Project Image Pool
There are 39 results.
Terms of use: The pictures on this site originate from the projects in the frame of the programmes City of Tomorrow, Building of Tomorrow and the IEA Research Cooperation. They may be used credited for non-commercial purposes under the Creative Commons License Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC).
Stakeholders contributing and benefiting from the innovations in the ISGAN Casebook
The chart compares the stakeholders who contributed to the case studies in the ISGAN Casebook on planning smart distribution grids with those who benefited from them.
Copyright: Susanne Windischberger
Main pillars to form a successful capacity mechanism
The figure illustrates the key design principles of an effective Capacity Mechanism (CM), structured around four main dimensions: Incentives, Efficiency, Neutrality, and Missing Money. The Incentives pillar highlights the importance of creating appropriate signals for both producers and consumers, including investment security, stable revenue mechanisms, demand-side flexibility, and ensuring availability during scarcity situations. The Efficiency dimension emphasizes the need to control overall system costs while avoiding market distortions through well-designed market mechanisms and competitive structures. Under Neutrality, the figure stresses the importance of a technology- and climate-neutral approach that maintains a level playing field while enabling the participation of low-emission technologies. Finally, the Missing Money pillar addresses the issue of insufficient market revenues by introducing additional income streams and risk-mitigation mechanisms to ensure the financial viability of energy producers and long-term security of supply.
Copyright: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Classification of Flexibility Mechanisms
The table provides an overview and classification of different flexibility mechanisms used in electricity systems, based on key distinguishing characteristics such as pricing structure, activation triggers, participation mode, quantity determination, and spatial scope. It illustrates how diverse approaches—ranging from local flexibility markets and demand response programs to peer-to-peer trading, energy communities, flexible connection agreements, and variable grid tariffs—can be systematically compared. Each mechanism is categorized according to whether participants can actively set prices (price input option) or are subject to predefined tariffs (price given), and whether flexibility is activated explicitly through defined products or implicitly via incentive-based signals. Furthermore, the table differentiates between voluntary and involuntary participation, as well as whether the amount of flexibility can be freely chosen or is predetermined by the system design. Finally, it distinguishes between local and national implementations, reflecting the extent to which mechanisms address geographically specific grid constraints or broader system-level needs. Overall, the table highlights the wide spectrum of flexibility provision concepts and underscores the increasing importance of both market-based and regulatory instruments in enabling grid stability, integrating distributed energy resources, and supporting the transition toward more adaptive and decentralized energy systems.
Copyright: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Key drivers for Grid Investment
The graphic illustrates the four key drivers for grid flexibility and reinforcement: technological developments, particularly injection peaks from PV generation and electric vehicles; policy targets for renewable energy and EV adoption, which strongly influence investment decisions; regional challenges, as grid violations occur differently depending on location, grid design, and the distribution of generation and demand; and grid utilization, which allows for higher median loading of cables and transformers. Together, these factors determine where, when, and to what extent flexibility and grid reinforcement are needed.
Copyright: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Measures to avoid voltage problems
One of the key challenges in managing decentralized energy systems is preventing network violations. Network violations arise not only from exceeding the thermal limits of cables and transformers, a challenge typically managed through conventional congestion management, but also significantly from overvoltage or undervoltage, particularly in low-voltage (LV) networks. Possible measures to avoid these violations are shown in this figure.
Copyright: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Cross-actor collaboration on forward-looking, long-term grid planning
A new structured methodology to facilitate cross-actor collaboration on forward-looking, long-term grid planning, enabling key actors to explore their respective roles and interdependencies, thereby facilitating development of efficient grid planning strategies.
Copyright: ISGAN Lighthouse Project (Helena Lindquist)
Policy Brief 2024
Policy Brief: presentation at CEM15/MI-9
Copyright: Helena Lindquist
Visibility and Obervability of distribution grid assets and grid status
One challenge for the use of decentralized flexibility is the current lack of visibility of the systems and the lack of observability in the distribution grid, as well as the lack of real-time information on the topology of the distribution grid itself. These problems make it difficult to verify the actual need for flexibility as well as to validate or measure the flexibility provided.
