The digitalized energy transition Solar cells, wind turbines, hydropower – step by step, our energy system is becoming greener. And it has to become greener. Because the climate crisis is advancing and increasingly endangering our livelihoods.
By 2030, 80 percent of Germany's electricity consumption is to come from renewable energies. In 2022, the figure was around 46 percent. The share must therefore almost double within a few years. The energy transition is thus one of the greatest challenges of our time – new technologies must be developed, innovations must be driven forward, also in the field of information technology.
OFFIS is playing a pioneering role in this with various research projects, including the future of the power grid – one of the most complex infrastructures on the planet. The power grid is the foundation of our modern society and forms one of the largest interconnected network in the world, second only to the Internet. Unlike the Internet, however, faults in the power grid spread quickly throughout the system and have the potential to compromise the entire system. Forecasts, errors and anomalies must therefore be detected in real time – and automatically.
The future of the power grid: Redispatch 3.0 as the key to decentralisation
The energy transition also poses new challenges for the power grid. In the past, there were mainly a few large, centralized power plants, but now there are more and more small, decentralized generators. The power grid must therefore adapt and become more digitalized. This is where a key research project coordinated by OFFIS comes into play: Redispatch 3.0. The goal of the project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, is to ensure a secure and effective energy supply even with a growing number of decentralized plants. Fifteen partners from industry, research, as well as transmission and distribution grid operators are participating in the three-year joint project.
Redispatch is the name of a classic process to avoid congestions and incidents in the power grid. To this end, electricity production in power plants is rerouted at short notice in order to better distribute the load on the power grid.Traditionally, redispatch was the responsibility of the transmission system operators. Since 2021, with the implementation of Redispatch 2.0, distribution system operators have also taken on a key role in avoiding grid bottlenecks at lower voltage levels.
With the energy transition, millions of smaller, controllable energy systems will be integrated into the power grid across Germany and Europe in the future: Every household with its own solar system, every electric car, every heat pump will become part of the power grid. In order to avoid overloads and bottlenecks, flexible control of power generation must therefore be coordinated intelligently and fail-safe – a task that OFFIS wants to solve with Redispatch 3.0.
Currently, the possibilities and challenges for controlling small-scale plants as well as their effectiveness in compensating for large-scale grid bottlenecks are being tested in laboratory and field tests in cooperation with technology and control system manufacturers – for a future-proof power grid when, for example, the generation of renewable energies such as wind power threatens to overload the lines from north to south due to strong winds.
Wärmewende Nordwest: Research and innovation for sustainable heat
The heating sector also urgently needs to be made more efficient and sustainable. However, more than 80 percent of the demand for heat is currently still met by burning fossil fuels in Germany. The German government wants to significantly advance the heat transition in the coming years by increasing energy efficiency and switching to heating with renewable energies. Here, too, Energy Information Technology plays a decisive role. If, for example, gas is not available in the short and medium term, heating will also be provided by electricity in the heating sector. This increases demand and consumption in the power grid. As with Redispatch 3.0, the task here is to ensure grid stability, make plants remotely controllable, automate technologies, heat pumps, develop forecasts.
OFFIS is coordinating one of the largest research projects on the topic of heat transition in Germany with the project "Wärmewende Nordwest" ("Northwest Heat Revolution"). The goal is to research and demonstrate innovative and technological aspects of digitalization in the heating sector. The multi-year project is being carried out by 21 regional partners from industry, research and local government in the Oldenburg/Bremen region and is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
It covers six research fields, including a regional online platform for energy efficiency optimization, the control of individual plants, districts and buildings, and also municipal heat planning. In one sub-project, waste heat from a data center on the university campus was used successfully to heat a swimming pool.
In order to drive the switch to renewable energies, skilled workers must be trained at the same time as innovative technologies are developed. In cooperation with vocational schools, this is also being pushed within the framework of the "Wärmewende Nordwest".
What will become increasingly important in the future is one thing above all: the involvement of people. Here, too, OFFIS is taking a decisive step. For example, residents were already concretely involved in the planning of future districts in the project "Energetic Neighborhood" – the predecessor project to "Wärmewende Nordwest". They were able to participate interactively in deciding how the neighborhoods would be built: Where is the parking garage located? Where will walkways be identified? Where will buildings be placed?
A successful energy transition in the electricity and building sector requires not only technological innovations, but also a rethinking in society, the willingness to become part of the energy transition.
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