The research projects IntegraNet and IntegraNet II aimed at the examination of the German electricity, gas and heating networks in detail. This way, the potential for energy balancing through grid coupling can be determined. The effects of grid coupling were being investigated at different levels in detail, both in terms of energy balances and dynamic simulation. For the detailed investigations, dynamic simulations with the TransiEnt library were undertaken and the library was further developed by the project team, consisting of Fraunhofer UMSICHT and GWI Essen.
The IntegraNet project was completed in summer 2019. The final report can be downloaded here.
Within the project, primarily sector coupling technologies with potential for balancing the electricity grid and integrate renewable electricity into the heat sector were considered.
On a higher level, regional analyses were undertaken. The determination of the regional distribution of energy demand, technology shares and power generation technologies was based on a distribution key that enables the distribution of central scenario assumptions to individual regions using various criteria. The study has shown that decentralized technologies may have some impact on energy balancing. However, the actual situation in the grids has to be examined by means of detailed simulations of plant operation.
In contrast to the regional analysis, a bottom-up approach displayed the situation at the distribution network level. Dynamic simulations with the TransiEnt library show the potential and effects of sector coupling. The GridConstructor for simple creation and parameterization of complex district models was developed and formed an addition to the then available models in the library. In the detailed simulations within the IntegraNet project, current and future consumption structures on the local network levels were described using so-called typologies. These were examined with regard to their energy consumption and energy production and the scenarios were discussed with regard to their effects on heat production and residual loads. Furthermore, the simulation results were evaluated with respect to green-house gas emissions and voltage band deviations.
The research work was continued from 2019-2023 in the IntegraNet II project. The final report can be downloaded here.
Various further developments of TransiEnt models were carried out as part of the project. One of these is the integration of a model for charging electric vehicles into the model library.
In addition to examining the contribution of sector coupling within a distribution grid, the project focused on the supra-regional view and the interactions and balancing options between differently structured regions. A cellular approach was chosen to investigate these. Further development of the TransiEnt models was necessary in order to be able to map the interactions between the regions using the TransiEnt library and to be able to integrate centralized control strategies in addition to the decentralized individual system control strategies.
The administrative district of Münster was selected as an example region for the demonstration of the cellular approach and the detailed examination of the results. The results show that while renewable electricity generation within the region cannot cover the electricity demand at any time in 2019, in the scenario year, renewable electricity generation repeatedly exceeds the electricity demand at times during the year and a large part of the electricity demand can be covered by renewables. At the same time, it can be seen that there is a partial reduction in the load on transformers, although this is heavily dependent on the framework conditions.
