Project manager at the CMA

Project type

Horizon 2020: the European Union’s research and innovation programme

Project duration

4,5 years(2018-2023)

Research team involved at the CMA

Modélisation prospective

Partners

• INEA – SLOVENIA
• Intracom SA Telecom Solutions – Greece
• Trialog – France
• ETREL SVETOVANJE IN DRUGE STORITVE DOO – SLOVENIA
• SYLFEN – FRANCE
• Elestor – The Netherlands
• Odit-E – France
• Hafenstrom – NORWAY
• EUROQUALITY – FRANCE
• Hålogaland Kraft – NORWAY
• Harstad Kommune – NORWAY
• Comune di Procida – ITALY
• Centro de Investigação em Energia REN – STATE GRID, S.A. – Portugal
• NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET – NORWAY
• Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving – Greece
• ASSOCIATION POUR LA RECHERCHE ET LE DEVELOPPEMENT DES METHODES ET PROCESSUS INDUSTRIELS – FRANCE
• SAPIENZA UNIVERSITY OF ROME – ITALY

Project description

GIFT was an innovative project that aimed to decarbonise the energy mix of European islands. European islands have to abide by the law of their countries that push toward a greener energy mix to comply with the European and international agreements. GIFT was willing to develop innovative systems to allow islands to integrate vast amount of renewables.
Through the development of multiple innovative solutions, such as a virtual power system, energy management systems for harbours, factories, homes, better prediction of supply and demand and visualisation of those data through a GIS platform, and innovative storage systems allowing synergy between electrical, heating and transportation networks.
GIFT increased the penetration rate of renewable energy sources into the islands’ grid, reducing their needs for diesel generation and thus decreasing the greenhouse gases emissions directly related to it.
During 4 years and a half, the partners developped and demonstrated the solutions in two lighthouse islands, in Hinnøya, Norway’s largest island and the small island of Procida in Italy and studied the replicability of the solution in a Greek and an Italian island, respectively Evia and Favignana.

The CMA’s contribution to the project

As task leader, ARMINES/CMA will lead the modelling of the energy system of the considered islands. By means of the TIMES approach, a generator of bottom-up long-term optimisation model, ARMINES will developed these specific models and will analyse their possible and plausible evolutions under different relevant policy and technical scenarios which may include not only the commitments in matters of environment and energy but also potential technological developments. A set of relevant scenarios will be produced and technical choices will be discussed including their subsequent policy and technological impacts on the system on the long-term. It is expected that the other partners provide some inputs and data when necessary, so ARMINES will manage these collaborative exchanges.

Then, the purpose is to analyse which power reliability conditions are enforced over time in these long-term planning exercises and so, to discuss the long-term and short-term plausibility of the different possible futures. Indeed, tackling the considerable challenge of grid decarbonisation and the subsequent massive introduction of intermittent electricity production requires a general framework that aggregates the space characteristics of the power grid and reconciles the short-term dynamics of power system management with long-term prospective analysis.

The contribution of ARMINES/CMA is based on its experience on regional long-term modelling and on the improvement of multisectoral energy model to seize the dynamic of the energy system as a whole and to assess with high precision, the regional variability in potential, demand, and future possible trajectories of energy systems. Its prospective approach is based on optimisation models of the MARKAL/TIMES family developed in the context of the IEA program (International Energy Agency) where the CMA represents France. Second, it is based on relevant and patented experience of assessment of long-term power reliability of power system (through different indicators)

Publications and communications relating to the project

• Chlela, S.; Selosse, S.; Maïzi, N. Decarbonization through Active Participation of the Demand Side in Relatively Isolated Power Systems. Energies 2024, 17, 3328. https://doi.org/10.3390/en17133328
• Sophie Chlela, Sandrine Selosse, Nadia Maïzi. Pathways to decarbonization of European islands: ensuring the integration of high renewable energy and power system flexibility. IAEE Energy Forum, 2022, 1st Quarter 2022, pp.16-19. ⟨hal-03511951⟩
• Grazioli, G.; Chlela, S.; Selosse, S.; Maïzi, N. The Multi-Facets of Increasing the Renewable Energy Integration in Power Systems. Energies , 15, 6795. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15186795