Future Distribution Grids

Contact: Prof. Giovanni Sansavini

For further development, model validation and field-testing of the Optimal Transition to Reliable Microgrids project, RRE is collaborating with AGE, a Swiss electricity, gas and water utility.

With a high share of renewable electricity, AGE's grid is an ideal testbed to evaluate advanced concepts for future distribution grids, including storage or microgrids.

The successful integration of different kinds of measurement data into the power flow and optimisation models was a first objective of the collaboration, as voltage, current and power flow measurements are not usually readily available at each point of a distribution grid.

As a second step, different kinds of advanced grid concepts and potential business models for the distribution utility are evaluated, exploring alternatives to the current business model of selling power to end customers, which is becoming less profitable with market liberalisation and increased self-consumption due to distributed generation.