This chapter describes status of the Project’s results, implementations and expectations for the further development and immediate and long term expected economic benefits.
The Project was implemented according to plan, with basic points as follows:
- Research laboratory was established and fully equipped with hardware and software,;
- Working testbed components were developed and documented;
- Project results were communicated to end-users and the scientific community.
Considering the complexity of this Project it is not surprising that after all necessary resources are procured and installed, complete testing of numerous functionality still presents serious challenge. It is expected that in the time frame of next six months all necessary testing and validation and verification will be fully performed.
Since the main contribution to further development in the long term is the SCADA-NG research laboratory, it is planned for the laboratory to be used for the following:
- Continued development and use of established environment.
o Use of the software tools for modeling smart cities, smart buildings and appropriate SCADA systems;
o Use of the installed smart meters for building-level measurement of energy consumption in real-time making them ready for connection to whole system;
o Analysis and measurements of solar insolation and integration of photovoltaic power in building systems;
o Use of the hybrid power system on the FER roof for further examinations of smart energy systems integration;
- Further work on the implementation of the functional specifications for a smart energy system model;
- Continued work of main researchers and young researchers on individual tasks and tools (software models development):
o Work on the involvement of new post graduate level of young researchers – two are investigating smart cities, entailing smart grids and smart buildings and pertinent SCADA interfaces;
o Results related to the work on the project are connected with other activities such as thesis in the field of future power systems with an accent on information technology and security related to smart metering and SCADA systems;
o Focused study of distributed (renewable) energy sources in the smart grid paradigm and increased inclusion in the existing energy system;
- The topics covered in this project maintain their position as relevant fields of interest for related student seminars, projects, and other class activities;
During this project scientific collaboration was established with complementary projects in order to achieve further development of smart metering solutions and implementation of advanced SCADA systems. Furthermore scientists from this project will use their experience and knowledge to benefit other compatible activities. Currently there are three such projects:
- ACROSS, Research Centre for Advanced Cooperative Systems (ACROSS), 2011.-2015., FER & 18 partners (including international),
- Croatian national scientific program: "Electricity market tools development",
- 036-0361590-1591, Croatian Ministry of science,
- Croatian national scientific program: "Nuclear energy for sustainable electricity production ", 036-0361590-1589, Croatian Ministry of science, and
- SEEERA.NET, “Intelligent information system for monitoring and verification of energy management in cities”, Consortium of research institutions from Zagreb (Croatia), Novi Sad (Serbia), Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina) and Ljubljana (Slovenia).
It should be emphasized that additional value of this Project lies in the fact that established platform presents open and rich foundation for the research of numerous multidisciplinary issues related to the reliability and security of power systems.
Economic and industrial benefits for the country
Implementation of the Project has created synergy with some ongoing projects and activities at the University aiming to enhance the FER Energy and Power Systems department laboratory with capabilities for studying and analyzing distributed (renewable) energy sources and smart grids. The Project team procured and installed equipment at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing buildings with some dislocated installations.
Available measurements, data analyses, models and simulations from established laboratory will be available to researchers from FER, PoliMi and elsewhere. Full insight into real life behavior will be given to researchers on this project for direct use and for the generation of advanced solutions. This will also serve well the involved end-users from the industry. Especially Croatian national power system utility HEP and industry which is significantly involved in the operation, maintenance, and future planning.
Overall half of the amount of more than 200 k€ of SfP funding was used to increase knowledge and learning capabilities (i.e., as direct benefit) and the other half to increase scientific capacity, improve education, help establish research network all with attached multiplicative influences to industry and institutions to improve national economy (i.e., as longer term benefit).
Estimating total direct benefits from this Project is not simple task. using findings from Z. Griliches in ‘R&D and productivity’ (1995) it could be estimated that they are at the level of around one third of million EUR. Long term benefits for society (i.e., institutions and industry) are even harder to estimate and based on the same source it could be, because of the engineering nature of the Project, that they will be at around the half a million EUR (this is at the level exceeding the totally invested sum).
Major guarantee of expected significant benefit from this Project is coming from the fact that it was executed in the environment where research and education are well bound and where strong relations between institutions and industry exist.
