How OPC and STA tools enhance the coordination between the 42 members of ENTSO-E

Overview

This webinar will present the OPC and STA tools implemented by ENTSO-E through a platform designed and developed by RTE international and Unicorn.

The large-scale development of renewable energies and interconnections is making the European electricity network more complex. To manage this increasing complexity, the European grid codes have planned coordinated services between Transmission System Operators. Thanks to these tools facilitating coordination among the 42 ENTSO-E members, Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are now operating the grid in a more flexible and coordinated way, as required by European regulations.

Description

Outage Planning Coordination (OPC) and Short-Term Adequacy (STA) are two of the five services provided by Transmission System Operators (TSO) and Regional Security Coordinators (RSC).

The European Commission’s Regulation on the operation of electricity transmission networks requires RSCs and TSOs to offer these services to enhance the security of the European electricity system.

The consortium between RTE international and Unicorn has deployed these tools to facilitate coordination among the 42 ENTSO-E members. The Outage Planning Coordination Tool (OPC) harmonises the European planning process for outages for the maintenance of different electricity infrastructure. The Short-Term Adequacy tool (STA) ensures security of supply at European level on a weekly basis. The STA platform first ensures that all input data is of high quality and is shared in a timely manner. On this basis, it then produces adequacy studies for the coming week, combining a deterministic and a probabilistic approach. Both tools are deployed via Let’s Coordinate, which provides a high-level notification and coordination layer.

The implementation of these pan-European IT tools has involved continuous commitment and work from the whole TSO community: TSOs, RSCs and ENTSO-E.