Decentralized electrical energy systems roadmap

IEC TR 63410:2023, which is a Technical Report, aims to prepare a road map for categorizing Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems and identifying gaps in the existing standards relevant to Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems. The task of IEC Subcommittee 8B is to develop IEC publications enabling the development of secure, reliable and cost-effective systems with decentralized management for electrical energy supply, which are alternative, complementary or precursors to traditional large interconnected and highly centralized systems. This includes but is not limited to AC, DC, AC/DC hybrid decentralized electrical energy system, such as distributed generation, distributed energy storage, dispatchable loads, virtual power plants and electrical energy systems having interaction with multiple types of distributed energy resources.

General Information

Status
Published
Publication Date
29-Mar-2023
Current Stage
PPUB - Publication issued
Start Date
30-Mar-2023
Completion Date
06-Apr-2023
Ref Project

Overview

IEC TR 63410:2023 - Decentralized electrical energy systems roadmap is a Technical Report published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Subcommittee 8B. It provides a structured roadmap for categorizing decentralized electrical energy systems (DEES) and identifies gaps in existing standards relevant to DEES. The report supports the development of secure, reliable and cost‑effective systems with decentralized management that complement or precede traditional centralized grids, including AC, DC and AC/DC hybrid systems.

Key topics and requirements

IEC TR 63410:2023 focuses on practical standardization needs rather than prescriptive product specs. Core topics covered include:

  • System categorization and taxonomy for decentralized electrical energy systems, including microgrids, non‑conventional distribution systems, DC distribution and hybrid AC/DC systems.
  • Market analysis, segmentation and business models - stakeholder identification, market outlook and revenue drivers for DEES deployment.
  • Reference architectures, roles and use cases - hierarchical DER (Distributed Energy Resource) management models, actor/role definitions and detailed microgrid use cases (including islanding scenarios).
  • Standards identification and gap analysis - mapping existing IEC and related standards against technical needs and highlighting areas lacking standardization.
  • Methodology and proposals for future actions - recommended standardization priorities and actions to address identified gaps (microgrids, virtual power plants, DC systems, multi‑energy local systems).
  • Cross‑cutting concerns: interoperability, security, reliability, power quality, energy management, protection and communication between distributed resources and grid operators.

Note: IEC TR 63410 is a roadmap/technical report; it identifies needs and proposes actions rather than defining mandatory technical specifications.

Applications and who uses this standard

IEC TR 63410 is intended for stakeholders involved in planning, designing, operating and regulating decentralized energy systems:

  • Utilities and distribution system operators assessing microgrid and DER integration strategies
  • Microgrid designers, integrators and equipment manufacturers (inverters, energy storage, controls)
  • Virtual power plant (VPP) developers and aggregators planning DER orchestration
  • Policy makers, regulators and funding agencies evaluating market models and deployment barriers
  • Standards developers, certification bodies and research organizations prioritizing technical work
  • System architects working on AC/DC hybrid or DC distribution deployments and multi‑energy integration

Practical uses include aligning product development with roadmap priorities, identifying missing standardization for interoperability and safety, and informing national/regional DEES policies.

Related standards and resources

  • The report references existing IEC work (including microgrid guidance such as IEC 62898‑4 in use cases) and includes annexes listing relevant IEC standards and microgrid projects.
  • It is produced under IEC Technical Committee 8 (System aspects for electrical supply), Subcommittee 8B (Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems).

Keywords: IEC TR 63410:2023, decentralized electrical energy systems, microgrids, distributed generation, distributed energy storage, virtual power plants, DC distribution systems, standards gap analysis, roadmap to standards.

Technical report
IEC TR 63410:2023 - Decentralized electrical energy systems roadmap Released:3/30/2023
English language
85 pages
sale 15% off
Preview
sale 15% off
Preview

Standards Content (Sample)


IEC TR 63410 ®
Edition 1.0 2023-03
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Decentralized electrical energy systems roadmap
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and microfilm, without permission in writing from
either IEC or IEC's member National Committee in the country of the requester. If you have any questions about IEC
copyright or have an enquiry about obtaining additional rights to this publication, please contact the address below or
your local IEC member National Committee for further information.

