A Cellular Approach to a More Participative and Diverse Energy Transition
A key feature of the energy transition is the shift from a centralized to a decentralized electricity market. Millions of individuals and smaller companies are already actively participating as prosumers. This disruption of the traditional electricity market enables and demands new business models (e.g., peer-to-peer electricity trading or micro-grid approaches) and will lead to a more diversified playing field.
At the same time, it is necessary to create an electricity system that is at least as reliable and affordable as the current one to ensure the acceptance and willingness to implement the new approach.
A research and demonstration project in Germany called C/sells has provided a possible solution for achieving this goal. The concept is based on a cellular system in which individuals, as well as companies, are bundled together in so-called energy cells that jointly produce and provide electricity. These energy cells are not isolated but linked with each other. The name C/sells reflects the idea of the project where “Cells” symbolizes the cellular idea and “sells” represents new economic opportunities [1].
C/sells proposes three important features for the future electricity system: cellularity, participation, and diversity.
Cellularity describes the division in different cells as a basic unit. The design of the cell is not fixed but, for example, can be a city, a district, or even a single object like an airport. This layout provides the necessary flexibility to achieve the goal to balance electricity generation and consumption within a specific cell. If the balance cannot be achieved within a cell, an exchange with neighboring cells is prioritized. Generally, autonomy rather than autarky is the main focus of C/sells, but stand-alone cell operation is possible in an emergency and can assist the grid restoration process.
Participation implies the active involvement of numerous actors in the electricity system as prosumers and flexumers. Flexumer is derived from the combination of “Flexibility” and “Consumer.” Flexumers offer flexibility by adjusting their electricity consumption levels according to the needs of the grid and in return receive a financial reward. So-called participation cells are already being trialed, but there is still a need for regulatory adjustments to enable a broader implementation in Germany [2].
The future electricity system will be more diverse with a variety of different actors participating more actively in the market. Moreover, many different types and generations of technological solutions will be used simultaneously since the innovation cycles of digital solutions are particularly short. Diversity can improve resilience and encourage innovation, but at the same time, the increased complexity of the electricity system has its challenges.
C/sells proposes three basic instruments to incorporate cellularity, participation, and diversity into the electricity markets and tackle the challenges that come with the disruption of the current system. These instruments utilize the recent advancements of digital technologies.
The Infrastructure Information System (IIS) monitors current activities in the electricity market, as well as forecasts future consumption and generation to ensure an efficient and reliable operation within and between energy cells. The data is provided to households, companies, and network operators to enable data-driven decision-making.
The Harmonization Cascade helps to coordinate and automate the communication between transmission and distribution system operators which so far is still done inefficiently by email or telephone. Detected or predicted critical grid situations within cells or cell clusters can easily be identified via a traffic light concept where green stands for no critical condition, yellow indicates a vulnerable condition, red signifies that the grid stability is at immediate risk, blue shows that grid restoration is in progress and black signals a blackout. Automated, standardized processing of appropriate stability measures according to the traffic light status can ensure the reliability of the grid. This kind of automated and standardized communication is becoming ever more important in an increasingly diverse electricity market [3].
Regionalized marketplaces aim to provide easier access for small-scale prosumers and flexumers in contrast to centralized markets where mainly large-scale actors participate. Peer-to-Peer electricity trading platforms allow neighbors to buy and sell electricity directly from each other and enable a more efficient, localized electricity consumption. Regionalized flexibility platforms match the demand for flexibility to secure grid stability by network operators with the offers to adjust their electricity consumption by flexumers.
It is still a long way until such a cellular, participative, and diverse electricity system can be fully implemented and all regulatory barriers are cleared, but more than 30 participation and demonstration cells in southern Germany already provided a proof-of-concept. The over three hundred people involved in this four-year project hope to inspire more people to embrace the digital energy revolution and to implement their cellular approach not only in Germany but internationally [4].
References:
[1] B. Haller, O. Langniß, A. Reuter, and N. S. Hg, “1,5° Csellsius — Energiewende zellulär — partizipativ — vielfältig umgesetzt” 2020, [Online]. Available: https://www.csells.net/media/com_form2content/documents/c12/a357/f122/CSells_Buch_15GradCSellsius_WEB_20201209_compressed.pdf
[2] Forschungsstelle für Energiewirtschaft, „Altdorfer Flexmarkt (ALF)“ [Online]. Available: https://www.ffe.de/themen-und-methoden/digitalisierung/881-altdorfer-flexmarkt-alf
[3] A. Reuter, „C/Sells: Zellen, die 100 % Erneuerbare ermöglichen“ 2018, [Online]. Available: https://www.energie-klimaschutz.de/csells-zellen-fuer-100-prozent-erneuerbare/
[4] A. Reuter, “The C/sells project for decentralised transformation of the energy system via Smart Grid” 2018, [Online]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnsT9P02UgQ
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Text by Christian Doedt
