The closing event of the MetaPV project was held in Brussels to present the project’s conclusions and recommendations for policy-makers, regulators, industry and technical experts. The MetaPV project, supported by the European Commission and one of the first real life smart grid projects with photovoltaics, has shown in a test area in Flanders, Belgium, how PV can actively support grid management in hosting distributed generation and how to integrate an increasing share of variable renewables in the grid.
The all-day event, co-organised by CEDEC, brought together energy experts, policy makers and representatives of the European institutions. The debate allowed participants to find out how distribution grid hosting capacity can be increased at a fraction of the cost of traditional grid reinforcement and to discover the lessons learned from controlling PV plants in real, historically grown distribution grids.
“The MetaPV project has worked with real-life households with PV panels on their roofs, and has shown how these small installations can deliver important grid services for the distribution system and facilitate their own integration. The results are certainly interesting for many DSOs all over Europe that are looking for ways to securely and efficiently manage their grids with rising shares of variable renewable energy” said Gert De Block, CEDEC Secretary General.
Achim Woyte, Project Coordinator of MetaPV and R&D Manager at 3E said: “When we started in 2009, grid support from PV inverters was known. But no grid operator would dare to use it because it had never been shown in real life. Now we have proven it works. By intelligent control of PV inverters we can increase the amount of PV a network can host by 50% at 10% of the costs of an additional cable. And we can tell you how to do it and what you better don’t do. This way we contribute to keeping the energy transition affordable.”
For more information about the results of the project,
please e-mail thomas.devylder@3e.eu or read the Final Report.
Background information
MetaPV is one of the first real-world European photovoltaic (PV) smart grid demonstrations projects. The project aimed to test and implement voltage control strategies based on reactive power from PV and battery storage. This is a big step in enabling the development and connection of more renewable power to achieve the European renewable energy target shares. Over 128 households and industrial participants have installed active PV systems in a test area in the Belgian province of Limburg.
MetaPV is the result of unique international collaboration between the market, the industry and high level research. By bringing together the expertise of system operators, inverter manufacturers, renewable energy experts and researchers, MetaPV is providing realistic and innovative solutions demonstrating the power of PV for grid optimisation. MetaPV is done by a consortium of 3E, the AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology, Infrax, LRM, SMA Solar Technology, and the University of Ljubljana. The MetaPV project has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 239511. http://www.metapv.eu/