IEC Secretariat Tel.: +41 22 919 02 11
3, rue de Varembé info@iec.ch
CH-1211 Geneva 20 www.iec.ch
Switzerland
About the IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is the leading global organization that prepares and publishes
International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies.

About IEC publications
The technical content of IEC publications is kept under constant review by the IEC. Please make sure that you have the
latest edition, a corrigendum or an amendment might have been published.

IEC publications search - webstore.iec.ch/advsearchform IEC Products & Services Portal - products.iec.ch
The advanced search enables to find IEC publications by a Discover our powerful search engine and read freely all the
variety of criteria (reference number, text, technical publications previews. With a subscription you will always have
committee, …). It also gives information on projects, replaced access to up to date content tailored to your needs.
and withdrawn publications.
Electropedia - www.electropedia.org
IEC Just Published - webstore.iec.ch/justpublished
The world's leading online dictionary on electrotechnology,
Stay up to date on all new IEC publications. Just Published
containing more than 22 300 terminological entries in English
details all new publications released. Available online and once
and French, with equivalent terms in 19 additional languages.
a month by email.
Also known as the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary

(IEV) online.
IEC Customer Service Centre - webstore.iec.ch/csc

If you wish to give us your feedback on this publication or need
further assistance, please contact the Customer Service
Centre: sales@iec.ch.
IEC TR 63410 ®
Edition 1.0 2023-03
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Decentralized electrical energy systems roadmap

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 29.240.01 ISBN 978-2-8322-6624-3

– 2 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 5
INTRODUCTION . 7
1 Scope . 8
2 Normative references . 8
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms . 8
3.1 Terms and definitions. 8
3.2 Abbreviated terms . 10
4 Methodology . 11
5 Market analysis, market segmentation and business models . 13
5.1 Online survey . 13
5.1.1 General . 13
5.1.2 Outcomes from the 2018 survey on decentralized electrical energy
systems . 13
5.1.3 Outcomes from the 2020 survey on microgrids . 14
5.2 Categories of decentralized electrical energy systems . 17
5.2.1 General . 17
5.2.2 Categories based on application scenarios . 17
5.2.3 Categories based on technical features . 18
5.3 Decentralized electrical energy systems market assessment . 19
5.3.1 Stakeholders identification . 19
5.3.2 Market outlook . 20
5.4 Market needs and business models for decentralized electrical energy
systems . 21
5.5 Conceptual approach from DER to microgrid . 24
6 Reference architectures, roles and use cases . 26
6.1 Architecture model for DER management (as proposed by SyC SE) . 26
6.2 Actors and Roles (from SyC SE) . 29
6.3 Use Cases: Microgrids . 34
6.3.1 General . 34
6.3.2 Business Use Case A: Microgrid-Guarantee a continuity in load service
by islanding referencing IEC 62898-4 . 35
6.3.3 Perspectives . 38
6.4 Use Cases: Non-conventional distribution systems . 38
6.4.1 Grid-tied local systems . 38
6.4.2 Multi-energy local systems. 39
6.4.3 DC distribution systems . 39
6.4.4 Electric vehicles . 40
6.5 Use cases: Virtual power plants . 40
7 Standards identification and gap analysis . 41
7.1 Microgrids . 41
7.1.1 General . 41
7.1.2 Needs identified for microgrid standardization . 41
7.1.3 Gaps identified for microgrid standardization . 42
7.2 Non-conventional distribution systems . 43
7.2.1 Needs identified and gap analysis of grid-tied local system . 43

