Press Releases

Whether grid control and planning, the operational management of photovoltaic systems and storage facilities or their design: These and other tasks require load time series that map the increasingly dynamic consumption of many households far more accurately than standard load profiles. The Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE and its partners in the SyLas-KI research project have therefore developed an AI-supported tool that can be used to create high-resolution synthetic load time series for numerous different consumers. They are indistinguishable from real measurement data in terms of their characteristics but meet all data protection requirements.

Heat pumps are considered an important building block for the heating system of a decarbonized future, as they heat and cool efficiently with electricity. They are particularly useful in an energy system based on renewable energies, as their consumption is easy to plan and the heat can be stored. This allows the heating system to react flexibly to energy generation from the sun and wind and thus support the power grid. This is the result of a transnational research project of the International Energy Agency (IEA). The Fraunhofer Institutes IEE (Kassel) and ISE (Freiburg) were involved from Germany.

Germany is essentially sitting on a huge treasure trove of unused capacity when it comes to the grid connection of renewable power plants. This is shown by the study on the joint use of grid connection points carried out by the German Renewable Energy Federation BEE together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE.

Offshore wind farms with zero-cent subsidy bids and post-EEG wind turbines must generate their income solely from the electricity market. This requires forward-looking operating strategies that take into account not only market prices but also the expected wear and tear on the turbines the next day. The Fraunhofer IEE is now working with the companies MesH Engineering and anemos Gesellschaft für Umweltmeteorologie on the BMWK-funded OTELLO project to develop new tools that can be used to optimize schedules for wind farms. Among other things, the experts are integrating short-term forecasts of turbulence intensity - the key factor for turbine wear and tear.

Today, the service life of inverters in photovoltaic systems is far shorter than that of the modules. As part of the PV4Life research project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE is now working with partners to develop models that map the individual ageing of power converters. This can be used to derive customized, AI-supported operating strategies that promise a longer service life without compromising the performance of the devices.

Electricity consumers should be able to change their electricity supplier quickly and smoothly in future. TenneT TSO GmbH has collaborated with both the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE and the Institute for Applied Systems Technology (AST) of Fraunhofer IOSB in the "MakoMaker Space" project demonstrating how the process could be completely digitalized and based on data room technologies in the future. The new process avoids inconsistencies in data, thus enabling rapid automated processing and should meet the requirements of the Federal Network Agency for 24-hour supplier changes.

The BMWK-funded joint research project "F-HiL Reloaded" is devoted to researching and developing a holistic power-hardware-in-the-loop test, inspection and validation system for the integration of grid-forming power converters into the energy supply system as well as intelligent test procedures. The consortium consists of Siemens AG, OPAL-RT Germany GmbH, SUMIDA Components & Modules GmbH, Moeller Operating Engineering GmbH, the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology and Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. The project was launched in late 2023 with a kick-off event and is scheduled to be completed in September 2026.

Heat pumps and charging stations should be able to be dimmed in order to ensure reliable operation of the distribution grids in critical grid situations. The communication required for this runs via the CLS channel of the smart meter gateway. The UtiliSpaces project has now been launched at Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg, which aims to research the existing challenges of implementation in this complex environment in practice. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a grant of 2 million euros and coordinated by Fraunhofer IEE.

pandapower is an easy-to-use tool for modelling, analyzing and optimizing power grids with a high degree of automation. It was developed at both the University of Kassel and the Fraunhofer IEE in Kassel. Thanks to its international use and integration into various processes, the software has already achieved 500,000 (partly automated) downloads since its release in 2016. Whether in Germany, Europe, the USA, China or many other countries around the world - pandapower is used by researchers and experts in companies alike and has established itself as one of the leading solutions in the energy sector.

Research at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft would be inconceivable without its employees, including those with migration backgrounds - they are the foundation of our scientific system. Internationality, diversity, and respect are integral components of the Fraunhofer mission statement and the Fraunhofer Code of Conduct.