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Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "B: Energy and Environment".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 May 2023) | Viewed by 17572

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Georgios Christoforidis

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Guest Editor

Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Macedonia, 501 32 Kozani, Greece
Interests: smart grids; RES penetration in distribution networks; load and RES production forecasting; DSM and DR; energy policy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Prof. Dr. Grigoris K. Papagiannis

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School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: transient analysis of power systems; simulation of electromagnetic transients in transmission and distribution networks; earth conductance effects in overhead and underground transmission lines; powerline communication; smart grids; dynamics in active distribution networks; smart communities and cities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Mediterranean region is largely dependent on supply from third countries for oil, gas and coal, even though it has exceptional untapped potential for the deployment of renewable energy sources. Furthermore, most regions within the Mediterranean, particularly islands and rural areas, are characterized by isolated or weak power networks, which either have a high carbon footprint or pose several markets, technical and social barriers to the wider penetration of intermittent Renewable Energy Sources (RES). The region is at the forefront of the Energy Transition towards a fully decarbonized Europe by 2050, facing several multidisciplinary challenges in research, development and innovation. This Special Issue gathers extended papers presented at the 2^nd SyNERGYMED International Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, related to the thematic areas of the conference and under special invitation:

Cybersecurity in Smart Grid;
DC power systems;
Decarbonization and Clean Energy Transition;
Demand Side Management, Flexibility and Demand Response;
Digitalization of power distribution;
E-Mobility;
Energy Efficiency;
Energy Policy;
Energy storage technologies, integration and utilization;
Grid and market integration of distributed generation;
HVDC, FACTS and power electronics;
ICT for Future Electricity Grids;
Multi- Energy grids;
Power quality;
Power System Economics and Electricity Markets;
Power System Modelling and Analysis;
Power System Operations and Control;
Power System Optimization and Planning;
Reliability assessment of power systems;
Renewable energy sources;
Security assessment and risk analysis;
Smart Energy Communities and Smart Cities;
Transactive energy and Blockchain technologies;
Transient analysis and EMTP modeling.

Prof. Dr. Georgios Christoforidis
Prof. Dr. Grigoris K. Papagiannis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

energy transition
power systems
smart grids
energy storage
renewable power generation
energy communities

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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29 pages, 1243 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Electricity Day-Ahead Market Conditions and Their Effect on the Different Supervised Algorithms for Market Price Forecasting

by Stylianos Loizidis, Georgios Konstantinidis, Spyros Theocharides, Andreas Kyprianou and George E. Georghiou

Energies 2023, 16(12), 4617; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16124617 - 9 Jun 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2002

Abstract

Participants in deregulated electricity markets face risks from price volatility due to various factors, including fuel prices, renewable energy production, electricity demand, and crises such as COVID-19 and energy-related issues. Price forecasting is used to mitigate risk in markets trading goods which have high price volatility. Forecasting in electricity markets is difficult and challenging as volatility is attributed to many unpredictable factors. This work studies and reports the performance both in terms of forecasting error and of computational time of forecasting algorithms that are based on Extreme Learning Machine, Artificial Neural Network, XGBoost and random forest. All these machine learning techniques are combined with the Bootstrap technique of creating new samples from the available ones in order to improve the forecasting errors. In order to assess the performance of these methodologies, the Day-Ahead market prices are divided into three classes, namely normal, extremely high and negative, and these algorithms are subsequently used to provide forecasts for the whole year 2020 of the German and Finnish Day-Ahead markets. The average yearly forecasting errors along with the computation time required by each methodology are reported. The findings indicate that the random forest algorithm performs best for the normal and extremely high price categories, while XGBoost demonstrates better results for the negative price category. The methodology based on Extreme Learning Machine requires the least computational time and achieves forecasting errors that are comparable to the best-performing methods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area)

