Institute for Energy releases report - “Distributed Power Generation in Europe: technical issues for further integration”

The electric power sector in Europe is currently facing different changes and evolutions mainly in response to the three issues at EU level - environmental sustainability, security of supply, and competitiveness. These challenges, against a background of growing electricity demand, may represent drivers for facilitating the further deployment of Distributed Power Generation technologies in Europe.

The Report focuses on the potential role of Distributed Power Generation (or simply Distributed Generation, DG) in a European perspective. More specifically, this work aims to assess the technical issues and developments related to DG technologies and their integration into the European power systems.

As a starting point the concept of Distributed Generation is characterised for the purpose of the study. Distributed Generation, defined as an electric power source connected to the distribution network, serving a customer on-site or providing network support, may offer various benefits to the European electric power systems. DG technologies may consist of small/medium size, modular energy conversion units, which are generally located close to end users and transform primary energy resources into electricity and eventually heat.

There are, however, major issues concerning the integration of DG technology into the distribution networks. In fact, the existing distribution networks were not generally designed to operate in presence of DG technologies. Consequently, a sustained increase in the deployment of DG resources may imply several changes in the electric power system architecture in the near future.

The Report on Distributed Generation in Europe, after an overview of the basic elements of electric power systems, introduces the proposed definition and main features of DG. Then, it reviews the state-of-the-art of DG technologies as well as focuses on current DG grid integration issues. Technical solutions towards DG integration in Europe and developments concerning the future distribution systems are also addressed in the study.

The Report is downloadable at http://ie.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ (under Scientific Publications 2008) and its complete Abstract is hereunder transcribed.

Source: Smart Electric News