance of buildings (2010/31/EC), all new buildings after 2020 will have to consume zero net energy, meaning they will have to generate on-site. This move toward distributed generation would put even more pressure than on the transmission grids, as generating capacities will be numerous and dispersed. They will need an intelligent grid operation that will be able to direct energy flows from upper voltage grids to lower voltage and vice versa depending on consumption at different locations.

Currently, there are still only small-scale smart metering pilot projects in the region. Their purpose is to show the real benefits of smart metering investment in terms of better demand-side management, distributed generation integration and prevention of energy thefts. In order to start more and larger smart grid projects, there has to be a consensus in society regarding how future energy costs will be distributed both in terms of technologies (generation vs. grid) and cost allocation (business vs. households).

The current economic situation makes choices harder, as short-term solutions are more attractive - they keep prices lower. However, long-term solutions are needed and their implementation has to start very soon.

Desertec is a concept proposed by the Desertec Foundation for making use of solar energy and wind energy in North Africa and the Middle East. Produced electricity would be transmitted to European and African countries by a super grid of high-voltage direct current cables.
The European Supergrid is a specific concept involving interconnecting Europe and regions around its borders - including North Africa, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, etc - with a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power grid.

The author, Atanas Georgiev, is a full-time assistant professor at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski and secretary of the Economics and Management in Energy, Infrastructure and Utilities master programme. Georgiev has published a number of articles about the energy sector and other public services. Since January 2010 he is managing editor of Publics.bg - the Bulgarian online professional media for development of public services.

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