Enel joins the OSMOSE project to boost renewable energies in Europe

More specifically, the trials will focus on renewables, storage systems, smart grid management and demand response technologies. The Enel Group will take part in the trials with the Potenza Pietragalla wind farm and the San Fiorano pumped-storage hydropower plant, with the aim of finding new flexibility solutions to support the electric system.

OSMOSE, an acronym for Optimal System-Mix Of flexibility Solutions for European Electricity, is a network of international partners that includes Enel Group subsidiaries Enel Green Power and Enel Produzione, funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme as part of Grant Agreement 773406 following call LCE-04-2017. Start of trials is expected in 2020, while first results in 2021.

The Enel Green Power wind farm at Pietragalla, located in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata, was the first wind farm integrated with a storage system in the country and is considered a model of efficiency and technological innovation in the field of renewable energy. Through the installation of the integrated 2 MW/2 MWh storage system, the plant’s electricity production is further optimised, ensuring greater stability for the grid.

With OSMOSE, the innovative features of the Pietragalla plant will be enhanced, enabling the real-time supply of transmission grid regulation services to Italian electricity transmission system operator Terna. Furthermore, the facility will coordinate with other renewables plants and a number of industrial customers in the area for the optimal and smart management of the grid segment involved in the trials.

At the San Fiorano pumped-storage hydropower plant, the OSMOSE project activities will focus on testing new approaches to managing secondary power regulation between Italy and Slovenia, also made possible by the involvement of Enel Produzione. Specifically, the facility will be able to participate in a new cross-border regulation services market with the aim of improving Slovenian grid balancing.

In addition to six European energy operators, among which Enel Green Power, RTE and Terna, project participants include ABB, IBM and Schneider Electric, five digital and energy services utility providers, storage system manufacturers and 11 university research centres.