Monday june 27 2022
Track 3
13.10 - 13.40
Solving congestion or how flexibility is only one piece of the puzzle
The problem of congestion in both distribution and transmission grids is high on the agenda. The continuous growth of renewable energy sources and the increasing electrification will even worsen the problem in the near future. Past years, VITO has supported system operators, policy makers and market parties in the design of solutions to solve congestion. Helena Gerard will elaborate on the options system operators have to solve congestion. Is grid reinforcement always the optimal solution or what could be the role of flexibility? Moreover, are flexibility markets the most efficient mechanism to acquire flexibility, or should we rely more on implicit mechanisms such as dynamic grid tariffs? Different challenges, and opportunities for system operators will be addressed.
About Helena Gerard
Helena Gerard (1984) received her M.Sc degree in Commercial Engineering, specialization finance, from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 2007. At the same university she received an advanced master in Financial Economics in 2008. From 2008 till 2014, she worked for the energy company ENGIE (former GDF Suez). She occupied several positions in the field of sustainable energy and portfolio management. In 2014, she joined EnergyVille as senior researcher. She is responsible for the development of the EnergyVille roadmap on energy market design. She is involved in both (inter)national research projects as well as commercial contract research in the field of market design and system operation. She currently leads the work on market design in the European projects EU-Sysflex (H2020) and OneNet (2020). She is chairing the BRIDGE working group on Regulation (EU) and the Flemish working group on Flexibility (Stroomgroep Flexibiliteit). She is coordinator of the Belgian funded project ALEXANDER that focuses on the acceleration of flexibility from the low voltage grid.
About Energyville
EnergyVille is a collaboration between the Belgian research partners KU Leuven, VITO, imec and UHasselt in the fields of sustainable energy and intelligent energy systems. EnergyVille develops technology and knowledge to support public and private stakeholders in the transition to an energy efficient, decarbonised and sustainable urban environment. The unique complementarity of the research partners allows us to integrate the energy system value chain in its entirety, ranging from materials and components to the level of entire energy systems, business models and strategies. Our activities are clustered in eight interdisciplinary domains: solar energy, battery storage, power electronics, power-to-molecules, thermal systems, electrical networks, energy for buildings and districts, energy strategies and markets.
About Vito
At VITO, our aim is a society where sustainability is the norm. We are working on global projects to promote the transition to sustainability. We create innovative technological solutions and actively share our knowledge with businesses and government bodies.
Platinum sponsors Flexcon 2022
