The Peer Energy Cloud partner consortium, consisting of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), AGT Germany, SEEBURGER AG, and the Municipal Utility of Saarlouis, is among the twelve winners of the “Trusted Cloud” technology and funding competition launched by the Federal Ministry of Economics. This was announced today at the CEBIT in Hanover. The project focusing on the development of solutions for the intelligent use of renewable energies will start immediately and have a duration of three years.
Private households consume about one third of the electricity produced by power plants and delivered via the grids of 700 municipal utilities. The consumer knows when he wants to do the washing or the dishwasher is supposed to work, the municipal utilities do not – not yet. Currently, electricity consumption at a certain time cannot be predicted exactly for every consumer by the electricity producers. Standard load profiles are unprecise, the load cycle can hardly be optimized, grid extension has to be based on peak loads, backup power plants are necessary.
Peer Energy Cloud is aimed at developing innovative methods for the measurement and prognosis of load profiles in order to optimize load flow and establish a virtual market place for electricity trading within a so-called micro grid. This market place allows for a local balancing of electricity production and consumption within a subgrid, which results in a direct relief of superordinate grid levels. This bottom-up approach contributes to enhancing grid stability and reduces the necessity of a cost-intensive extension of supraregional electricity grids.
“Automatic derivation of activity profiles for individual households based on power consumption data at certain sockets is a big challenge for artificial intelligence methods developed by DFKI. This innovative technology will only be accepted by the citizen, if comprehensive protection of the private sphere is ensured by the processing of these profiles in a “trusted cloud”,” says Professor Dr. Wolfgang Wahlster, CEO of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, DFKI.
Professor Dr. Lutz Heuser, Managing Director of AGT Deutschland and Chief Technology Officer of AGT International, explains: “Winning the Trusted Cloud Computing technology competition confirms that we focus on innovative topics and viable technologies in the field of urban management. AGT offers integrated end-to-end systems solutions for the sustainable development of urban environments. Together with our partners, we will now work successfully on the development of solutions for the intelligent distribution and use of renewable energies.”
“With our consortium partners and the know-how available, we as a public utility are sure to make the project a success,” emphasizes Dr.-Ing. Ralf Levacher, Managing Director of the Municipal Utility of Saarlouis. The municipal utiliy of Saarlouis will be the application partner in field tests and conduct a pilot experiment with 500 households to evaluate the scaling.
Holger Kirchner, Executive Director of the Research Division of SEEBURGER AG, explains: “As the leading supplier of products and solutions for the integration of enterprise software, we are pleased to take part and to assume a pioneer role. Based on the approaches of “B2B in the Cloud” from the THESEUS program, we can now contribute our experience and competences and enhance them in order to establish a novel market place for peer-to-peer energy trading. Here, sensor and energy data will be supplied for trustworthy value added services, for instance. We are convinced that this solution will be applied in various market segments and give new signals on the market.”
“Information and communication technologies play a central role in the Peer Energy Cloud. Our project is aimed at creating a trustworthy environment, in which work is performed in a more secure and reliable manner,” underlines Professor Dr. Wilfried Juling, Chief Science & Information Officer (CSO/CIO), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Trusted Cloud Technology Competition
Under Trusted Cloud, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) is funding the development and testing of innovative, secure, and legally compliant cloud computing services with a total amount of about EUR 50 million. In addition, the project partners will provide own funds of about the same amount, such that a total of about EUR 100 million will be available. The BMWi “Trusted Cloud” technology program is part of the Cloud Computing action program launched by BMWi together with partners from industry and science in October 2010. Within the framework of pilot projects, innovative solutions for a secure use of cloud computing in various branches will be developed and tested within the next three years. The twelve winners cover the following clusters: basic technologies, industry, health, and public sector. The Peer Energy Cloud consortium is part of the industry cluster.
Further Information on the Partners:
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH (DFKI, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence):
http://www.dfki.de/
AGT:
http://www.agtgermany.com
SEEBURGER AG:
http://www.seeburger.de
SAARLOUIS STADTWERKE (Municipal Utility of Saarlouis):
http://www.stadtwerke-saarlouis.de/
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT):
http://www.kit.edu/
Contact Persons for the Press:
Reinhard Karger, M.A.
Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH, DFKI
Phone +49 681 85775-5253
Fax: +49 681 85775-5485
Mobile: +49 151 1567 4571
E-mail:reinhard karger ∂does-not-exist.dfki de
Ursula Scheller
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Phone: +49 721 608-44865
Fax: +49 721 32550
E-mail:ursula scheller ∂does-not-exist.kit edu
Helmut Kranzmaier
AGT Germany/CNC AG
Phone: +49 30 408 17 66 02
Fax: +4930408176699
E-mail:helmut kranzmaier ∂does-not-exist.cnc-communications com
Andreas Petter,
SEEBURGER AG
Phone: +49 7252 96-0
E-mail:andreas petter ∂does-not-exist.seeburger de
Saarlouis Stadtwerke
Dr. Ing. Ralf Levacher
Phone +49 6831 9596-482
Fax: +49 6831 9596-495
E-mail:levacher ∂does-not-exist.swsls de
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