Research Project MeGa

The MeGA project is making important contributions to the development of modern and secure plant communication with large-scale generation plants. New renewable generation volumes of more than 300 TWh will be required by 2030 to achieve the climate targets and increase gas independence through electrification in the heating and mobility sectors. A smart metering system can be used to securely connect these plants via information technology and control them for grid integration and marketing. So far, this has been possible and described for smaller generation plants. The MeGA project is developing a concept for large-scale generation plants and testing it in a field test.

The project thus provides the basis for using the cyber security concept of the Smart Meter Gateway (SMGW) in additional areas of application. To this end, the network and market requirements for the performance and availability of the WAN connection, which arise from regulatory or market conditions, are analyzed. The project will develop and validate a security concept for the controlling system unit behind the SMGW that takes into account the importance of large generation plants and is based on international norms and standards. At the same time, value-added applications will be made possible on the basis of this system unit, which will also create additional benefits for the system operator in particular. The consortium can rely on existing solutions and broad experience in the area of backend, SMGW and control unit, which are to be expanded to meet the requirements for the application area of generation plants >= 100 kW.

For the interoperability and scalability of the prototypically developed solutions, the project relies, among other things, on the development of open source libraries, which should enable controlling players, such as aggregators, to access the systems quickly and with little effort.