7.2.2 Needs identified and gap analysis of multi-energy local system . 44
7.2.3 Needs identified and gap analysis of DC distribution system . 45
7.3 Virtual power plants . 48
7.3.1 Needs identified for virtual power plants standardization . 48
7.3.2 Gaps identified for virtual power plants standardization . 49
8 Proposal for future actions to address the standardization needs for decentralized
electrical energy systems . 49
8.1 Microgrids . 49
8.2 Non-conventional distribution systems . 50
8.3 Virtual power plants . 51
8.4 DC distribution systems . 52
Annex A (Informative) Online survey . 53
A.1 Overview . 53
A.2 Result summary and challenges. 53
A.2.1 Result summary . 53
A.2.2 Challenges . 60
A.3 List of the questions . 61
Annex B (Informative) Microgrid and its application . 68
B.1 Overview . 68
B.2 Components . 71
B.2.1 General . 71
B.2.2 Distributed generation . 73
B.2.3 Distributed energy storage . 74
B.2.4 Microgrid modelling, simulation and evaluation . 74
B.2.5 Microgrid planning and design . 74
B.2.6 Microgrid operation control and energy management . 74
B.2.7 Microgrid relay protection . 75
B.2.8 Microgrid power quality . 75
B.2.9 Microgrid information and communication . 75
B.3 List of standards . 75
Annex C (Informative) List of identified existing microgrids projects . 78
Bibliography . 85

Figure 1 – From system requirements to product standards (TC8 Road map) . 12
Figure 2 – SC 8B work groups, fields and work programmes . 12
Figure 3 – General view of the microgrids projects implementation in countries . 14
Figure 4 – New technologies developed for microgrids. 16
Figure 5 – Standardization satisfaction in the area . 17
Figure 6 – Total microgrids revenue by forecast scenario, world markets:2013-2020 . 20
Figure 7 – DER Capacity Installments as a Percentage of New Centralized Generation,
Regional Averages: 2015-2024, Source: Navigant Research . 21
Figure 8 – Recursive conceptual model of DERs . 25
Figure 9 – The conceptual model for microgrids . 25
Figure 10 – Example of a hierarchical DER system five-level architecture in SGAM
format . 27
Figure A.1 – Variety of participants . 53

– 4 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023
Figure A.2 – Involvement of government in the microgrid development . 54
Figure A.3 – Diversity of microgrid projects and requirement of technologies . 55
Figure A.4 – Standards needs for microgrids . 56
Figure A.5 – Participation of government in the non-conventional distribution system
development . 57
Figure A.6 – Drivers and types of non-conventional distribution system projects . 58
Figure A.7 – Standards needs for non-conventional distribution system . 60
Figure A.8 – Challenges . 61
Figure B.1 – Microgrid benefits . 70
Figure B.2 – Microgrid and constitutive components . 72
Figure B.3 – Generic configuration and main components of advanced microgrids

enabling technologies . 73

Table 1 – Market Status and roadmap to 2020 . 15
Table 2 – Business Roles of the domain . 29
Table 3 – System Roles of the domain . 31
Table A.1 – List of the questions . 61
Table B.1 – Detailed list of existing IEC relevant standards . 76

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
DECENTRALIZED ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEMS ROADMAP

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and
in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports,
Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their
preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with
may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising
with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
2) The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international
consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all
interested IEC National Committees.
3) IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National
Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC
Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any
misinterpretation by any end user.
4) In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications
transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between
any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
5) IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity
assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any
services carried out by independent certification bodies.
6) All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
7) No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and
members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or
other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and
expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC
Publications.
8) Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is
indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
9) Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this IEC Publication may be the subject of patent
rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
IEC TR 63410 has been prepared by subcommittee 8B: Decentralized Electrical Energy
Systems, of IEC technical committee 8: System aspects for electrical supply. It is a Technical
Report.
The text of this Technical Report is based on the following documents:
Draft Report on voting
8B/139/DTR 8B/152/RVDTR
Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in
the above table.
The language used for the development of this Technical Report is English.

– 6 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023
This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in
accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available
at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are
described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the
specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
IMPORTANT – The "colour inside" logo on the cover page of this document indicates that it
contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding of its
contents. Users should therefore print this document using a colour printer.

