Global warming has become a major challenge for our society. Individuals and businesses have a role to play in preserving our planet but also in securing a viable future for humanity and its biodiversity.

Aware of its environmental responsibility, Elia Grid International has implemented projects to reduce and offset its climate impact. These efforts made possible to obtain the label “CO2 NEUTRAL” issued by the company CO2logic and certified by the independent third party Vinçotte.

Concretely, how does Elia Grid International participate in reducing its impact on the global warming?

The approach taken by EGI, with the company CO2logic, to achieve its objective of CO2 neutrality was carried out in 3 stages:

1. Calculation of our energy consumption;
2. Establishment of procedures to reduce our CO2 emissions;
3. Compensation of our residual emissions by supporting certified projects in favor of the climate

As it is impossible for an organization like EGI to reduce its CO2 emissions to zero, we have decided to offset our residual emissions by supporting a sustainable development project. This project allows us to reduce CO2 emissions elsewhere on the planet that EGI has not yet been able to reduce.

The program supported by Elia Grid International is a wind turbine project in India in the regions of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The Indian power grid is damagingly reliant on fossil fuel based power plants. The country ranks extremely high on coal dependency, emitting huge amounts of CO₂. As a consequence, the energy sector in India contributes to pollution and poor air quality.

The project builds wind turbines, providing the power grid with clean, renewable energy and stimulates the transition to a low carbon economy. 223 wind turbines will be installed, producing 54,000 MWH and providing electricity to 50,000 homes while improving conditions for the local population. The installation of the wind turbines will reduce CO2 emissions by 53,000 tons.

During the project, which is funded by the World Bank, the metering system’s readiness for the envisaged Day Ahead trading and the Balancing Market is assessed based on technical visits in the substations, technical questionnaires, review of metering data and documentations as well as the Metering Code currently in place in Georgia.

The technical criteria used during EGIs analysis are in line with the Market Reforms currently transforming the Georgian Electricity Market and Best Practices of Elia Group – two TSOs experienced in liberalized, wholesale electricity markets for decades.

As a result of the assessment, recommendations for the metering system and a possible procurement of goods will be delivered to GSE.

Picture showing Elia Grid International and GSE experts; substation Gardabani – 500 kV.

We are committed to customer service excellence and will remain flexible in our approach to achieve this by providing remote support to our clients and sustain our business activities throughout this crisis.

Many of us may be working remotely but that doesn’t change our commitment to you!

Wishing good health to you and those around you.

Didier Wiot, CEO

Elia is looking for start-up companies, with great ideas and digital technologies, to build a proof of concept with us, designed to improve the security of our assets and data, but also to increase the protection and respect of privacy of our personnel, customers and other stakeholders.

Interested?

Apply at OIC-2020 to become one of the selected five start-ups that will pitch their project in front of senior executives of Elia Group on September 10^th in Brussels.

The winning start-up will be awarded a supervised pilot project and will be able to test its technology in Elia Group’s challenging environment and receive €20,000 in return.

“For us, the annual stakeholder meeting is an opportunity together with our Ukrainian and foreign partners to summarize the results of the past year and share our plans for the future. Such events are an additional opportunity to discuss important issues to improve the productivity of our collaboration with them. ”said CEO of Ukrenergo  Vsevolod Kovalchuk.

In 2019, Ukrenergo completed the corporatization of the Company and a large part of measures envisaged by the roadmap of integration into ENTSO-E by signing a Service Contract with the ENTSO-E with the purpose of creating a common model for the power systems of Ukraine and Europe.

Elia Grid International is supporting NPC Ukrenergo on two important projects:

• “System Operation and Integration of Ukrenergo into ENTSO-E”
• “System transformation for optimized integration of renewable energies in Ukraine

In his speech to the very large audience of local and international representatives attending the event, our CEO, Didier Wiot stressed the commitment of EGI to remain a trusted partner and help Ukrenergo in achieving their goals by providing access to key expertise and sharing our experiences.

“By making your New Horizons a reality, you will give both Ukraine and Europe not only a sustainable legacy but also a very valuable one!” he concluded.

Elia Grid International (EGI) presented its “Vision for Grid and Legal developments for a RES-dominant Power System” based on a joint publication with the international law firm Pinsent Masons and Saudi law firm Al Sabhan & Al Alajaji.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) moves towards integrating more Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in the power system. Therefore, a comprehensive grid planning process for a cost-efficient and reliable integration of RES is required. The Speakers gave an overview of this process, which is composed of six fields of practices:
1. Scenario building to frame the uncertainties around the electricity sector
2. Enhanced market modeling to identify future generation dispatches with a higher RES penetration
3. Year-round probabilistic grid modeling considering the volatility of RES generation
4. Cost and benefit analysis to select the best investments
5. Techno-economic assessment of the generation fleet and design of new cross-border interconnections
6. Dynamic portfolio management to steer investment projects in a changing environment

They also emphasized the importance of an adapted legal and regulatory framework to foster the RES development and integration.

Elia Grid International thanks the Committee of the Saudi Arabia Smart Grid Conference 2019 for this inspiring event and its partners for the great and fruitful collaboration.

Previous workshop sessions have already addressed topics as connection codes, operational methodologies, operational planning according to ENTSO-E models respectively the regulations for agreements between TSOs. The workshop’s main target is to develop GSE staff skills in best practices applied by the European TSOs. These workshops are part of the EU funded project “Support to the Georgian State Electrosystem in implementation of new energy sector regulations”.