MIGRATE

About MIGRATE (Massive InteGRATion of power Electronics)

In the future, both electricity production and consumption will increasingly be linked to the electricity grid through power electronics. This will lead to new challenges due to the large amounts of electricity fed into it from low carbon technologies.

MIGRATE, under the H2020 framework, aims to find solutions to key technical issues relating to grid stability, power quality, and  grid protection.

MIGRATE is the only Tranmission Operator (TO) led project supported by academics and industrial partners. The project has been funded under the H2020 framework by the European Commission This will directly impact all European Union TOs in their business- as -usual activities, as their networks’ power electronic penetration grows.

The consortium members include European TOs from Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and the U.K. SP Energy Networks is the only U.K. utility to be a part of the MIGRATE consortium.  

SP Energy Networks is leading Work Package 2 which explores the current challenges facing our existing networks and addressing them with the commercially available infrastructure.

Our key outcomes have included solutions that address and demonstrate how we look at stability key performance indicators, and deploying the world’s first live trial of wide area monitoring, protection and control in the Icelandic network.

More information can be found on the MIGRATE website.

Project Objectives

Objective 1

• To identify and rank power system stability issues currently faced by European Union TOs.
• To identify suitable key performance indicators to address these issues through numerical analyses.
• To test the key performance indicators in a laboratory test system using real time digital system.
• To provide recommendations for the network connection codes to adopt higher levels of power electronics penetration without impacting system security.

Objective 2

• To complement objective 1 by developing monitoring and forecasting solutions for proposed stability of key performance indicators (area inertia and short-circuit capacity).
• To pilot test these key performance indicators, ensuring their interoperability in live European Union TO environments to secure the impact of the developed functions, using existing measurement and information communications technology infrastructure.
• To perform the first live trial of wide area monitoring, protection and control scheme in Iceland, using existing measurement infrastructure to resolve current issues identified in low inertia networks.

Objective 3

• To study the capability of existing protection devices under disturbances generated by power electronics.
• To identify the requirements for future protection systems to ensure existing reliability levels.
• To provide a set of recommendations for the design of protection schemes for power systems with high penetration of power electronics, completing the set of recommendations for the network connection code implementation.

Objective 4

• To develop appropriate models and methodologies to evaluate the influence of power electronics based devices on power quality in future power systems.
• To investigate and compare cost effective mitigation options to reach the extent at which power electronic based devices can be used to attain and maintain network power quality levels while continuing to fulfil their primary purpose.

Objective 5

• To investigate a model problem in order to develop new control strategies and management rules for operating transmission networks with 100% power electronic penetration.
• To investigate the capability of implementing the newly developed strategies and rules with existing equipment.

Benefits

• MIGRATE has a focus on contributing to the progressive move to a low carbon future within Europe. The project will facilitate the integration of large scale low carbon technologies, such as wind and solar renewable generation. This will provide a positive environmental impact resulting in the reduction of CO2 levels.
• MIGRATE will support Transmission Operators (TO) by providing economic solutions which make use of their existing infrastructure.
• The project results from MIGRATE are supported by free market players, technologies supporting the grid connections, power system monitoring tools to measure the distance of instability and protection mechanisms. These results will help to validate new business opportunities that work towards increased benefits to customers and create new business and employment opportunities within Europe’s economy.
• MIGRATE is supporting innovative approaches that are helping to ensure a safe, reliable performance of the electricity network when generated from low carbon technologies.

Reports & Documents

Click the image to view the Fact Card

• Project Fact Card Print Version
• The published outcomes of MIGRATE are available on the MIGRATE website.

Project Partners

A more detailed description of the project members can be found on the MIGRATE website.

Diagrams

Concept of MIGRATE: Outlining the critical technical progression required to ensure network stability as renewable technology (and therefore power electronics) grows in the EU transmission networks.

• View the above diagram in pdf format

News

Information and registering for news updates can be found on the MIGRATE website.