Computer science for power and energy systems

In the intelligent energy-supply grids of the future, the so-called "smart grids", supply infrastructures will have to be supported at dedicated points by specific information and communication infrastructures in order to facilitate a timely organisation and coordination as well as an immediate interaction of all network users, regardless of whether they introduce something into the network, take something out of it or both. The purpose of this approach consists in ensuring, at all times, an efficient, economical and safe energy and especially electrical-power supply.

The focus of energy informatics in the subject area "ITC for smart grids" lies on the software level. For instance, tools and methods of distributed artificial intelligence are used in order to achieve a system-emergent optimisation of the energy supply. The energy-informatics approach basically involves the employment of data structures and algorithms for the organisation, coordination and interaction of actors in the minute or second range. For example, corresponding algorithms are used for the balancing of input and output at distribution-network level and control mechanisms are developed for the network-oriented interconnected operation of decentralised systems for combined heat and power generation. A key to a sustainable energy supply consists in information and communication technologies that facilitate the launch of platforms for the networking of relevant actors as well as a largely automated control of consumption systems between the providers and customers of energy.

The subject area of energy informatics also develops suitable approaches for an overall examination of generation, consumption and storage in dynamic and complex relationships of cause and effect. Among other things, it deals with interconnection mechanisms, control algorithms and automation strategies. In order to bring about a change in the field of energy supply, the conventional centrally established power-plant capacities must be substituted in a decentralised energy system by way of an interaction of regenerative energy systems. The involvement of the end consumers is going to become an important factor in view of the efficiency and stability of the energy supply. A potential expansion of the planning and surveillance systems as well as the control and automation systems is expected to give a boost to business, trade and especially the industrial sector. The key topic "ITC-based involvement of adaptive consumers" must look at market aspects that enable measures and incentives for a network-coordinated energy-consumption behaviour.

In a sustainable electrical-power supply system, an information and communication infrastructure incorporating active network components provides active and reactive power decentrally in distribution grids, and moreover, a contribution is made to a system-wide controlling-power range. A curtailment, through measures of feed-in management, of the energy yields to be achieved on the basis of renewable energy sources should henceforth be avoided. In this respect, the subject area of energy informatics is developing market-driven approaches that contribute to an improved marketing, by means of a balancing of the supply and sales portfolios, of occasional surplus power resulting from the fluctuating generation capacity based on renewable energies. A demand management ("demand response") on the consumption side, and in particular reliable automated solutions, can make a material contribution to the integration of renewable energies and simultaneously serve as an alternative to electrical storage capacity. The emerging structural change of the electrical-power supply system towards an increasingly decentralised generation and an increasing amount of renewable energies is going to take effect especially in the form of a significant surge of the requirements made to the distribution-network operation. Necessary increases in efficiency may be achieved, inter alia, through the network-oriented system integration of generators and consumers. However, this optimisation calculus requires the new concept design of suitable business models for the concordant determination for all actors of, for example, the conditions for supply agreements or the billing and payment arrangements for an active network operation. One special focus of energy informatics should be placed on the industrial and commercial sectors, since particularly high implementation potentials are to be expected due to high energy inputs and relatively low implementation costs.

The only way of connecting the thus created new business processes and models with the technical/physical and legal framework conditions consists in those information and communication technologies. The build-up of additionally required data-network structures in parallel with the supply-network infrastructure, including the equipment of certain network elements with embedded computer systems, down to the system-technical implementation of ITC solutions for the exploitation of advantages in terms of efficiency and the increase of operational safety are original tasks of energy informatics. An essential prerequisite in this respect is the inter-operability of plant and IT systems through standardisation and scaling from the field to the business-process level in the energy sector and beyond.

The key topic "ITC-based inter-operability in the energy sector" of the subject area of energy informatics deals with the real-time implementation of a trans-business interaction and automation of the energy trade. A "marriage" of the automation environments of the energy domain and for instance the production domain will be a point to be achieved in partly cooperative but also competitive business landscapes. This bodes well for an intelligent use of all available resources, including for example operational flexibility in industrial enterprises, as well as for an optimisation and integration of the overall system of electrical-power supply.