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18 pages, 5909 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Decarbonisation of Geographical Islands and the Feasibility of Green Hydrogen Production Using Excess Electricity

by Hossein Madi, Dmytro Lytvynenko, Tilman Schildhauer and Peter Jansohn

Energies 2023, 16(10), 4094; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16104094 - 15 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2922

Abstract

Islands face limitations in producing and transporting energy due to their geographical constraints. To address this issue, the ROBINSON project, funded by the EU, aims to create a flexible, self-sufficient, and environmentally friendly energy system that can be used on isolated islands. The feasibility of renewable electrification and heating system decarbonization of Eigerøy in Norway is described in this article. A mixed-integer linear programming framework was used for modelling. The optimization method is designed to be versatile and adaptable to suit individual scenarios, with a flexible and modular formulation that can accommodate boundary conditions specific to each case. Onshore and offshore wind farms and utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) were considered to generate renewable electricity. Each option was found to be feasible under certain conditions. The heating system, composed of a biomass gasifier, a combined heat and power system with a gas boiler as backup unit, was also analyzed. Parameters were identified in which the combination of all three thermal units represented the best system option. In addition, the possibility of green hydrogen production based on the excess electricity from each scenario was evaluated. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area)

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27 pages, 9881 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluating the Techno-Economic Effect of Pricing and Consumption Parameters on the Power-to-Energy Ratio for Sizing Photovoltaic-Battery Systems: An Assessment of Prosumers in the Mediterranean Area

by Nikolas G. Chatzigeorgiou, Spyros Theocharides, George Makrides and George E. Georghiou

Energies 2023, 16(10), 4073; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16104073 - 13 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1614

Abstract

The momentous deployment of photovoltaic (PV) installations in modern times converted schemes utilised to support behind-the-meter systems to compensation mechanisms promoting self-consumption for all prosumer types. Moreover, their incorporation with battery storage systems (BSS) is expected to remove technical counter effects and assist in more self-sufficient prosumer sites. As electricity prices are continuously rising, negatively impacting consumers, we intend for this study to serve as a guideline for residential PV-BSS sizing. Additionally, its objective is to provide an operational and economic evaluation of PV-BSS by considering relevant schemes and concentrating on the most effective parameters. This study contributes to the literature with a holistic methodology for sizing and techno-economically evaluating residential systems in the Mediterranean area that is replicable for any state or consumption class. Simulations addressing PV-BSS performance were exploited with the use of real (high-resolution) data, estimating particular sizing, operational, and techno-economic indicators during the entire system lifetime within the framework of a techno-economic analysis. The simulations calculated the initial expenditure, the yearly revenues from the PV-BSS operation, and the corresponding expenses, contrasting them on a year-to-year basis. The results demonstrate that for the five countries addressed as case studies, PV-BSS sizing is significantly impacted by the supporting scheme regarding maximum financial gains. A likeness amid the ideal power-to-energy ratio (PER) indicator of every addressed state for the examined parameters (electricity price and consumption class) was demonstrated for the full self-consumption scheme, whereas for net billing, intercountry discrepancies and generally higher optimal PER values were observed. Finally, an increase in electricity prices or consumption generally decreases optimal PER; therefore, a recommendation is provided for the avoidance of inessential expenditures in surplus system component sizes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area)

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18 pages, 4471 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Estimating the Performance Loss Rate of Photovoltaic Systems Using Time Series Change Point Analysis

by Andreas Livera, Georgios Tziolis, Marios Theristis, Joshua S. Stein and George E. Georghiou

Energies 2023, 16(9), 3724; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16093724 - 26 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1676

