Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology
Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology

Energy Informatics

Our research question

How can energy management and energy system processes be supported by information technology to enable the energy system to function even with high proportions of decentralized generation?

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Our strengths

  • Profound knowledge of energy industry processes and information technology mechanisms, Big Data concepts, machine learning up to software engineering processes.
  • Scientific knowledge and proven application orientation in supporting practical issues such as data analysis, forecasting/extrapolating of fluctuating generators and the integration of virtual power plants
  • Laboratory infrastructure: server infrastructures and computing clusters for parallelization of tasks in the context of research and industrial projects

Research topics

  • IT architectures for efficient and secure implementation of energy industry processes
  • Cognitive energy economics
  • Development of efficient and scalable aggregation infrastructures
  • Automation of entire process chains
  • Design of resilient digital energy systems
  • Technology selection for the implementation of digital business models in the energy industry

Products and
Services

Projects

Publications

Energy informatics: Innovations for a sustainable and networked energy system

The rapidly advancing digitization and automation process will pave the way for the transformation of our energy system toward a highly flexible, decentralized and sustainable system. The interaction of generation, transport, storage and consumption require both local digitization through intelligent components, complete digitization and networking of the supply system, and networking of the overall system at a higher level. Enormous innovations in the field of digitization will be required to make the future energy system sustainable, secure and affordable in a liberalized market environment.

In addition to structural changes in the energy industry, it is important to identify trends and disruptive technologies that allow for a dynamic transformation of our energy system. The research topic of energy informatics offers many opportunities to develop software architectures, applications and new functionalities of intelligent components. The basic prerequisite for the successful development of innovative technologies is a fundamental understanding and in-depth detailed knowledge of the structure and functioning of the energy supply system, coupled with expert knowledge from information and communication technology.