INTRODUCTION
Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems are intended to support the development of safe,
secure and reliable systems with decentralized management for electrical energy supply,
alternative/complement/precursor to traditional large interconnected and highly centralized
systems.
Decentralized electrical energy systems have applications for developing countries (focusing
on access to electricity) as well as for developed countries (focusing on higher reliability, black-
out recovery and/or services). Interactions within Decentralized (Multi) Energy Systems are also
considered.
• Microgrids
A microgrid is an independent system composed of distributed energy resources, which
normally connected with main grid with tie-line. Due to the imbalance between supply and load,
a microgrid can either connect with main grid or operate independently.
• Non-conventional distribution systems
Non-conventional distribution systems include grid-tied local system, multi-energy local system
and DC distribution system.
A grid-tied local system means a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy
resources with defined electrical boundaries forming a local electric power system at distribution
voltage levels, that is not intended to be disconnected from a wider electric power system.
A multi-energy local system is composed of distributed power networks (such as electrical
power supply, gas supply, and cooling/heat supply networks), energy exchange segments (such
as CCHP unit, generator, boiler, air conditioner, and heat pump, etc.), distributed energy
storage segments (such as electricity storage, heat storage, gas storage, cooling storage, etc.)
and users.
One DC distribution system is an electrical power system formed by connecting the DC
electrical power supply, DC lines, DC converter stations, DC loads and monitoring systems in
the way of direct current, mainly completing DC electrical power distribution and consumption.
• Virtual Power Plants
A Virtual power plant achieves Distributed Energy Resources (DER) aggregation and
coordination optimization (such as DG, energy storage systems, controllable load, and electric
cars, etc.) through advanced ICT and software systems. It is considered as a special power
plant participating in electricity market and power grid operation.
• Decentralized DC distribution system
The decentralized DC distribution system is mostly distributed in the strong demand DC power
supply area or in the area of high DC load density, and in the areas where DC power supply
and DC load exist simultaneously. The decentralized DC distribution systems are distributed in
AC power supply areas. [Source: IEC SC 8B, WG5]

– 8 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023
DECENTRALIZED ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEMS ROADMAP

1 Scope
IEC TR 63410, which is a Technical Report, aims to prepare a road map for categorizing
Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems and identifying gaps in the existing standards relevant
to Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems. The task of IEC Subcommittee 8B is to develop
IEC publications enabling the development of secure, reliable and cost-effective systems with
decentralized management for electrical energy supply, which are alternative, complementary
or precursors to traditional large interconnected and highly centralized systems. This includes
but is not limited to AC, DC, AC/DC hybrid decentralized electrical energy system, such as
distributed generation, distributed energy storage, dispatchable loads, virtual power plants and
electrical energy systems having interaction with multiple types of distributed energy resources.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms
For the purposes of this document, the following terms, definitions and abbreviated terms apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
3.1 Terms and definitions
3.1.1
microgrid

group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources with defined electrical
boundaries forming a local electric power system at distribution voltage levels, that acts as a
single controllable entity and is able to operate in grid-connected and/or island mode
Note 1 to entry: This definition covers both (utility) distribution microgrids and/or customer owned microgrids.
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-617:2009, 617-04-22]
3.1.2
isolated microgrid
group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources with defined electrical
boundaries forming a local electric power system at distribution voltage levels, that cannot be
connected to a wider electric power system
Note 1 to entry: Isolated microgrids are usually designed for geographical islands or for rural electrification.
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-617:2009/AMD2:2017, 617-04-23]

