Huge NWO grant to build the world’s largest research cluster for real-time energy system studies

A cutting-edge consortium project called Understanding large and cOmplex Power sYstems (UTOPYS) will enable researchers to build the world’s largest research cluster for real-time energy system studies. One of the contributors to the project, led by TU Delft, is the Energy and Resources Group of the Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development. The entire project is comprised of eight Dutch research organisations, and SURF - the IT cooperative of education and research. It has been awarded a huge grant of 16.5 million euros through the Large-Scale Research Infrastructure (LSRI) programme of the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

Being able to develop this state-of-the-art infrastructure will empower scientists to explore new theories and methods for modelling, control, optimisation, and design of the future complex energy systems and their interactions with society over the next century.

A first-of-its-kind infrastructure

The new research infrastructure will be the first of its kind worldwide. It will be capable of dynamically representing the complex energy systems, allowing researchers to simulate and study the energy system of the future before building it.
This unique platform will enable investigation of crucial phenomena such as cyber-physical dynamics, hidden instability modes, complex controller interactions, swarm behaviour, and cyber vulnerabilities—all key challenges that future energy scientists must master.

Necessity and urgence

Energy systems worldwide share a set of challenges. Electrification of transport, heating, and industry lead to unprecedented loading and congestion, meanwhile, distributed renewable generation units such as solar panels and the growing number of digital assets increase complexity and threaten grid stability. At the same time, the need for national autonomy and resilience calls for a fundamental rethinking of how we design and operate our energy networks. “The way we plan and operate energy systems is still based on assumptions that are over 100 years old,” says PI Peter Palensky (TU Delft). “Back then, large but simple rotating machines generated electricity that was instantly distributed via the grid. Today, these assumptions no longer hold: we now have power-electronic converters, distributed functions, and intelligent digital actors that create complex, fast-changing behaviours. Existing methods can no longer keep up.”

From cyber security up to sabotage

According to Koen Kok (TU/E), this new technological impulse is not the only change. "We also care for fairness in the system, how will we distribute and share electricity among citizens, for instance. Further, we need to take malicious actors into account, focussing on cyber security up to sabotage and physical attacks. We need a grid that is prepared for the unknown since uncertainty is not only in the weather. The goal is to investigate alternative topologies, controls, market rules, and the impact of new technologies. For this we are setting up the most powerful digital twin for electricity system research world-wide."

World leader in this field

The consortium already has experience in creating and operating smaller versions of such digital twins. The new infrastructure, however, will lift these activities to a completely new level: entire countries can be replicated and analysed as well as technologies and systems that do not even exist yet. “The Netherlands is already a European leader in this field,” says Palensky. “Over the next decade, UTOPYS will advance that position by driving scientific breakthroughs in the understanding and management of complex energy systems. We are developing novel modelling approaches for complex, multiscale, and stochastic systems—methods also relevant to urban climate, water, and transport infrastructures. UTOPYS unites power systems, computer science, mathematics, energy economics, and law in a truly interdisciplinary effort, and we are committed to sharing all results through open-source models and data so both experts and non-experts can explore and innovate.”

A landmark achievement

UTOPYS was ranked number one among all proposals submitted to the NWO LSRI programme. Through LSRI, NWO strategically invests in large-scale research facilities across the Netherlands—ensuring that they remain state-of-the-art or beyond, and extending their operational lifetimes to support future scientific breakthroughs.

Consortium partners

TUD: TU Delft, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Faculty of Technology, Policy & Management
TU/e: TU Eindhoven, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
UT: University of Twente, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
CWI: Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), the national research institute for mathematics and computer science in the Netherlands
UG: Univ. of Groningen, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Engineering and Technology institute Groningen
UU: Utrecht University, Faculty of Geosciences, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development
EUR: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam School of Management and Erasmus School of Law
RU: Radboud University, Department of Mathematics
 

Co-operation partner

SURF: the IT cooperative of education and research, Service Delivery Department, Innovation Department