Abstract

The accurate quantification of the performance loss rate of photovoltaic systems is critical for project economics. Following the current research activities in the photovoltaic performance and reliability field, this work presents a comparative assessment between common change point methods for performance loss rate estimation of fielded photovoltaic installations. An extensive testing campaign was thus performed to evaluate time series analysis approaches for performance loss rate evaluation of photovoltaic systems. Historical electrical data from eleven photovoltaic systems installed in Nicosia, Cyprus, and the locations’ meteorological measurements over a period of 8 years were used for this investigation. The application of change point detection algorithms on the constructed monthly photovoltaic performance ratio series revealed that the obtained trend might not always be linear. Specifically, thin film photovoltaic systems showed nonlinear behavior, while nonlinearities were also detected for some crystalline silicon photovoltaic systems. When applying several change point techniques, different numbers and locations of changes were detected, resulting in different performance loss rate values (varying by up to 0.85%/year even for the same number of change points). The results highlighted the importance of the application of nonlinear techniques and the need to extract a robust nonlinear model for detecting significant changes in time series data and estimating accurately the performance loss rate of photovoltaic installations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area)

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21 pages, 13827 KiB

Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

A Modified Decentralized Droop Control Method to Eliminate Battery Short-Term Operation in a Hybrid Supercapacitor/Battery Energy Storage System

by Pavlos Papageorgiou, Konstantinos Oureilidis, Anna Tsakiri and Georgios Christoforidis

Energies 2023, 16(6), 2858; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16062858 - 20 Mar 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 5015

Abstract

Employment of a battery energy storage system to compensate for the generation-consumption mismatch is a vital element for a resilient microgrid. However, the frequent (i.e., short-term) cyclic activity and the abrupt current variations (i.e., high di/dt) have adverse effects on the energy-type battery’s lifespan. On the other hand, the power-type supercapacitor energy storage system (SCES) has almost zero lifetime degradation when it is subjected to irregular charging/discharging patterns. Therefore, the hybridization between them can reduce battery stress levels. This study proposes a droop control algorithm with multiple segments for a SCES/battery hybrid energy storage system (HESS) that is employed in a solar/wind DC microgrid. The presented control scheme is decentralized since it avoids the central controller (CC) and the communication links between the controllers of SCES and battery units. To eliminate the short-term cyclic operation of the battery, the SCES regulates the bus voltage inside a narrow zone with a droop curve that exploits all its available energy capacity. Inside this zone, the battery is kept inactive. As soon as the bus voltage deviates from this band, the SCES enters the idle mode, and the battery is triggered following a droop curve different for charging or discharging mode to stabilize the bus voltage. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed system over a battery-only system and a hybrid SCES/battery system controlled with the classical droop method, a comparative analysis under different scenarios is presented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area)

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Review

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24 pages, 4160 KiB

Open AccessReview

Key Aspects and Challenges in the Implementation of Energy Communities

by Georgios Yiasoumas, Lazar Berbakov, Valentina Janev, Alessandro Asmundo, Eneko Olabarrieta, Andrea Vinci, Giovanni Baglietto and George E. Georghiou

Energies 2023, 16(12), 4703; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16124703 - 14 Jun 2023

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2956

Abstract

Energy communities (ECs) are an important tool towards a fair energy transition. Hence, the European Union (EU) has positioned ECs at the centre of its energy strategy and the foreseen transformation of its energy system. This paper aims to give an overview of key aspects and challenges for the implementation of the EC concept. Firstly, the regulatory framework is examined with a focus on the new definitions for ECs introduced by the EU, Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) and Citizen Energy Communities (CECs). Secondly, examples of established ECs and their main objectives are mentioned. Additionally, based on the identified challenges and requirements of establishing ECs, the key technologies that are implemented or have the potential to be deployed in an EC are examined, as well as innovative cross-cutting services that are optimally suited to be integrated in an EC. Moreover, the data management challenges linked to some of these technologies are considered. Finally, an overview of actual or potential financing schemes to support the EC development is given. Overall, the analysis highlighted the regulatory, technical and financial aspects and challenges that ECs are facing and the need to address them so that the EC concept is effective and successful. The main challenges identified for each of these aspects are the regulatory compliance with the legal framework, the data management dimension when innovative technological concepts are adopted and the financing of new projects. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Transition in the Mediterranean Area)

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