FlexEnergy4U - Forecasting energy requirements and using flexibility
The Institute of Micro Production Technology and Ladon Energy GmbH have successfully proposed the FlexEnergy4U project, which was granted and funded for three years from December 1, 2024. Half of the financial support comes from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the other half from the state of Lower Saxony.
The project aims to optimize the flexibility of private households in the energy market to reduce energy costs and to increase contribution toward the energy revolution. With the increasing importance of renewable energy sources, the production of electrical energy must be used more flexibly. At the same time, the Energy Industry Act (Energiewirtschaftsgesetz) and its Section 41a have created an obligation for service providers to gradually offer flexible rates for private households by 2025. Two methods are used to keep production and demand in balance: Demand Side Flexiblity (DSF) and Demand Side Management (DSM). DSF aims to ensure that energy consumption is flexible in terms of time and does not follow rigid patterns, while DSM optimizes DSF. The main goals are to improve certain parameters in order to reduce energy costs, increase energy independence, and optimize the load on the grid (reduce peak loads). Industry and commerce already successfully use such concepts. For private households, however, to make optimum use of flexible rates and make a significant contribution to the energy revolution, three conditions must be met: The individual energy demand within a day must be known precisely and current data, such as one single meter reading per year, is insufficient; Energy demands must be expectable to a certain extent and predictable for a short period of time, for example for the duration of a washing machine program, in order to optimize energy flows; For providers and grid operators, the condition of the distribution grid must be known in order to avoid bottlenecks and reduce shutdowns to a minimum in the area of e-mobility.
To implement this, the researcher in the FlexEnergy4U project will develop a sensor system, that can identify the consumption of individual appliances from the total consumption based on electrical consumption data (dissaggregation). Among other things, the system is intended to provide information on various consumption issues, such as: When does the household consume which amount of energy? Which appliance consumes which amount? Is a new, more energy-efficient appliance worthwhile? Ideally, this will then contribute to a reliable, data-based forecasts for individual future energy requirements. Which flexible rates is suitable for maximum savings, how high are these savings and is a flexible rate worthwhile? The research activities can also enable further steps towards energy forecasts for energy management systems in order to use a favorable energy source, depending on behavior, and to switch between different sources in the household; for example, between the socket, battery storage or potentially an electronic vehicle, photovoltaic systems and the like. It also appears possible to switch off a heat pump in line with consumption or to detect damage to selected household appliances.
The research activities are funded for a total of three years under the “Lower Saxony Innovation Funding Program for Research and Development in Companies” (IFP), 50% by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and 50% by the state of Lower Saxony's “Stronger Developed Region” programme area. The application processing and assessment was carried out by the “Investitions- und Förderbank Niedersachen - Nbank” and the “Niedersachsen.next Digitalagentur”.
Following the funding of HARD - Hannover Alliance for Research on Diamonds by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the REACT-EU special call for proposals in 2022 and the funding of MINIMALS in fall 2024, this is the third ERDF funding that has been acquired at the IMPT.
Contact person for the project and the subject area: Daniel Klaas.