Copyright: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology based on Werner van Westering
Data exchange between different stakeholders as a challenge
The energy system data and the data exchange between transmission and distribution system operators, as well as suppliers and aggregators, are currently only sufficient to a limited extent to enable an appropriate provision of flexibility services.
Copyright: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology based on Werner van Westering
Speakers at the ISGAN WG6 workshop on flexibility for resilience and stakeholder interaction
Speakers at the ISGAN WG6 workshop on flexibility for resilience and stakeholder interaction, Irina Oleinikova , Martha Symko-Davies, Antonio IIliceto, Barbara Herndler, Mihai Calin
Copyright: Susanne Windischberger
Overview of the ÜVB-VNB project landscape
Overview of the ÜVB-VNB project landscape which provides an overview of the international projects (2014-2024) which were evaluated and used for the report. Also indicated are the projects' respective focus areas
Copyright: Barbara Hernlder
Example of a LinkedIn post for a survey
Example of a LinkedIn post for a survey which was conducted during the initial phase of the project
Copyright: Barbara Herndler
SIRFN-AIT Workshops "Grid-forming converters - testing and validation challenges" - March 2024
International SIRFN experts and participants of the SIRFN-AIT Workshops "Grid-forming converters - testing and validation challenges" visiting the laboratory showcase at the AIT MicroGrid Labor in March 2024.
Copyright: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Validation environment for the SVP EN 50549-10 test scripts at AIT
Illustration of the test setup at AIT that was used to validate the test scripts that were developed within the SIRFN. The setup consists of a real-time simulation system that is connected to the controller board of the AIT Smart grid Converter.
Copyright: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
Organisation of the SIRFN network and technical topics in the project period 2021-2023
Overview of the organisation of the SIRFN network: The work programme for Annex 5 approved by the ISGAN Executive Committee (ExCo), the decision-making body within ISGAN, is divided into two sections, one dealing with the dissemination and exchange of knowledge and the other with the implementation of concrete projects for the further development of the research infrastructure.
Copyright: ISGAN-SIRFN
Background and Motivation for TSO-DSO interaction
The figure indicates the drivers, benefits, and opportunities and challenges for the interaction of distribution and transmission networks.
Copyright: Barbara Herndler
Paradigm shift in the power system
The paradigm shift in the power system and the new challenges for transmission and distribution system operators are presented.
Copyright: AIT
Socio-technical dimensions of smart grid transitions
Annex 7 deals with the socio-technical dimensions of the smart grid transition, in particular with researching institutional and governance-related aspects and barriers in order to advance the implementation of smart grids. The focus here is on the institutional change associated with the introduction of smart grids. The annex focuses on framework conditions such as regulation and guidelines, but also informal forms of social organization that are characterized by culture, usage habits, as well as psychological and social aspects of energy use and investment in renewable energy technologies. In this way, the annex is to be seen as complementary to existing annexes within ISGAN, and enters into an inter- and transdisciplinary dialogue with them.
Copyright: AIT - Austrian Institute of Technology
Overview of regulatory sandboxes worldwide
Regulatory sandboxes are policy instruments that create the appropriate legal framework so that innovators can test new products, services and processes under real conditions that would otherwise not have been possible under the current regulation. Such a regulatory experiment should take place in a temporally and / or physically delimited space and pursue the goal of developing technical and / or service solutions to accelerate the energy transition. The figure shows the status of the implementation of regulatory experimenting in countries worldwide.
Copyright: AIT - Austrian Institute of Technology
SIRFN Focus Area: DER testing protocols
As part of the SIRFN focus are, SIRFN laboratories are developing test protocols for validating the interoperability of distributed energy resources, which can be used in an integrated test platform (System Validation Platform), for implementing a harmonised, international certification standard for all distributed energy resources in the power grids.