VOLTAIRE

Project overview

VOLTAIRE is an initiative designed to address the growing concern about the dependence of electricity prices on the volatility of fossil fuels. Its main objective is to reduce this dependence by promoting self-consumption facilities that can actively participate in energy markets. By encouraging the use of renewable energy and allowing consumers to adjust their energy consumption and generation, VOLTAIRE seeks to mitigate the impact of sudden increases in electricity prices, thus offering greater stability and predictability to consumers.

To meet this challenge, the design and implementation of a digital twin (DM) is proposed. This twin will include probabilistic prediction strategies to more accurately model the uncertainties inherent in the models themselves and in the variables to be predicted, together with services to aid decision-making in the management of renewable generation systems, storage systems and programmable loads. The implementation of a digital twin will allow modeling and simulating the behavior of the electric system in real time, allowing the analysis of different hypothetical scenarios and the evaluation of their risks, which will provide valuable information to improve decision making and anticipate possible stability problems.

The solution proposed by VOLTAIRE is based on a hierarchical tiering structure, where a specific digital twin is assigned to each type of installation and technology, be it generation, consumption or storage. These individual digital twins operate at a granular level, allowing detailed monitoring and management of each element within the system. Above these, an aggregator digital twin is established, which acts as a critical interface between the various facility twins and the distribution system operator.
In summary, the active role of self-consumption facilities in the flexibility markets with direct coordination with the flexibility market operator opens up new opportunities to maximize the economic value of these facilities, improve the efficiency of the electricity system and facilitate the transition to a more sustainable and resilient energy system.

The VOLTAIRE project ( CPP2023-010861) will last 36 months and is funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the State Research Agency (10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union in the framework of the EU Next Generation EU Recovery Plan and the Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).