SUSIC

Smart Utilities and Sustainable Infrastructure Transformation

Project duration: June 2019 – December 2021

Climate change, the energy transition and urbanisation – a sustainable, efficient and, at the same time, cost-effective energy supply is increasingly becoming a focus of public attention. As part of the Smart Infrastructure Hub Leipzig, the University of Leipzig and HTWK Leipzig are therefore conducting research within the framework of the collaborative project “Smart Utilities and Sustainable Infrastructure Change” (SUSIC) to develop innovative, infrastructure-based supply solutions and assessment methods for urban and regional areas in the context of dynamic system structures. HTWK Leipzig is actively working on three sub-projects, which together form Sub-project 2 of the SUSIC research project. The aim is to develop data transmission and control algorithms for intelligent agents within the low-voltage energy supply system. The intended outcome is a prototype energy management system (EMS) based on an expert system, which regulates the various actors according to different operational logics in line with local or regional objectives and is tested using generic simulation models.

Diagram showing processes based on the Local Grid Concept — Local Grid Concept: Concept of the energy management system and its objectives. It is based on a hierarchical controller structure, comprising one site controller and several local controllers for each low-voltage network. Each Local Controller serves exactly one property and regulates its energy system using an integrated expert system. Based on various data and predefined rules, this system autonomously derives target states for the individual entities within the property’s energy system.

Sub-project | Control of operational logic for centralised and decentralised actors

To verify how the energy management system works, actors from the low-voltage grid are modelled within SimulationX’s object-oriented simulation environment. To this end, simulation objects are created for various energy systems, with a particular focus on sector-coupling technologies such as heat pumps and electric mobility. Based on the energy sector’s framework conditions, operational logic and degrees of freedom of the technologies under consideration, as well as agent-driven behaviour, rules for energy management are derived and their impact on the modelled system is quantified. From this, conclusions are drawn regarding the necessary real-world data collection and the creation of smart incentives for the efficient and effective control of the behaviour of the actors.

Project supervisor:Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Schneider
Researcher: Martin Hafemann

Schematic diagram of the model structure based on the SimX Concept — SimX Concept: Basic diagram of the model structure in SimulationX, showing the interfaces for data transfer to the local controller.

Sub-project | System engineering for the energy management system

The central units for the properties and the low-voltage and local networks will be designed and implemented in this project phase. The fundamental structures for monitoring and controlling the system, as well as interfaces to other systems, are established. The aim of the system design is to create a dynamic, modular, scalable and freely configurable system. The individual energy components are controlled by a rule-based system (expert system). The resulting system is tested using ‘hardware-in-the-loop’ simulation and must be scalable in terms of time as well as capable of real-time operation. This enables various scenarios to be created quickly and the stored rules to be validated and expanded.

Project supervisor:Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Pretschner
in collaboration with: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Markus Krabbes
Researcher: Ken Paulitz

Diagram showing processes based on the Local Controller Concept — Local Controller Concept: Modular design of the Local Controller with external interfaces for simulation and the Site Controller.

Diagram showing processes based on the Site Controller Concept — Site Controller Concept: Modular design of the Site Controller with interfaces to the Local Controller and the user.

Sub-project | Empirical basis and data collection

Sub-project 3 involves collecting real-world data for the energy management system (EMS). Data collection will be based on state-of-the-art methods. However, there is a strong need to protect personal data, as the data transmitted could be used to create a detailed profile of users’ movements and behaviour. To enable the data to be used for the EMS nonetheless, user data is encrypted using homomorphic encryption. This type of encryption allows the data to be processed whilst still in encrypted form. Consequently, no conclusions can be drawn about the data relating to individual persons. Ideally, this process must take place at the sensor level. However, the computing power available at the sensors and actuators is very limited; to ensure strong encryption nonetheless, this research project is developing hardware and software that meets these requirements.

Project supervisor:Prof. Dr.-Ing. Faouzi Derbel
Research assistant: Johannes Braun