EU-SysFlex presents European Flexibility Roadmap

28.02.2022News

Policymakers have set Europe on an ambitious renewable energy journey to deliver Net-Zero carbon emissions by 2050. This pioneering journey has far-reaching implications for many sectors, most notably energy and, by inference, electricity.

Along this journey, by 2030, over 50% of electricity demand in the pan European power system will be met by Renewable Energy Sources of Electricity (RES-E), much of which must come from variable renewable sources, namely wind and solar. It is estimated that across Europe, 350 GW of wind and 285 GW of solar are required to meet 2030 targets.

Given the changing dynamics on the power system, it is imperative that power system operation becomes more flexible, adaptable and capable. This can only happen with the right technological, system and process changes, along with market enhancements to incentivise investment in the flexibility needed.

EU-SysFlex, a Horizon 2020-funded project on “System operation and flexibility solutions for integrating 50% renewables by 2030” aimed to address these challenges by identifying and demonstrating new types of system and flexibility services.

This flexibility roadmap incorporates the findings and results of the EU-SysFlex project to provide a pathway that facilitates large-scale renewable energy integration across Europe. It is built on the SRA (scalability and replicability analysis) of solutions from the project demonstrations, the analysis and investigations on technical scarcities, system services and market designs, system operator procedures, and data management.

Overall, there are eight key messages and recommendations extracted and refined by the EU-SysFlex studies and trials, which serve as the fundamental core of this roadmap. Read the European Flexibility Roadmap here.