E-Energy / E-DeMa
We are facing immense challenges as a result of climate change, the global increase in energy demand and the fact that our fossil resources are running low. A significant contribution to meeting these challenges is expected from and provided by the advancement of our energy supply systems. This includes technological further and new developments in power generation as well as the optimization of supply systems with the aim of increasing energy efficiency. And this is where the topic of “e-energy” comes in: The employment and linking of innovative power engineering, information engineering and communications engineering solutions enable all-new products and services for power providers and power buyers.
Concrete: The “E-DeMa” Project
This joint project (participants: RWE Rheinland Westfalen Netz AG, Siemens Energy, ef.Ruhr: a group of power engineering chairs of the Duisburg/Essen, Bochum and Dortmund Universities, Miele, Stadtwerke Krefeld and ProSyst) strives to develop an e-energy “marketplace of the future” and to demonstrate how it works. The consortium has won an advancement award within the scope of the “E-Energy” Competition of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.
Via this marketplace, industrial and private customers can be connected, for instance, with energy traders and distribution system operators in the planned “Model region of the Ruhr area” (the towns of Mülheim and Krefeld). This will in future permit customers who produce their own electricity (e.g. by using fuel cells) to “market” their electricity themselves in an ideal manner. They will be “producers” and “consumers” in one (so-called “prosumers”). In addition, large end-use equipment such as machines, systems and large household appliances – provided that they are controlled automatically – will be able to work when there is sufficient, and thus low-cost, electricity available. This entails advantages both for customers and for security of supply, in particular thanks to the flexibility gained in network control.
