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The physical limits of the electricity grid are being reached, both at times of high generation and during peaks in demand. As a result of this grid congestion, solar and wind farms are increasingly being temporarily shut down, and the construction or expansion of sustainable energy generation is being delayed. What’s more, companies, schools and houses cannot get connected to the electricity grid, since there is no capacity left for new connections.

In the BACH project, ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø researchers join forces with major regional grid operators, a district heating network operator, a closed distribution system operator, a supplier of renewable energy, software developers and integrators, and high tech manufacturing companies to tackle this problem. Together, they are developing an integrated energy system in which multiple energy carriers are produced, stored, converted, and consumed. The goal is to both enable more efficient and flexible use of the energy infrastructure, and to make it much more resilient against external conditions like extreme weather conditions or cyberattacks.

Joint control

‘In the current energy system, the distribution of heat, electricity, and gas are organized separately,’ explains EIRES program officer Erik Matien. ‘In the BACH project, we are using grid data and customer profiles to proactively predict and  calculate which design choices for storage and conversion technologies can create location-dependent capacity for feeding in additional sustainably generated energy.’

The aim of BACH is to develop an open, generic multicommodity energy management system architecture,  that co-optimizes electricity, hydrogen, heat, natural gas and e-methane. The control system takes into account conversion losses, asset constraints, and grid load, and is driven by several parameters like energy security, sustainability indicators, net-congestion control but also, dynamic prices and capacity costs. The resulting system will not only contain a planning tool, but will also contain control algorithms that can decide which parameter is leading in certain conditions and which commodity to use when and where, and test these decisions against their effects on the entire system in terms of, for example, congestion.

Erik Matien: Where GENIUS focuses solely on the electricity grid, BACH is linking molecules (gas, hydrogen), heat, and electricity to optimize flexibility and independence

Storing electricity in heat

BACH is deploying heat as an option for electricity storage, by integrating thermal energy storage systems, heat transfer systems, heat network buffers, and iron power in the energy mix. By doing so, the BACH project essentially is an enhanced version of the GENIUS project, Matien states. ‘Where GENIUS focuses solely on the electricity grid, BACH is linking molecules (gas, hydrogen), heat, and electricity to optimize flexibility and independence.’

Small-scale replica

The ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø campus will be used as a realistic, large-scale testing ground, Matien says. ‘The great thing about our campus is that it essentially is a small-scale replica of the Netherlands as a whole.’ The ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø campus houses multiple energy carriers, various types of energy consumers, large-scale generation, and planned generation to be added. The complex contains over 100 companies and 1,400 residential properties and provides a place to work or live for approximately 18,000 people every day. This ensures that there is a diversity of usage profiles, which are representative for the districts regional grid operators serve.

Hotspot for energy research

For the ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø campus itself, the three-year, 2.75 million euro project will bring a new, large-scale experimental facility for system integration aspects of the energy transition, Matien says. ‘As part of the project, we will install an additional battery supplied by DENS, alongside the existing Fudura battery. The new battery offers greater flexibility for charging and discharging, enabling it to charge heavier vehicles, among other things. Power to Power will install a green gas installation to produce e-methane. RIFT will supply a heat boiler based on iron powder. All in all, this project increases ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø’s attractiveness as a hotspot for collaboration between companies and researchers working in the field of energy research.’

Matien concludes that the BACH project fits seamlessly within ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø’s ambition of being a fourth-generation university, in which companies work together with researchers on societal challenges on an open campus. ‘It also is a perfect example of the mission of EIRES, which focuses on the development of modular, scalable systems, system integration, and the (regional) manufacturing industry. All in all, this evolving ecosystem has the potential to encompass many new developments. Scientists and companies who want to experiment with new energy technologies on a practical scale in a controlled environment are more than welcome to join us.’

The OPZuid BACH consortium consists of the following partners: ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø, Alliander, DENS, Enexis, Ennatuurlijk, Phase to Phase, Power to Power, RIFT, Stedin, Technolution, and Zympler.
This project is co-financed by the European Union through the allocation of an .