The Saxon members of the DVGW German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water informed themselves about current developments in the energy transition with a focus on Saxony on 29 September 2025 in Leipzig.
The 13th meeting of the Saxon district groups of the DVGW Deutscher Verein des Gas- und Wasserfaches e.V. took place on 29 September 2025 at the HTWK Leipzig. This year's event focussed on the energy transition - across all sectors - as well as current developments in Saxony.
Prof Robert Huhn from the Faculty of Engineering welcomed the Saxon DVGW members from the Chemnitz, Dresden and Leipzig district groups to the Nieper Building with presentations on current research, the transformation of district heating in Leipzig, hydrogen production, transport and storage, future developments in electricity and gas grids and solar drinking water treatment, among other topics.
Host Prof Robert Huhn, Chair of Gas and Heat Networks, Faculty of Engineering HTWK Leipzig, gave an overview of current research projects in the field of gas and heat supply at the Chair of Gas and Heat Networks and highlighted the link between research and teaching.
Jan Schubert, Head of the Asset Management Netz Leipzig GmbH department, presented the current status of municipal heat planning in the city of Leipzig and the Südvorstadt pilot project. This highlighted the major challenges of expanding the district heating network, as well as the expansion and modernisation of other energy networks (electricity, gas).
Marcus Krüger, Project Manager Energy Management at Stadtwerke Leipzig, and Daniel Töpfer, Team Leader Planning & Construction, Netz Leipzig GmbH, reported on the plans to utilise industrial waste heat from the Leuna refinery for Leipzig. The risks of industrial waste heat utilisation were also discussed in connection with the goal of decarbonising district heating in the near future and making the "right" decisions in the long term.
Christian Decker, ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH, provided information on the hydrogen production and sector coupling at the Bad Lauchstädt energy park, which is due to start shortly, experiences with the pipeline conversion from natural gas to hydrogen and general developments in the hydrogen infrastructure in Central Germany.
Building on current developments in the generation and feed-in of renewable energy and enquiries about battery storage integration into the electricity grid of Mitteldeutsche Netzgesellschaft Strom mbH (MITNETZ Strom), Dirk Hünlich, Head of Process Management/Support at EnviaM, shared his thoughts on the energy future of electricity and gas grids.
Finally, Prof Jens Schneider, Chair of Networked Energy Systems, Faculty of Engineering HTWK Leipzig, presented the research activities on solar drinking water treatment, which he is driving forward in cooperation with four professorships in the Faculty of Engineering at HTWK Leipzig. Although this research idea was originally developed for southern countries, the discussion also revealed numerous potential applications in Germany.
The lively discussion that followed the presentations reflected the major infrastructure projects and investments that are pending to transform energy generation and distribution and that the allocation of these costs will also be a social challenge.
Programme & presentations:
- Programme 13th DVGW District Group Meeting (PDF)
- Young DVGW
- Lecture "Brief presentation of the teaching and research concept of the Chair of Gas and Heat Networks, Prof. Robert Huhn, HTWK Leipzig" (PDF)
- Lecture "Utilisation of industrial waste heat from the Leuna refinery for Leipzig (presentation of project status), Daniel Töpfer, Netz Leipzig GmbH" (PDF)
- Lecture "Hydrogen production and sector coupling in the Bad Lauchstädt energy park, Christian Decker, ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH" (PDF)
- Lecture "Thoughts on the energy future of electricity and gas grids Dirk Hünlich, EnviaM" (PDF)
- Lecture "SoDa2 - Solar Drinking Water Treatment (HTWK), Prof Jens Schneider, Chair of Networked Energy Systems HTWK Leipzig" (PDF)
