Unlocking customer flexibilities through standardized communication interfaces

The need for a more sustainable energy system is leading to more electric energy generation being connected to low voltage (LV) distribution grids. At the same time, due to accelerated growth in electric mobility and heat pumps, more and more energy consumed by end customers is supplied via LV distribution grids. These developments cause distribution networks to become less predictable and make them subject to much higher changes in supply and demand. Therefore, additional flexibility will be needed to keep such systems operating with high quality of service. The required flexibility could be provided by distributed generators as well as flexible loads. This leads to the question of how these flexibilities can be activated by distribution system operators when needed. A digital interface between distribution system operator and device operator could be implemented to communicate flexibility requirements. In this work, three possible deployment scenarios for such a digital interface are presented. A market review of available standards and commonly implemented communication protocols was conducted to identify potential candidates for the standardization of such an interface.