TU/e is part of a consortium that has received €16 million from NWO for a groundbreaking project called Understanding Large and Complex Power Systems (UTOPYS). With this grant, the consortium will build the largest academic simulator of its kind. This will enable scientists to investigate new theories and methods for modeling, controlling, optimizing, and designing the complex energy systems of the future, as well as their interactions with society, in the coming century.
The project is led by TU Delft and consists of a total of eight Dutch knowledge institutions and SURF, the IT cooperative for education and research. The new research infrastructure will be the first of its kind worldwide to dynamically represent complex energy systems, enabling researchers to simulate and study the energy system of the future before it is built.
Energy systems around the world are facing all kinds of challenges. The electrification of transport, heating, and industry is leading to unprecedented loads and grid congestion, while distributed renewable energy sources such as solar panels and the growing number of digital assets are increasing complexity and threatening the stability of the electricity grid.
From cybersecurity to sabotage
At the same time, the need for national autonomy and resilience calls for a fundamental rethinking of how we design and operate our energy networks. Full Professor Koen Kok from TU/e is closely involved in UTOPYS: "In the future, the electricity system will behave fundamentally differently. At present, fundamental knowledge about how to operate this large-scale, complex system is lacking. This facility gives us the opportunity to achieve the scientific breakthroughs needed for an efficient and stable system."
"In addition, we must take malicious actors into account, with attention to cybersecurity, sabotage, and physical attacks. We need a network that is prepared for the unknown, as uncertainty is not limited to the weather. The goal is to investigate alternative topologies, controls, market rules, and the impact of new technologies. To this end, we are setting up the world's most powerful digital twin for research into electricity systems."
Fundamental mathematical challenges
Apart from multiple researchers of the Electrical Energy Systems group , within the Electrical Engineering Department, the facility will be important for researchers of the Control Systems groep and the Electromechanics and Power Electronics groep . Also, Bert Zwart , part-time Full Professor at TU/e and group leader at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), is contributing to the consortium project. Zwart focuses on the more fundamental mathematical challenges, as well as the digital challenges surrounding the integration of cybersecurity models and models for the associated IT architecture. "This will give the research on system integration within EIRES a significant boost. My ambition is to develop a mathematical theory that deals efficiently and robustly with the uncertainty in supply and demand."
"The challenges are very similar to what we had to do in the 1950s and 1960s to defend The Netherlands better against major floods, or more recently in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Instead of the risk of flooding or a new financial meltdown, I am interested in determining - and keeping small - the risk of a blackout. This requires data, but of course we cannot generate that in practice. With digital twins of existing and future electricity grids, we can."
Simulating and analyzing entire countries
The consortium already has extensive experience in creating and operating smaller versions of such digital twins. However, the new infrastructure takes these activities to a new level; entire countries can be simulated and analyzed, as can technologies and systems that do not yet exist.
UTOPYS brings together energy systems, computer science, mathematics, energy economics, and law in a truly interdisciplinary collaboration. The researchers are committed to sharing all results through open-source models and data, so that both experts and non-experts can explore and innovate.
Remaining state-of-the-art and future-proof
The €16.5 million grant is awarded under the Large-Scale Research Infrastructure (LSRI) program of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). Through the LSRI, NWO strategically invests in large-scale research facilities throughout the Netherlands, ensuring that they remain state-of-the-art and future-proof to support new scientific breakthroughs. The TU/e contributes an additional 1.2 million to the realization of the facility.
Consortium partners: TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, University of Twente, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica, University of Groningen, Utrecht University, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Radboud University.
