Atos paves the way for flexible and sustainable energy flow in Europe
Madrid, Spain, 12 May 2020
Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, announces its participation in the FLEXIGRID project, which aims to improve the operation of the distribution grid – making it more flexible, reliable and cost-efficient, through the development of innovative solutions. Its goal is to contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and to the 2030 EU climate objectives while preparing the grid to the increase in renewable energy. As part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program, FLEXIGRID was initiated mid-2019 and will last for four years. It brings together a consortium of 16 partners led by the Research Centre for Energy Resources and Consumption (CIRCE) in Spain.
In order to ensure that the project is effective across all EU networks, eight different use cases at four demo sites (Spain, Greece, Italy and Croatia) have been selected, addressing the most common EU distribution grid problems. Atos will provide and integrate its open source Framework for Utilities and Services (FUSE) for all project activities and demonstration sites, connecting the data generated by real users and teams with the innovative services developed in the project for optimum flexibility.
Enabling flexibility for future distribution grid
The energy market is currently transitioning from a centralized system with passive users into a flexible network of active users featuring energy communities. FLEXIGRID will develop a set of solutions to address the challenges that the electricity grid is expected to face as a result of the increasing participation of variable renewable energies in the energy system.
The new tools will allow the distribution network to function safely and stably when a large part of variable renewable electricity sources is connected to low and medium voltage networks. Specifically, through the development of innovative hardware and software solutions, the project will work on:
- Enhancing the grid hosting capacity of renewables
- Increasing the observability, controllability and automation of the network systems for the improvement of both the security and resilience of the grid
- Mitigating short and long-term congestions in the distributed grid
- Ensuring the interoperability and compatibility of the developed solutions with different platforms used by European Distributed System Operators (DSOs)
In this context, the energy platform FUSE makes available the latest technologies (Big Data, AI, IoT, Blockchain and FIWARE) to go one step further towards sustainability, while offering a powerful software platform that provides network visibility and control, process automation and business collaboration for solutions across the energy and utility value chain. Atos will use the platform to facilitate the replicability of services and solutions, integrating different hardware and software solutions to fully exploit the data provided by local and distributed energy resources.
“The decentralization of the energy market creates a complex environment with different actors involved, where everyone focuses on the same goal, but has their own functions, requirements and characteristics on the way towards a sustainable future.” explains Juan Sancho, Energy Sector R&D Engineer at Atos in Iberia. “Leveraging Atos’ extensive experience in the energy sector, FUSE integrates the latest solutions and technologies to facilitate efficiency and sustainability, paving the way to the digitalization of the sector and a more sustainable future;”
For more information, please visit http://www.flexigrid-h2020.eu/
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About Atos
Atos is a global leader in digital transformation with 110,000 employees in 73 countries and annual revenue of € 12 billion. European number one in Cloud, Cybersecurity and High-Performance Computing, the Group provides end-to-end Orchestrated Hybrid Cloud, Big Data, Business Applications and Digital Workplace solutions. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and operates under the brands Atos, Atos|Syntel, and Unify. Atos is a SE (Societas Europaea), listed on the CAC40 Paris stock index.
The purpose of Atos is to help design the future of the information space. Its expertise and services support the development of knowledge, education and research in a multicultural approach and contribute to the development of scientific and technological excellence. Across the world, the Group enables its customers and employees, and members of societies at large to live, work and develop sustainably, in a safe and secure information space.
