CASE STUDY: Launch of the SIME platform for REN
Unicorn Systems successfully delivered a brand new Damas MMS:E - Balancing platform for the management of the local balancing market in Portugal. The project was delivered in cooperation with Unicorn's long-term partner Artelys.
Project Goal
According to the common Balancing platforms accession roadmaps, Portugal is expected to join MARI and PICASSO platforms in the second half of 2024, which required Portuguese TSO REN to implement significant changes to the local Balancing market in order to:
- Unify the mFRR and aFRR products with those traded in common Balancing platforms.
- Establish automatic communication with MARI and PICASSO.
- Ensure the fallback solution to support the local Balancing market in case of disconnection from MARI and PICASSO.
Watch the reference video we made together with REN representatives
Who is our customer
REN - Redes Energéticas Nacionais is a listed public limited company operating in two main business areas:
a) transmission of extra high voltage electricity and overall technical management of the National Electricity System
b) high-pressure transport of natural gas, overall technical management of the National Natural Gas System, reception, storage and regasification of LNG and underground natural gas storage.
It holds public service concessions for these activities. In 2017, REN acquired the second largest natural gas distribution network in Portugal, REN Portgás, which focuses its activity on the development and exploitation of the natural gas distribution network in the northern coastal region of Portugal.
- Microservice architecture
- Decomposition to standalone sub-applications
- All functionalities are available via REST API
- Fully hosted in Azure Cloud
- HTML5, React, NodeJS, JAVA SE, PostgreSQL, Mongo DB
Damas MMS:E - Balancing
Damas MMS is the main Software product of Unicorn Systems for the energy domain. It has been continuously developed since 2000 and incorporates the best practices and experience of Unicorn. Since 2000 tens of the largest solutions in the European energy domain have been successfully built on Damas.
What makes it different from other solutions is its state-of-the-art technology and architecture with 10+ years of perspective.
Damas MMS:E Balancing – newest Unicorn product, designed specifically to cover core business processes of TSOs related to balancing of the grid. It aslo already contains the pre-configured connectors to common European platforms (such as MARI, PICASSO, ACER, etc.) and allows easy integrations with local systems.
The main advantage of Damas MMS:E is high flexibility, which allows for quick delivery of the subset of all modules, which are necessary for REN. In particular, Balancing bids and demands, management of transmission capacity, activations and unit parameters.
SIME Delivery
Each delivery of Damas MMS:E - Balancing consists of 3 main activities: Configuration, Customisation and Integration to surrounding systems.
Configuration
Configurability of Damas MMS:E - Balancing is one of its features that makes it different from similar solutions. It allows the configuration of the list of the balancing products, its main parameters as well as the process workflow and other characteristics of the balancing market. In the Portuguese case, however, the configuration was not enough for the complete adaptation of Damas MMS:E - Balancing for the local market, and further customization was required.
Customization
Customization of SIME solution covered several operational areas of REN:
1. The specific algorithm for local mFRR market clearing. This algorithm was delivered by Unicorn's long-term partner Artelys and inspired by a similar algorithm in the MARI platform.
2. Calculation of mFRR and aFRR demand based on the multiple inputs from REN internal systems.
3. Automatic dispatch instructions must be generated based on the mFRR activations taking into account the current market program for each physical unit as well as the unit's technical limitations.
4. Manual dispatch instructions may be issued by REN operators on demand.
5. Possibility to monitor the state of the electricity grid in real-time to compare the results of the mFRR and aFRR trading with the actual electricity flow over the Portuguese border.
These features significantly increased the overall added values of the SIME solution for REN users.
Integrations
SIME is integrated with over ten surrounding systems using a full range of communication protocols offered by Enelane: web services, sFTP, REST, and IEC 60870-5-104. The integration required not only the mobilization of all Enelane potential but also the introduction of a couple of new features to Enelane product, such as the possibility of providing a flexible proxy/non-proxy internet communication with market participants.
Results of SIME Project
The project was finished successfully, achieving the planned go-live, satisfying the customer, and passing the necessary tests. At the moment, the solution is in live operation and provided to REN in the form of on-premise installation. Further development and delivery of improvements are still ongoing.
This delivery holds great significance for Unicorn as SIME is the first project delivered in Portugal.
