Nice Grid: Smart grid pilot demonstrating innovative distribution network operation

The article presents the Nice Grid demonstrator, its objectives as well as its technical and functional architecture. This Smart Grid pilot project is about demonstrating the management of distributed energy resources located in a solar district. Three innovative operation modes of the distribution grid will be tested in order to gain experience on improving network reliability through demand management, to verify on the field that voltage spikes can be reduced by doing energy shifting and to field test the interest of micro-grid management system by islanding a district. This multi-year project is a first attempt to coordinate demand response request from the DSO (Distribution System Operator) or the TSO (Transmission System Operator) through the use of a local market that acts as a facilitator between infrastructure operators and commercial aggregators of energy resources. As solar electricity production is becoming more and more present in the energy mix, it also represents an important step towards the management of power production from equipment connected to the distribution grid. These new types of production are currently causing abnormal events like voltage spikes, protection openings or negative energy prices resulting from the energy not being absorbed by local loads. The third mode that will realize the islanding of a residential district will help understand how electrical island can be operated during real-time, and how they could support network operation in case of major outages on the transmission network. One deliverable of the project is the design of a business process that would accommodate the specificities of the European and French regulatory framework. Furthermore, its integration in the area of Nice, in France, represents a real challenge as real households and industrial buildings will be piloted and monitored during the 2 years tests. Among the important architectural corner points of the project is the information system that is designed around standards like the CIM (Common Information Model), the ENTSO-E specification, IEC standard communication protocols or open internet standards that would permit the interoperability of the system with third parties.