ecoTools

ecoEMS is an Energy Management System aiming at optimizing the overall performance of isolated and weakly interconnected energy systems by increasing the share of RES. ecoEMS will consider storage facilities and will provide advanced on-line security functions, both in preventive and corrective mode. More specifically, ecoEMS will be a modular system comprising load and RES Forecast, Unit Commitment and Economic Dispatch and on-line Security Assessment functions. The goal of ecoEMS is the full exploitation of the RES potential (i.e. RES penetration levels above 40%) at reasonable costs in isolated electricity systems.

The ecoMicrogrid will be an Energy Management System for microgrids where advanced management algorithms will be deployed to optimize the performance, taking into consideration synergies with different energy vectors like water management and cooling systems. ecoMicrogrid will monitor the state of microgrid components, such as RES production, flexible loads’ consumption, and battery storage charge level and predict its short-term development. An optimization procedure will dictate the required actions like load shedding, diesel generator start-up/shutdown and RES power curtailment according to the desired optimization goals.

ecoPlanning will serve as a tool for supporting the decision-making process for the deployment of new electricity generation units (conventional and renewable) in the electrical systems of Non- Interconnected Islands (NIIs) in a mid-term horizon. ecoPlanning will perform the following types of studies: 7-Year Energy Planning for assessing the deployment plan of new conventional production units; RES Hosting Capacity for assessing the hosting capacity of Renewable Energy Sources in the electric system; Interconnection Assessment by performing steady state simulations of the electric system to evaluate the interconnection advantages. It reports the operation of the production units and several results pertaining to the energy production in terms of quantity, fuel consumption and cost, CO2 emissions, etc.

The ecoDR tool focuses on the development of advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) with inbuilt load controller and protection functionalities. In addition to measurement and billing of household energy consumption, it will facilitate remote monitoring and control of non-critical loads based on user preference. This tool will be capable to communicate with ecoPlatform tool to access services such as demand-side management, to implement scheduling of critical/non-critical loads via load shedding and to access dynamic electricity pricing tariffs for computation of the energy cost of residential loads.

ecoPlatform will be a lightweight, cloud-based platform with the primary objective of providing the RE-EMPOWERED tools with a secure and reliable interface to the deployed distributed energy infrastructure. In addition, ecoPlatform will be capable of managing, processing and handling the heterogeneous data and command stream from the RE-EMPOWERED tools, metering infrastructure, SCADA systems, MGCC and selected controllable assets. ecoPlatform will provide a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that can integrate all the solutions in one software structure.

The ecoMonitor tool focuses on the surveillance and monitoring of drinking water quality parameters and the deployment of water purification plants. Within the RE-EMPOWERED project, the water samples will be collected and based on water quality analysis, a community level solar powered water purification plant will be deployed to provide safe drinking water to the residents in the Indian demo sites. Furthermore, water quality parameters such as conductivity (salinity), dissolved oxygen, and ORP/Redox etc., water temperature and pH level etc. will be monitored periodically.

ecoCommunity will be a digital platform aiming to enhance citizen engagement, active participation and technology acceptance in the four demo sites. The main functionalities of ecoCommunity are dynamic pricing mechanism for residential loads, management of non-critical loads, electronic billing, payment, and a feedback portal. ecoCommunity will contain advanced functionalities and will be tailored to the special requirements of energy-disadvantaged communities.

The ecoResilience tool will focus on the development of cyclone resilient support structures for both ground-mounted solar PV arrays and wind turbines. It aims to optimize the PV configuration to reduce the aerodynamic wind loads through numerical simulations, wind tunnel testing, and field tests. For wind turbines, cyclone resistive hybrid structure will be designed for extreme weather conditions. The small wind turbine will be manufactured locally, with the assistance of local technicians and community members using the available resources of the region, thus allowing for maintenance to be performed quickly with reduced down time and increased resilience.

This tool deals with the development of power electronic converters and their control, for dc/ac microgrids. Two power electronic converters, a 30 kW DC/AC inverter and a 50kW DC/DC Partial Power Converter (PPC) for multi-string PV architecture, will be developed. The purpose of these converters is to form a local AC grid providing ancillary services and extracting the maximum power from PV panels under partial shading conditions. The converter will be modular, plug-and-play, reliable and compact with functions like, built-in communication, protection, remote control, and display option.

ecoVehicle considers the development and deployment of two charging stations, each with six 1.5kW charging points, to facilitate green transportation within Ghoramara island and to nearby islands. Moreover, four electric three wheelers and an e-Boat are going to be deployed, which will allow locals to utilize the e-mobility infrastructure and improve local transportation.