Strengthening Danish participation in the ISGAN Annex 7 – Smart Grid Transitions

Knowledge-sharing on smart grid transitions between and among Danish stakeholders and the ISGAN international community

ISGAN Annex 7 – Smart Grid Transitions is a work programme of the International Smart Grid Action Network (ISGAN), a Technology Collaboration Programme of the International Energy Agency. The aim of ISGAN Annex 7 is to investigate institutional change associated with smart grid deployment. It uses the framework of transition management to spark off an international, trans-disciplinary research activity in the social sciences supporting policymakers in the field of Smart Grids by focusing on the direction and efficiency of the energy system transition.

Using a transitions perspective, the Danish ISGAN Annex 7 project has created a more nuanced and people-centred understanding of the barriers and opportunities for the development of a smart grid and flexible energy system. A framework demonstrating the interplay of actors, institutions, and technologies enables the analysis and promotion of flexibility services in this energy system.

An integrated framework for analysing and promoting flexibility services in the integrated energy system.

Based on this framework, the report produced as part of the project discusses: actors, actor roles and markets; new technologies (including data, data management and storage); regulatory barriers and required regulatory reforms and experiments. Conclusions and recommendations are finally offered.

Among other findings, the project finds that regulators must design a body of rules that ensures the coordination of all actors in terms of their integration in the electricity value chain and across energy sectors, to balance the volatile production of renewable energy. In the Nord Pool market, the evolution of electricity market rules demonstrates how industry players are progressively completing the market design to meet the constraints imposed by the rapid growth of wind energy.

The results will be used in the development of a research agenda on the connected topics of smart grid, flexibility and energy transitions, and they can be used by policy makers in the creation of an enabling environment for achieving a smart and flexible energy system, building on coordinated policies and regulations, actor roles, and digital technologies. Achieving these goals is a complex process that requires expertise of actors in both the energy and digital sectors, enabled by a transparent and inclusive process.