3.1.3
black start
start-up of an electric power system from a blackout through internal energy resources
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-617:2009, 617-04-24]
3.1.4
virtual power plant
VPP
party or system that realizes aggregation, optimization and control of decentralized generations,
energy storage devices and controllable loads, which are not necessarily within the same
geographical area, and facilitate the activities in power system operations and electricity market
[SOURCE: IEC TS 63189-1:— ]
3.1.5
intentional island
island resulting from planned action(s) of automatic protections, or from deliberate action by
the responsible network operator, or both, in order to keep supplying electrical energy to a
section of an electric power system
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-617:2009/AMD2:2017, 617-04-17]
3.1.6
prosumer
network user that consumes and produces electrical energy
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-617:2009, 617-02-16]
3.1.7
aggregator
party who contracts with a number of other network users (e.g. energy consumers) in order to
combine the effect of smaller loads or distributed energy resources for actions such as demand
response or for ancillary services
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-617:2009, 617-02-18]
3.1.8
microgrid operator
party responsible for the safe and reliable operation of a microgrid
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-617:2009, 617-02-19]
3.1.9
microgrid user
party who supplies electric energy or is supplied with electrical energy through a microgrid
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-617:2009, 617-02-20]

___________
Under preparation. Stage at the time of publication: IEC/PRVDTS 63189-1:2023.

– 10 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023
3.2 Abbreviated terms
ADEMS Aggregator DER Management System
AMI Advanced Metering Infrastructure
BDEMS Building DER EMS
BUC Business Use Cases
CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate
CHP Combined Heat and Power
CIM Common Information Model
CIS Customer Information System
CVPP Commercial VPP
CVR Conservative Voltage Reduction
DDEMS DSO DER EMS
DER Distributed Energy Resources
DERMS DER Management Systems
DES Distributed Energy Storage
DMS Distribution Management System
DOMA Distribution Operations Model and Analysis
DR Demand Response
DSCADA Distribution SCADA System
DSOs Distribution System Operators
DSPF Distribution System Power Flow
ECPs Electrical Connection Points
EPS Electric Power System
ESPs Energy Service Providers
ESI Energy Services Interface
EV Electric Vehicle
EVEMS Electric Vehicle EMS
EVSE Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment
FDEMS Facility DER Energy Management Systems
GIS Geographical Information Systems
GOOSE Generic Object Oriented Substation Event
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IEV International Electrotechnical Vocabulary
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ISOs Independent System Operators
LAN Local Area Network
MDEMS Microgrid DER EMS
MDMS Meter Data Management System
NEA National Energy Administration
OMS Outage Management Systems
PAS Publicly Available Specifications
PCC Point of Common Coupling
PDEMS Power Plant DER EMS
PPA Power Purchase Agreements
PV Photovoltaic System
REP Retail Energy Providers
RDEMS Retail DER Energy Management System
RTOs Regional Transmission Organizations
SGAM Smart Grid Architecture Model
SyC SE System Committee Smart Energy
TBLM Transmission Bus Load Model
TCs Technical Committees
TSOs Transmission System Operators
TVPP Technical VPP
VDEMS Virtual Power Plant DER EMS
WAN Wide Area Network
4 Methodology
A System Approach is a holistic, iterative process that helps to deal with complex situations.
This document is developed as a means of exchange with the System Committee Smart Energy
and other involved Technical Committees (TCs) in order to identify applicable standards and
standardization work to be undertaken.
Figure 1 identifies links between TCs and System Committee Smart Energy (SyC SE). Figure 2
illustrates the fields that SC 8B covers and the relationship between work programmes.

– 12 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023

Figure 1 – From system requirements to product standards (TC8 Road map)

