Germany's climate policy goals aim to decarbonize the economy by 2045. This requires a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and the massive integration of renewable energy producers. However, photovoltaic and wind power plants do not produce electricity continuously, but rather in a fluctuating manner, while the demand for electricity is relatively continuous. To meet this challenge, Germany needs an electricity grid that is adapted to renewable energy generation. New technologies and methods for grid operation are necessary for the transformation of the energy system. Within ENSURE, grid operators, industry and scientists are therefore working together to develop a concrete concept for a region in which they want to test the approaches considered in the project for a sustainable energy grid from 2022. This "ENSURE energy cosmos" is located in northern Germany, where a particularly large number of future requirements can already be tested today. ENSURE is currently investigating the local conditions and which specific technologies can be set up in the energy cosmos. The extent to which the measures can be transferred to other regions of Germany and how the energy grid can be equipped for the future throughout Germany is also being considered.
ENSURE 2 is the second phase of the ENSURE project and builds in part on the investigations from phase 1. In the project, fundamentally new approaches and technologies are being investigated to meet the requirements of an energy system in the year 2050. The activities of the TU Ilmenau are limited to sub-project 2 - "Integrated system structures". The aim of the research work in SP 2 is to expand the electricity sector-specific considerations from phase 1 to include a cross-sectoral investigation of the design of the energy grid structures in an advanced energy transition beyond the 2030 time horizon. The work in SP2 thus continues the work from phase 1. These are issues that appear essential in terms of the German and European energy transition, but which are not yet realistic to implement as part of the demonstrator or a demonstration due to the long-term time horizon - e.g. due to the availability of technical components. The focus of research in this sub-project is the question of how energy grid structures should be designed and operated when a large number of feed-in systems based on renewable energies and/or flexible consumers as well as storage infrastructures are connected across the board and the integration of the sectors is well advanced: The work focuses on joint structures of the electricity and gas grids, taking into account energy feed-in, storage use, mobility concepts and heat supply from a systemic perspective. In WP 2.4, TU Ilmenau is involved in the development of innovative assistance systems for distribution grid operation. The new applications are intended to increase the flexibility of grid operation, promote the overutilization of existing systems and at the same time increase grid security and supply reliability.
WP 2.4 focuses on the development and control room integration of innovative assistance systems. To this end, concepts are first designed and their functionalities are demonstrated in simulative tests. These applications are then integrated into a control room environment and fed with real grid data in order to test the functions under real conditions. The basis for this is an innovative control room communication system that acts as a central data router and promotes efficient data exchange between different applications. Selected assistance systems are implemented in the control room at TU Ilmenau.