Project objectives
To extend the principle of smart connection offers to low-power electricity generation installations connected to the Low Voltage network, in order to increase the hosting capacity of existing networks and to sharply reduce connection costs and lead times.
How do "smart connection offers" work?
From a technical standpoint:
From the generator's standpoint:
A “smart connection” provides faster, cheaper access to the network in exchange for a limited loss of generation output during periods when the network is heavily loaded.
Results
Software
The RACCOFLEX-BT project led to the development of Grid ExpanDER, software dedicated to controlling small photovoltaic installations through the smart metering infrastructure.
Demonstrators:
The RACCOFLEX-BT project demonstrated the feasibility of controlling photovoltaic generation through the metering infrastructure, thanks to three demonstrators on which the LV alternative connection offers were trialled by Roseau Technologies:
1. Since 2020, Grid ExpanDER has been deployed in the Roseau Smart Lab, a full laboratory test platform that reproduces the physics of a real Low Voltage network.
2. In 2022 and 2023, the solution was successfully deployed on the experimental network of the Fraunhofer Institute in Kassel, as part of the ERIGrid project.
3. In early 2024, a first experimentation site on a real network was equipped. It is a solar carport, located on SORÉA’s network in the Maurienne valley.
Technical and economic relevance analysis:
The project also validated the technical and economic relevance of the solution through the study of several dozen real connection applications for photovoltaic projects.
The RACCOFLEX-BT project is a winner of the fifth wave of the i-Nov Innovation Competition, a scheme under the Future Investment Programme (PIA) operated by ADEME.
