The success of the energy transition also depends on how well researchers can access important data. Energy IT specialist Astrid Nieße explains the role played by the development of an infrastructure for research data management.
Ms Nieße, you are the spokesperson for the "National Research Data Infrastructure for Interdisciplinary Energy System Research", or NFDI4Energy for short. That sounds a bit unwieldy. What is behind it?
We are a consortium within the National Research Data Infrastructure, an association founded by the federal and state governments in 2020. The NFDI works to solve problems that arise time and again in all disciplines, namely: Where do I get data as input for my research? And where can I put my results - also research data - so that someone else can find and reuse them? How can I ensure that the use of the data is as automated as possible? And finally, how can I involve the relevant stakeholders in society and the economy as effectively as possible? There are a total of 27 consortia within the NFDI. These are alliances of various research institutions that have set themselves the goal of solving this problem for their respective disciplines. With NfDI4Energy, we are the consortium that is developing the services we need for energy system research in order to solve these problems.
Who is part of NFDI4Energy?
In addition to the University of Oldenburg and the OFFIS Institute for Computing Science, members include the University of Freiburg, the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, RWTH Aachen University, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. The Göttingen Sociological Research Institute, the Reiner Lemoine Institute and the Technical Information Library in Hanover are also involved. The consortium is being funded by the German Research Foundation with 13 million euros over five years.
What is the task of the consortium?
We want to provide a solution that enables researchers to access data more easily - for example for simulations, evaluations of energy scenarios or for projections into the future of energy transformation. We also want to enable researchers to prepare their results in such a way that they can be understood by all those who have a legitimate interest in them. The addressees of the services that our consortium is developing are therefore not only the researchers, but also the public. In the end, energy research always affects us all because its results have a direct impact on households - whether in the form of specifications for the energy-efficient refurbishment of private buildings or through pricing on the energy markets. In order to take the interests of the public into account from the outset and to be able to communicate the results well, we also have the social sciences on board in our consortium, for example.
The consortium started work about a year ago. How far have you got in this time?
The first year was characterised by various tasks: We have been working on building our community, which ranges from battery research to grid operators and providers of consultancy services in the energy sector. In addition to research, we have also brought industry partners on board as important initiators and at the same time important interested parties for the results of the research. We want to take them with us on a continuous journey and develop our services in line with demand. Another important topic is the development of expertise: it is necessary to build up in-depth knowledge, not only outside but also within our consortium, about what research data management actually means and what technical work it involves. To this end, we have brought together and prepared teaching materials, some of which we have created ourselves. In addition, we have already developed prototypes of a platform - based on the very good preliminary work of various partners - a website that will later allow easy access to different databases and data sources.
What is the scope of the future data treasure trove?
The data itself ranges from time series from measurements, for example of energy systems or controllable energy consumption systems, to so-called simulation scenarios and their parameterisations, through to software, which we also understand as so-called digital objects and which should also be reused as effectively as possible. If we look at the example of simulation scenarios, we can use them again and again for the evaluation of new energy markets or energy communities, among other things. To make this possible, we need to prepare these digital objects appropriately.
Why is it important for us all to collect and process this data?
Firstly, so that money that goes into research is used in the most targeted way possible. Ultimately, it is also a sustainable use of taxpayers' money to process research results in such a way that they can be utilised in the long term. On the other hand, it is also about traceability, and therefore an important area of the scientific quality of results. Today, we still find it extremely difficult to really understand and scrutinise the work of other researchers in detail. However, comparability is an important factor in achieving better results. Speed is also an issue here - after all, we want to achieve the energy transformation in a relatively short time.
Do you have an example of how NFDI4Energy can advance research?
We can take another look at the topic of energy scenarios. Many working groups at different levels are looking at the question: What steps do we need to take to be able to supply ourselves with 100 per cent renewable energy? There are many ways to achieve this, ranging from different technology decisions for photovoltaic modules to various control processes for stabilising the energy system. Ultimately, however, everyone working on this issue would have to use the same assumptions, such as what exactly it means in detail that the proportion of renewable energies has reached a certain percentage, or what the concept of utilising flexibility in energy systems actually means. To date, many scenarios have only rarely been reused by other research groups. This severely limits the comparability of the work and approaches. However, the scenarios that are freely available are used again and again.
What other obstacles hinder research?
For example, finely resolved time series on the electricity demand required to stabilise electricity grids are important for many research questions on energy grids. However, these time series are often not available or freely usable, not even for student theses. We want to either prepare suitable substitute data and make it available or at least point out where such data can be obtained - possibly for a licence fee. So it's not just about the publication of data, but often just about findability.
What other difficulties are there?
It takes a lot of effort to prepare data in such a way that someone else can find it. You have to give the data its meaning, as well as information about the context in which it was created and the context in which it can be used. This so-called metadata is necessary in order to be able to process the underlying data automatically and use it in larger simulations, for example. We are working on automated solutions to initially generate this metadata as automatically as possible.
Next week, you are organising the 1st NFDI4Energy Conference - a large meeting of the entire community surrounding your consortium. What do you hope to gain from this?
We have attracted a lot of interest and the conference is fully booked with 120 participants. We are therefore hoping for a good exchange, not only within the energy research community, but also with representatives of other NFDI consortia who will also be there. Some of these consortia have already been receiving funding for some time. We can of course benefit from their approaches and technical solutions. We are therefore particularly looking forward to the meeting and good new discussions.
Interview: Ute Kehse