Figure 2 – SC 8B work groups, fields and work programmes

5 Market analysis, market segmentation and business models
5.1 Online survey
5.1.1 General
To support the decentralized electrical energy system standardization strategy development,
the IEC SC 8B AHG2 prepared a survey on decentralized electrical energy systems in 2018
and a survey on microgrids in 2020. The survey outcomes are given in 5.1.2 and 5.1.3.
5.1.2 Outcomes from the 2018 survey on decentralized electrical energy systems
1) Participation of government in the non-conventional distribution system development
Non-conventional distribution systems include grid-tied local systems, multi-energy local
systems and DC distribution systems. According to the online survey, it can be seen that
governments are very supportive. Three of the five non-conventional distribution system
projects identified in the survey are government-sponsored and the remaining two projects
do not receive any sponsorship fund.
Government support contributes a lot to the non-conventional distribution system’s
development, and it has a big impact on the near future of the market. Standards are
important to guarantee the confidence of investing in new market and technologies;
therefore, government may be not willing to support if the standardization work is not
sufficient.
2) Drivers and types of non-conventional distribution system projects
According to the survey results, five primary drivers to launch non-conventional distribution
system are summarized, which are shown below.
Non-conventional distribution systems play an important part in achieving emission
reduction and energy conservation, improving comprehensive utilization efficiency of
energy, and cost efficiency in investments and operational cost, etc.
• Improving the acceptance and local consumption of renewable energy generation
• Improving comprehensive utilization efficiency of electricity, heat, gas and other forms
of energy
• Solving the problem of electricity use in areas with weak connections to the power grid
or geographically isolated islands
• (In some cases) providing higher cost efficiency in investments and operational cost (life
cycle assessment) compared to traditional grid solutions
• Saving energy and reducing emissions.
3) Application of decentralized electrical energy systems
Despite of the low response, the information received about five responses covers all
common types of projects. Two projects are DER projects, two are DC distribution projects,
and the remaining one is a multi-energy local system project.
At present, the specifically designed technologies and equipment for non-conventional
distribution systems are not available in this analysis because none of the results received
from the five surveys responded to this question.
4) Standards needs for non-conventional distribution systems
The survey is beneficial to identify the satisfaction degree in the current standardization
level of non-conventional distribution systems. The collected results are still valuable
although the number of responses is limited.

– 14 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023
Issues identified include lack of standards on technical requirement of multi-energy local
systems, which makes it impossible to identify whether the projects under construction are
multi-energy local system. Also, there are few standards in DC distribution. Therefore, it is
difficult to develop non-conventional distribution system projects due to the lack of relevant
standards. The development status of standards on DER, multi-energy local systems, and
DC distribution in these countries are shown respectively in the form of figures.
According to the limited survey results, gaps identified in the non-conventional distribution
system standardization include:
– Technical requirements for multi-energy local systems.
– Protection configuration, parameter adjustment of DC distribution network or technical
requirements to be met when interconnecting with AC system.
– Materials, installation and tests for LVDC systems.
– System specifications in DC distribution.
5.1.3 Outcomes from the 2020 survey on microgrids
1) Microgrid standardization is strongly market driven.
Figure 3 shows the results of the survey.

Figure 3 – General view of the microgrids projects implementation in countries
NOTE The data is provided based on personal knowledge from the participants.
Nearly 75 % of the participants already have microgrids in their countries, and according to
the very limited resources from the participants, the market has great potential.

Table 1 – Market Status and roadmap to 2020
Country Current Scale Roadmap to 2020 (USD)
China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) has released
the National Action for the construction of the distribution
network (2015-2020) in July 2015, in which a general view
China At least 100 projects for microgrid is to “build one or two microgrid
demonstration projects in each province, that installed
renewable energy generation should exceed 50 % of the
load demand”.
Switzerland 1 000 000 USD 10 000 000 USD
st
7 500 000 USD for the 1
Thailand We are working on it. About 3 more projects may be added.
upcoming project
20 000 000 USD to
U.S.A 4 to 5 times present level
10 Billion USD
At the COP21 meeting held at Paris, India unveiled its
plans to meet 40 % of its installed electric power
generation using renewable energy by the year 2030. The
slew of measures the country undertook to meet those
India
targets include its proposal to install renewable energy
powered Micro and Mini Grids. The proposal is to install a
minimum of 10,000 renewable energy using Micro and Mini
Grids to achieve 500 MW yield in the next five years.
We have today in the country After the pilot we are running in the country we can assume
some 300 local distribution that the government will allow to more entities to aggregate
networks that act as a microgrid as a microgrid. We can assume that this will give some
but not controlled yet. In the more 200 additional microgrids: campus, hospitals.
Israel
other hand they are already
regulated as a microgrid. They
are connected to the grid in a
single point.
Over the past ten years, Germany’s renewable energy
sector has grown more than threefold and the country is
now an undisputable leader in renewables in Europe and
Germany globally. The current energy mix sees renewables
accounting for 50 % of total capacity, with small scale PV
at this time representing 15 % and expected to further grow
thanks to declining solar costs.
Encourage plan for industrial
Nigeria
area microgrids.
31 out of 62 participants skipped the question “Please indicate the scale and roadmap up
to 2020 of the microgrid market”, which is quite understandable. For an individual expert or
stakeholder, it is hard to provide the information of the whole country’s market scale and
roadmap, even if there is a published roadmap available. The gathered responses are
summarized in Table 1. Due to the limits of time and resources, the market scale and
roadmap information gathered here is raw, but we can still see from the very general trend
that:
– There are many existing microgrids market around the world.
– The market is highly likely to expand and grow.
– There is a political desire to accelerate the development.

