Forecasting to Create a More Resilient, Optimized Grid

The electrical grid that was built decades ago is not well suited for the demands of today. As more renewables come on line, and demand for energy soars, optimizing the grid is crucial.

That’s why LF Energy is pleased to announce its newest project, OpenSTEF, from Alliander, the largest DSO in the Netherlands.

OpenSTEF is designed to enable forecasting of renewable loads, on both the consumption and generation side. The forecasts, done hours to days ahead, will give grid operators time to adjust to conditions and optimize grid performance. This might mean signaling a big energy user to ease off for a few hours or to signal a renewal energy producer to step up flow.

Alliander is already using OpenSTEF to balance its grid, to deliver the same capability to the national grid operator, and to facilitate adoption of more smart technologies.

By donating OpenSTEF to LF Energy, Alliander hopes to bolster use of the technology, expand it to more use cases, and unleash the power of open source collaboration to further the energy transition.

OpenSTEF provides a complete software stack. As demand for better forecasting grows, the risk is that every company will develop their own forecasting software.

Sharing OpenSTEF will enable more collaboration, “saving us and others money but also, most importantly, to speed up innovation and to tackle the challenges we face today and tomorrow,” says Jonas van den Bogaard, a solution architect at Alliander.

To contribute or learn more, please visit the OpenSTEF GitHub page here.

For more information, see this video interview here.