Converting residential neighbourhoods to renewable energies is an important component of the energy transition. Researchers led by Astrid Nieße investigated how this can be achieved in the "Future Energy Lab".
Ms Nieße, the "Future Energy Lab" project that you led recently came to an end. It focussed on the future energy supply of residential districts, in particular the shared use of energy. What could such an "energy sharing community" look like?
Ideally, in a future neighbourhood, not only the supply of electricity and heat will be jointly organised, but also other services such as mobility. There will also be shared infrastructure, such as battery storage or photovoltaic systems on communal buildings. In this way, surplus energy from renewable sources can be shared and utilised directly on site. Generation, storage and consumption can already be largely balanced in the local grid. The systems are operated jointly by the neighbourhood so that everyone benefits and sees themselves as participants in such a neighbourhood-based energy transition.
How can this be achieved?
This vision requires a good technical foundation. It needs digital technologies that intervene promptly when power generation and consumption are out of balance. This includes, for example, a measurement infrastructure to gain an insight into the current status of the neighbourhood energy system, as well as feedback mechanisms to control energy consumption. Ideally, most things should be automatic, but incentives for residents can also have an effect.
This type of energy supply is very different from the current model. How do you get people to join in?
In the "Future Energy Lab", we focused primarily on technical issues in a Lower Saxony-wide consortium - including the DLR Institute of Networked Energy Systems, the OFFIS - Institute for Computing Science, the TU Braunschweig, the University of Hanover, the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences and the Emden/Leer University of Applied Sciences. The follow-up project TEN.efzn, which is funded by the state of Lower Saxony, is also focussing on issues such as acceptance. My colleague Jannika Mattes and her team at
Social Sciences are on board.
My most important realisation is that we either already have the necessary technologies for neighbourhood energy systems or would be able to develop them from prototypes to field maturity.
Astrid Nieße
What conclusions do you draw from the work of the Future Lab?
My most important realisation is that we either already have the necessary technologies for such district energy systems or would be able to develop them from prototypes to field maturity. We can get to grips with it in terms of sensors, algorithms and also in terms of a future control system. The technical feasibility is there - even if it is not yet fully developed.
What are the remaining obstacles to realising this idea?
In Germany, the legal and regulatory basis for such "energy sharing communities" is still inadequate. Although the EU provides a framework, this has not yet been sufficiently implemented in German law. In addition to the sociologically-reflected development of technology, this is the main issue that still needs to be addressed.
In the Future Lab, the project team designed various scenarios to compare the technical details of such neighbourhood energy systems. Which topics took centre stage?
For example, we looked at how different producers and consumers - such as photovoltaic systems and battery storage - can be combined well during operation. Flexibility in the neighbourhood grid also played a role, i.e. the question of how to balance generation and consumption. To this end, we investigated how loads can be shifted from one point in time to another, which algorithms are suitable for such a local system and how the various devices can communicate well with each other. The heat supply was also a topic.
Was this mainly analysed in simulations?
Not only, but that was the main focus. An important part of the project was three real residential neighbourhoods as so-called real laboratories, including Oldenburg's new Helleheide neighbourhood on the air base. The energy systems of these neighbourhoods were recorded and examined in the project. The focus was on simulating new concepts for neighbourhood energy systems for these practical examples. Researchers at the Oldenburg DLR Institute also tested new approaches to stabilising and analysing power grids in the laboratory together with the Emden/Leer University of Applied Sciences. Together with OFFIS, we have tested how IT-based systems and control systems interact with the energy systems.
What practical results has the Future Lab achieved?
Many results have been achieved in the form of new software and simulation models. We have built up a lot of knowledge on how to develop open-source software and open models, how to exchange and publish data - in the spirit of open science. This leads to a high level of subsequent utilisation and will greatly increase the speed at which the next research questions can be processed. Many project partners have been able to acquire follow-up projects, some of them jointly. For example, we at the University of Oldenburg have acquired funding for the NFDI4Energy consortium, which is creating a national infrastructure for the exchange of data and software in energy system research.
Is the software developed in the Future Lab also aimed at consumers or engineering firms?
Absolutely. For example, a team from the University of Hanover has developed a free online tool called NESSI, which can be used to check whether investments are worthwhile at individual house or neighbourhood level. Anyone can use this to find out if and when a PV system or battery storage system will pay for itself.
What tasks do you see for the future?
In the course of the "Future Energy Lab", it has become clear how important it is for people to develop trust in the new systems. This is precisely the topic of the TEN.efzn sub-project on trustworthy digitalisation, which Sebastian Lehnhoff and I are jointly leading. Our aim is to give people the choice of whether to interact intensively with systems for managing their energy requirements or to minimise this interaction. In either case, people's needs must be appropriately mapped. On the one hand, it is about the technical requirements, but on the other hand it is also about deriving something like value expectations - for example, whether someone is prepared to accept losses in order to stabilise the grid or whether they would prefer to optimise costs. We want to be able to understand and map this. Because only if people accept these systems will they have the desired effect.
Interview: Ute Kehse
