The project is subsidized by the European Union with the European Regional Development Fund under the Smart Growth Operational Programme 2010-2014. It’s also a part of the “Fast Track” competition organized by the National Centre for Research and Development.

LOBSTER is a system supporting energy management at Local Balancing Areas with dispersed renewable generation, energy storage, and e-mobility infrastructure. The project focuses on solving problems related to the growing share of dispersed generation and unstable RES that cause declined popularity of the model with a one-way energy transfer from the energy producer to the consumer.

The project takes into account the growth of prosumer energy, electromobility, and energy storage issues. This makes it meet the demands of national Transmission System Operators that need different system services that allow them to safely control their energy systems in such a dynamic environment.

The solution we propose is to create controllable Local Balancing Areas. They would be addressed mostly for Distribution Network Operators to analyze and forecast energy flow including local energy production and demand. For this purpose, we are creating an IT system, LOBSTER, that will allow DNOs to:

  • perform local energy balancing at the exchange points with a TSO network
  • ensure technical feasibility of contracts
  • maximize RES production
  • deliver system services related to adjusting energy demand or production.

Target users are mainly DNOs as well as community microgrids and energy clusters around Poland and Europe. The Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling at the University of Warsaw is our partner for this project.

The full project cost equals 5 397 648,91 PLN and granted funding equals 4 073 169,45 PLN.