An international consortium to develop electric Transport-Grid Inter-Connection System

E-LOBSTER has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 774392 and officially started in June 2018.

It aims at developing an innovative, economically viable and easily replicable electric Transport-Grid Inter-Connection System that will establish synergies between power distribution networks, electrified transport networks (metro, trams, light railways etc.) and charging stations for EVs in Europe.

In fact, European distribution networks and light-railway networks have been developed as independent networks, relying on the resilience and robustness of existing power supplies. But with the increased use of renewable energy systems (RES) there are new challenges that need to be addressed:

• a need for integrated solutions that will reduce electricity losses
• an improvement of grid stability in areas of high local RES penetration
• a need for the accomodation of EVs, local electrical storage and prosumers.

Today the average losses in transmission networks (TNs) in EU vary between 1-2.6%, while for distribution networks (DNs) between 2.3-13.4%. This variation is mainly due to the historical development and current state of the grids in each country dependant on age, design etc.

Meanwhile, the European Rail Industry has calculated that through innovation between 5% and 20% of energy savings can be achieved. The key is the use of dedicated external power supply facilities (plants and grids) and better control methods. Up to 5% saving potential exists in reducing transformer losses in medium frequency traction transformers.

Therefore, E-LOBSTER is proposing an advanced R+G (Railway to Grid) Management system that will be able to reduce electricity losses in both networks, maximizing the use of local RES generators for both application and making them interacting one each other in a mutual synergy strategy.