National Consortium Awarded 16.5 Million Euro for Real-Time Power System Simulator

A consortium of eight Dutch knowledge institutions and SURF has been awarded 16.5 million euro to build UTOPYS, a virtual power system in which researchers can experiment on the grid of the future before it exists. The grant comes through the Large-Scale Research Infrastructure programme of NWO. Of all proposals submitted to the round, UTOPYS ranked first.

Renewables, digitalisation and decentralisation are turning power systems into large, complex networks that behave in ways existing theory cannot yet fully explain: wide-area harmonics, sub-synchronous oscillations, converter instabilities, cascading blackouts. The real grid cannot be experimented on, a physical replica of a future grid is not feasible, and the most interesting case of all, the grid of 2050, does not yet exist. UTOPYS builds it virtually instead, on a real-time simulation platform where one second of simulation equals one second of reality, at the scale of whole countries, together with an open library of system models and synthetic datasets.

No single group could carry a programme of this range. The Delft University of Technology coordinates and hosts the facility. The Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) brings intelligent energy systems and cyber-physical systems, the University of Twente grid-edge models and coordination mechanisms, the University of Groningen nonlinear and distributed control, CWI stochastics and optimisation, Radboud University uncertainty quantification, Utrecht University energy system planning and governance, and Erasmus University Rotterdam energy economics and regulation. SURF provides the digital infrastructure and safeguards the long-term sustainability of the facility. In total the consortium brings more than 45 researchers to the physical, digital and social layers of the energy system.

Technology is not the only thing changing, says Koen Kok of TU/e. Fairness matters too, as does the prospect of malicious actors, from cyberattacks through to sabotage. What the consortium wants to examine is alternative topologies, controls and market rules, and what new technologies do to the system as a whole.

Principal investigator Peter Palensky (Delft University of Technology) sees the grant as strengthening the Dutch position. "The Netherlands already leads Europe in this field", he says. Over the next decade UTOPYS is meant to deepen that lead, and the modelling methods it develops should carry over to urban climate, water and transport infrastructure as well. The consortium has committed to sharing its models and data openly wherever possible.

UTOPYS is one of eleven projects funded in this round. NWO made 197 million euro available in total; with co-financing from the consortia, the round represents an investment of 301 million euro. The programme runs from 2026 to 2036, opening as a platform for researchers and industry once the infrastructure is commissioned and the baseline models are in place.