Companies with an interest in sustainable electricity and Smart Grids are invited to participate in an R&D programme involving demonstration projects, it was announced by EirGrid and System Operator Northern Ireland (SONI), the operators of the grid in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The power system of Ireland and Northern Ireland is changing. In 2020 it is expected that the electricity system across the island will have one of the highest levels of installed wind, as a percentage of system size, in the world. This change poses significant operational challenges for grid operators and new innovative technical solutions will need to be developed and implemented in the coming years. It is against this backdrop that EirGrid and SONI have issued this invitation.

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EirGrid and SONI believe that working with companies on new concepts/solutions and technologies will play an important role in facilitating increasing amounts of sustainable energy and the emergence of Smart Grid technologies. To this end, a transparent process has been developed for enabling demonstration projects and the system operators are seeking expressions of interest from those who would like to be involved.

The areas of interest to the system operators include:

•Demand side management concepts

•System Operation including advanced control both at transmission and distribution level

•System Services e.g. reserve provision

(CD)