Europe’s ambitious climate protection goals require a safe and comprehensive integration of Renewable Energies on all voltage levels of the electricity grid. Currently, cross-border transmission of electricity is limited to the high voltage grid. Within CALLIA, the partners will investigate how direct energy transfer between distribution grids in two different countries is able to foster the integration of Renewable Energies. The important goals of the project include:  more efficient integration of decentralized generation units and stabilization of the European electricity grid. Therefore, grid operators, research institutes and industrial partners from Austria, Belgium, Germany and Turkey will join forces in a multilateral project consortium.

Europe’s climate protection goals in mind

“Open electricity markets with direct interaction between distribution grids for integration of Renewable Energies” – this is the official tile of CALLIA. CALLIA’s research focus is derived from the guidelines of the European “Energy 2020 strategy: towards a low carbon economy”, aiming at the full integration of Renewables into the European grid. To reach these goals, cross-border cooperation between distribution service operators (DSOs), in particular, has to be strengthened.

Bringing together what belongs together

Within CALLIA, project partners will investigate how cooperation between distribution service operators can be put into practice. The necessary architecture as well as an interface for trading between distribution service operators (so-called “multi-agent system”) will be developed.

Local exchange of Renewable Energies at the distribution grid level will reduce the curtailment of RE systems, reduce the load at the transfer points between distribution and transmission grid and simplify balancing between local distribution grids and the transmission grid.

Furthermore, energy losses will be reduced as local generation and consumption in border regions will be balanced more easily without the need to cross all voltage levels in an “up-across-down” trajectory (up from low-voltage to high voltage grid – across to the neighboring high voltage grid and down to the receiver’s low voltage grid).

In addition, the project will lead to a more efficient integration of decentralized generation into Europe’s electricity grids accompanied by an increase in stability. Project results will be validated through both, simulations and through a pilot of the trading interface for grid operators. Based on the knowledge obtained, recommendations for a regulatory framework for electricity exchange between distribution grids on the European level will be given.

Kick-Off for CALLIA

On July 1^st, 2016 CALLIA was officially launched. Within the next 33 months, the multinational consortium will investigate the potential of the transnational integration of Renewable Energies into the European electricity grid for reaching the Union’s energy goals. CALLIA is part of the European research program “ERA-Net Smart Grids Plus”with a total project volume of €4.9 million.