Volta – Qualitative Benchmarking and Impact Analysis for Future Dispatching Tools and Capabilities

The Volta programme is an innovation digitisation programme focused on using machine learning & AI for control room operations to optimise forecasting and dispatch decisions.

This project is part of the Volta program and is a continuation of two projects; the Advanced Dispatch Optimisation (ADO) NIA2_NGESO0013 project, where a vision for an efficient dispatch process that is fit for purpose for the energy system of the future and the Dispatch Optimiser Transformation (ADO2/DOT ) NIA2_NGESO044 project which further developed the ADO recommendations and analysed the gaps between the current and future state.

This project will deliver two specific work packages within the Volta Roadmap:

A qualitative benchmarking comparison.
A wider impact assessment for potential market changes
The  collaborative approach of this project will involve multiple parties across Europe and potentially worldwide. 
 

Benefits

Collaborative Benchmarking: By involving various stakeholders from different countries, we can perform thorough benchmarking across different energy systems, regulatory environments, and market conditions. This will ensure that our proposed solutions are robust, versatile, and adaptable to various contexts.

Global Expertise: Engaging international experts and organisations will allow for a broader understanding of what has been done elsewhere to be compared against system operations processes, the failures that have occurred, and learnings and best practice that can be derived from them.

Standardisation and Interoperability: A collaborative effort will help in developing standardised processes and technologies that are interoperable across different regions, promoting greater efficiency and consistency in energy dispatch and optimisation.

ENA smarter networks portal

Outcomes

The WP0 report defines the baseline for the analysis, i.e. the strategy of the Volta program and of the Balancing program.  The overall outcomes of the project will be delivered with the upcoming WP1 and WP2 phases 

Lessons Learnt

In WP0, the below points (points 7 and 8 in the progress summary above) stemmed from the discussions with NESO and will be analysed further with other SOs: 

• better consideration and optimisation of energy-limited assets in the timeframe leading to dispatch; 
• interaction between the power flow modelling and the dispatch optimizer and interaction between network topology actions and dispatch actions;