– 16 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023
2) Microgrids are deployed for much diversified reasons
– Power supply to remote area;
– Utilize renewable energy/manage DER;
– Improve reliability, resilience, power quality and security;
– Reduce transmission losses;
– Encourage demand management;
– Disaster recovery;
– Improve distribution system;
– Verify of new technologies;
– Decrease operations and maintenance costs;
– High penetration RES resiliency.
One of the key features that makes microgrids stands out from the many new technologies
is that it is not just suitable for developed economies, but also for emerging economies.
From the drivers listed above, we can see that microgrids have been considered as a
solution to:
– reach clean energy goals;
– power un-electrified population; and
– elevate grid performance and energy consumption.
Thus they have even greater potentials in future development.
3) Microgrids application and technology innovation have mutually promoted effects
New technologies enable microgrids and application of microgrids triggers R&D of new
technologies, which often requires additional work in standardization to realise better
development and deployment, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 – New technologies developed for microgrids
4) Standardization of the field is in urgent need of improvement, as can be seen in Figure 5.

Figure 5 – Standardization satisfaction in the area
The survey also preliminarily identified some specific standards gaps and conflicts; the results
are reported in Item 4.1, Gaps identified for microgrids standardization, which presents more
solid conclusions. However comments such as "We never found the direct microgrid standard
yet" may show a general picture of the situation.
5.2 Categories of decentralized electrical energy systems
5.2.1 General
Decentralized electrical energy systems with similar physical compositions but used in different
scenarios could be categorized differently, or decentralized electrical energy systems under the
same category could be applied to different scenarios. Following is an attempt to categorize
decentralized electrical energy systems under the following headings:
– Market assessment/application: market assessment from practical application, i.e.
application scenarios sometimes may be easier to assess vs. technical aspects, since it
depends on how and for what application a microgrid is designed and used;
– Technical features: decentralized electrical energy systems can be categorized into
microgrid, non-conventional distribution systems and virtual power plants according to
technical characteristics and/or technical requirements.
5.2.2 Categories based on application scenarios
Categorizing based on application scenarios is one of the most common ways of classification.
It is a direct and application-oriented way to categorize. The differences between various
categories may be blurred, as one project may fall into the scopes of more than one category.
However it could be helpful to have a quick and general view of the scale, application
environment, participating roles, and interaction mode of decentralized electrical energy
systems.
It is shown in the survey data that for decentralized electrical energy systems currently declared,
under construction or already in operation, from the perspective of application scenarios,
decentralized electrical energy systems are used in institutional/campus,
facility/community/utility, commercial/industrial, remote area and military power supplies that
require higher power supply reliability.

