The move towards renewable energies as well as the progress of digitalisation bring about a fundamental structural change of integrated energy systems. The foreseeable core challenges lie in the fluctuations caused by weather and in the fact that electricity generation is thus not determined by demand, as well as in the decentralisation of energy-technical structures. The EFZN Line of Research “Integrated Energy Systems / Sector Interlinking“ addresses various levels of these challenges:

  • Strengthening small-scale energy plants to play an active role in regulating the electricity grids with decentral structures (PV systems, battery storage, combined heat and power, heat pumps, transformers, inverters etc.)
  • Analysis and optimisation of changes of processes, stakeholders and events that arise from digitalisation and intelligent integration of energy systems
  • Development of control and business management strategies for ICT-based and autonomous decentralised structures
  • Expansion of flexibility potentials in production and demand through sector interlinking (electricity sector, transportation and heat technologies)
  • Application of energy system analysis for energy system planning and for generating orientational knowledge (political, economic and technical aspects).

For this purpose we combine competences from the disciplines of electrical engineering, informatics and natural sciences in the EFZN.