Project FLEXTASE

Excerpt

Flexibility for Advanced Energy Systems Technologies

Frédéric Wurtz, Research Director CNRS, G2ELab
Pr. Daniel Llerena, GAEL, INRAe, CNRS, UGA, Grenoble-INP

Faced with the intermittency of renewable energies (sun, wind, etc.) and the risk of congestion or insufficiency of available means of production, flexibility, which makes it possible to orchestrate a balance between production and consumption, is a challenge that calls for both technical and social innovations to move towards the involvement/appropriation of all players in the energy chain, from managers to consumers. The aim of the FLEXTASE project is to develop a new paradigmatic technical and social approach to address two types of flexibility:

• Indirect (or implicit) flexibility, which mobilizes players around technical and organizational solutions by sending signals (tariff or otherwise),
• Direct (or explicit) flexibility, involving the control of production, consumption or storage systems, managed directly by algorithms, systems and players (such as aggregators).

Keywords: Demand management, open science and data, surveys, direct and indirect flexibilities, incentives

Tasks

Our researches

Observe and simulate

FLEXTASE will define new methods and approaches at the interface of engineering sciences and human and social sciences to :

• Observe and measure the dynamics of flexibility, both quantitatively and qualitatively, through participatory research implemented in living-labs and on real sites,
• Propose new design or simulation tools, incorporating new indicators.

Promoting the adoption of flexibility

With the aim of taking the human factor into account, both individually and collectively, FLEXTASE will review measurement, characterization and innovation methods, and propose solutions to mobilize the levers of appropriation and involvement of flexibility in the energy consumption and production chain.

Proposing solutions

Based on indicators integrating new sources of flexibility in production and consumption, and the social dimension of organizations, behaviors, practices, economic models, etc., FLEXTASE aims to imagine new technical solutions and new simulation and design tools.