– 18 – IEC TR 63410:2023 © IEC 2023
Taking microgrids as an example, the following describes the main features of decentralized
electrical energy systems applied in different scenarios.
• Institutional/campus
Institutional/campus microgrids usually operate in grid-connected mode typically used for
municipal building, universities and hospitals. These kinds of microgrids generally have
fixed load and thus sufficient consumption ability to avoid constraints from utility prohibitions
on transfer of energy services across public right-of-way.
• Facility/Community/utility
Facility/Community/utility microgrids refer to microgrids that are designed to be operated in
grid-connected or isolated mode, used for community power supply or as initiated by utility.
These types of application are based on specific issue or need to provide cost effective
solution for electric supply or higher reliability. Most regulators will approve such
investments if they are more economical vs. other solutions.
• Remote system
Microgrids in remote areas are mainly developed to be operated in islanded mode to provide
electricity supply to isolated geographic regions. In this case, the systems are normally of
small size and capacity. Applications for mining installations or holiday resorts beyond the
service area of the main power grid have been implemented in recent years.
• Military
Military microgrids include grid-connected networks for military bases, and islanded
networks for forefront operation bases. Higher reliability and safety requirement are the
most distinct features of these kinds of microgrids. Distributed renewable energy resources
usually play a significant part in this type of microgrid.
• Commercial/industrial
Commercial/industrial microgrids are mostly grid-connected networks, used in industrial and
commercial areas for higher reliability and safety. These kinds of microgrids have been
already developed and matured in application, especially in North America. However,
incremental cost and the lack of standard design scenario have limited their development
and deployment.
5.2.3 Categories based on technical features
According to technical characteristics and/or technical requirements, decentralized electric
energy systems can be divided into microgrid, non-conventional distribution systems and virtual
power plants. Among them, microgrids can be divided into non-isolated microgrids and isolated
microgrids according to whether they are tied with the main grid or not. Non-conventional
distribution systems include multi-energy local systems, grid-tied local systems and DC
distribution systems. Virtual power plants can be divided into Technical VPP (TVPP) and
Commercial VPP (CVPP).
• Non-isolated and isolated microgrid
The non-isolated microgrid can not only be tied to the grid, but also operate independently
when the main gird fails or is disconnected from the main network for economic operation.
Isolated microgrids only have off-grid operation mode and do not operate in parallel with the
main grid.
• Multi-energy system
The multi-energy local system is a comprehensive utilization system
...

Questions, Comments and Discussion

Ask us and Technical Secretary will try to provide an answer. You can facilitate discussion about the standard in here.

Loading comments...

Frequently Asked Questions

IEC TR 63410:2023 is a technical report published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Its full title is "Decentralized electrical energy systems roadmap". This standard covers: IEC TR 63410:2023, which is a Technical Report, aims to prepare a road map for categorizing Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems and identifying gaps in the existing standards relevant to Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems. The task of IEC Subcommittee 8B is to develop IEC publications enabling the development of secure, reliable and cost-effective systems with decentralized management for electrical energy supply, which are alternative, complementary or precursors to traditional large interconnected and highly centralized systems. This includes but is not limited to AC, DC, AC/DC hybrid decentralized electrical energy system, such as distributed generation, distributed energy storage, dispatchable loads, virtual power plants and electrical energy systems having interaction with multiple types of distributed energy resources.

IEC TR 63410:2023, which is a Technical Report, aims to prepare a road map for categorizing Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems and identifying gaps in the existing standards relevant to Decentralized Electrical Energy Systems. The task of IEC Subcommittee 8B is to develop IEC publications enabling the development of secure, reliable and cost-effective systems with decentralized management for electrical energy supply, which are alternative, complementary or precursors to traditional large interconnected and highly centralized systems. This includes but is not limited to AC, DC, AC/DC hybrid decentralized electrical energy system, such as distributed generation, distributed energy storage, dispatchable loads, virtual power plants and electrical energy systems having interaction with multiple types of distributed energy resources.

IEC TR 63410:2023 is classified under the following ICS (International Classification for Standards) categories: 29.240.01 - Power transmission and distribution networks in general. The ICS classification helps identify the subject area and facilitates finding related standards.

You can purchase IEC TR 63410:2023 directly from iTeh Standards. The document is available in PDF format and is delivered instantly after payment. Add the standard to your cart and complete the secure checkout process. iTeh Standards is an authorized distributor of IEC standards.