Duration: 1 November 2005 to 31 December 2007

Liberalisation of the electricity and gas markets and the increasing use of renewable energy sources such as wind, fuel cells and photovoltaics are bringing about a structural change in the energy supply. The increasing decentralisation of electricity and heat generation is placing new demands on energy supply and energy management.

The Adaptive Consumers project investigated the resulting challenges and opportunities for private consumers and smaller units such as office buildings. The aim of the project was the model-based investigation of how electricity consumers can be regulated via dynamic tariffs in such a way that fluctuations in consumption are reduced and, if necessary, adapted to fluctuations in the feed-in. OFFIS developed a specific, agent-based simulator for this purpose and carried out measurements on the devices of specific consumers. In addition, an acceptance study of private consumers was carried out by the Sales and Marketing working group at the University of Oldenburg. The project thus addresses energy management on the consumer side, i.e. the energy management of private households (in-house energy management for short) and smaller local units, such as office buildings, supported by building automation, for example.

The project was carried out on behalf of EWE AG as part of the EWE-DEMS network.