On 19 January, the EU-funded InterOPERA project was officially launched. T&D Europe joins 20 partners in the aim to define technical frameworks and standards for electricity transmission and to accelerate the integration of renewable energy.
The global objective of InterOPERA is to de-risk the multi-vendor multi-terminal HVDC technology with grid forming capability. This will pave the way for the first real-life projects in Europe and enable the development of the European HVDC grid for offshore wind energy integration by developing common standards for functional, technical integration and validation, and multi-vendor cooperation frameworks in view of achieving modular and interoperable control and protection systems.
These frameworks will be supported by a real time physical Demonstrator of a multi-vendor multi-terminal HVDC with grid forming capability. This Demonstrator will allow a new approach for framing the European grid architecture and topology through guidance for coordinated power system planning, and way-opening solutions for multi-vendor HVDC project’s procurement, new pathways to offshore energy, and grid development.
We are pleased to announce that Carlo Degli Esposti will be supporting T&D Europe as Project Manager throughout the project until its conclusion. Carlo has spent a large chunk of his 20-year career on multiparty projects, many of them with relevance for the European electricity market integration.
As stated by Carlo, “To sustain affectively the transition to a net-zero economy, only projects targeting concrete solutions for complex interoperability issues can burn down bridges with a carbon-intensive energy past.”
Among his major achievements in projects with EU relevance, Carlo counts the signing of the Inter-TSO compensation agreement for transits (comparable to a roaming agreement for the electricity sector), agreed in 2010 by 42 European TSOs and fully endorsed by the European Commission in Regulation 868/2010, as well as the coordination of the TSOs of France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg in the launch of Central-Western European market coupling (the embryonic format of the present Single Day-Ahead Coupling scheme) for the setup of their common systems for short-term planning and interfacing with the common order book from the power exchanges. More recently, as part of the PROMOTioN project, Carlo has been drafting deliverable 7.9, addressing requirements on regulatory and financing policies for the setup of a meshed HVDC offshore network.
Carlo has also worked in trading for four years and, since 2014, he has been alternating positions as Managing Consultant and Executive Director in the energy sector, covering a broad spectrum of activities, from the development of the strategic division of Elia Grid International in the field of project financing and digital grid development to being co-author of the instant book “Touching Hydrogen Future” (free online download, 2022) downloaded more than 6000 times from more than 120 countries. Carlo holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from University of Bologna (Italy) and an Executive MBA from HEC (Paris).
For more information you can download the official press release and, to stay up to date on all project activities, you can sign up to the InterOPERA mail list.
