The energy transition and the associated integration of renewable energies into the power system are leading to a major change in all areas of the energy sector. A key element for the successfull transition is the targeted use of flexibility.
Following the definition of the German Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), flexibility can be understood as the change in feed-in or withdrawal of active power in response to an external grid or price signal.
For the provision of flexibility, the four case studies of full-electric households, commercial, trade and services, industrial processes, and electromobility are considered. The four subsystems are bundled centrally into an overall system via the components grid operator, aggregators/electricity market participants and electricity markets.
The case study households covers the investigation of flexibility potentials in existing single-family and multi-family houses as well as in new buildings. Flexibilities can be provided by photovoltaic systems, battery storage, electric vehicles and heat.
In the commercial, trade and services sector, the flexibility potential of existing air conditioning systems of supermarkets or other chain stores will be investigated in particular.
The industrial sector offers high flexibility potentials due to high energy demands and extensive control possibilities of processes and machines. Revenues from self-generation and storage possibilities can form additional economic incentives to use flexibility potentials.
The case study electromobility deals specifically with the potential of flexibility in the context of application possibilities for vehicle fleets, e.g. the use as flexible energy storage.
The main goal of the research project is the development of strategies and solutions for the exploitation of future flexibility potentials in the case studies to be investigated in the context of a power, heat and mobility transition.
For this purpose, methods, technologies and solutions for flexibilization will be developed and applied in the four defined case studies. These contents are to be tested both at model and laboratory level as well as in field tests. Within the field test, it is to be investigated to what extent already existing infrastructures (e.g. smart metering system/smart meter gateway or monitoring portals) can be used to realize a cost-effective plant connection.
Another goal of this project is to develop innovative business models for flexibility providers.
Based on the results, the developed methods, technologies and solutions will be evaluated and finally recommendations for action for energy politics as well as the energy industry will be derived.
The project consortium for flexess includes two funded research institutes of the TU Braunschweig, 6 funded industrial companies and 3 associated project partners.
The elenia Institute for High Voltage Technology and Power Systems at the TU Braunschweig, with two professors and 30 scientific employees, conducts research on components of energy supply, electromobility and the topic of active distribution grids. Aspects of energy management such as metering and measuring, the development of operating strategies and the control of plants are just as much in focus as the grid integration of decentralized generation and storage units as well as new consumers such as electromobility.
For more than 15 years, the IWF's Professorship of Sustainable Production and Life Cycle Engineering has been concerned with the development and application of technologies, methods and tools for the life cycle-oriented design, planning/control and evaluation of products and processes. Energy- and ressource-efficient production represents a special focus in this context.
SMA Solar Technology AG, with sales of 915 million in 2019, is the world's leading solar inverter manufacturer and specialist for PV system solutions. It employs around 3,000 people and, as a technology leader, has more than three decades of experience in the field of inverter development and their system integration in power supply systems, grid-connected and off-grid systems. It is headquartered in Niestetal near Kassel, Germany, and has subsidiaries on four continents in more than 20 countries. SMA's role and task in the consortium is the investigation of fundamental technological issues for the provision of flexibility with PV and prosumer systems and for their market integration, as well as the exemplary realization of corresponding technology solutions and their evaluation via pilot plants and field tests.
Carano Software Solutions GmbH is one of the market-leading providers of professional fleet software. Since its foundation in 1992, Carano has been developing solutions for fleet management, fleet leasing and car trading and counts more than 150 international companies among its customers. In addition to development activities, new impulses are generated by the above-mentioned research projects.
TLK-Thermo GmbH was founded in 2003 and with its current 44 employees offers engineering services and software in the field of thermal systems. Among other things, TLK deals with the optimization of heating and cooling of vehicles, supermarket cooling systems, thermal solar systems, transport cooling systems, household heat pumps, building air conditioning and industrial cooling systems. Individual components and systems are investigated experimentally and mapped in software. For this purpose, the company develops software products that serve the efficient execution, coupling and visualization of dynamic simulations and measurements.
Founded in Cologne in 1927, the cooperative REWE Group is one of the leading retail and travel groups in Germany and Europe. Around 330,000 employees work in around 15,000 stores. The northern branch of REWE Markt GmbH is responsible for energy management, among other things.
Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) is a modern service provider that is facing up to the challenges of the future with innovative strategies, including the field of electromobility. The grid density and quality of Berlin's public transportation system are at a high level by international standards, and even achieve a top ranking with its continuous night service. Within a year, BVG buses and trains travel more than 250 million kilometers. With over 100 e-vehicles to replace conventionally powered passenger cars, Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe is a pioneer in electromobility. Electrification of the internal fleet of company cars (approx. 400 vehicles), including vans, has begun and is scheduled to be completed by 2025. Following a completed pilot project with four e-buses, the annual increase in the fleet by at least 30 units with e-drives has started from 2019.
With around 1,200 employees, the BS|ENERGY Group is responsible for utility services in the areas of energy (electricity, gas and district heating), water (drinking water and urban drainage) and lighting (city lighting and traffic lights). As the main supplier in Braunschweig, BS|ENERGY reliably supplies around 240,000 residents with energy and also offers electricity nationwide. BS|ENERGY is a partner in the municipal utilities of Gifhorn, Elm-Lappwald and Springe. Based on this experience, cities and communities are offered cooperation in the new development of regional supply solutions with strong municipal influence.
In order to align the research project flexess close to practice and application, the executing project partners cooperate with the associated partners from different subsectors of the energy industry (power supply).
