Scientific Hub for Flexible Energy Communities

Gebäudetechnik

With Hub4FlECs, the two universities of applied sciences in Vorarlberg and Burgenland are positioning themselves as much-needed cooperation partners for technology development in the field of energy communities (ECs). The envisaged solutions include technologies for utilising the flexibility of heat pump systems, thermal storage, stationary batteries and charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, which can be tested in a specially developed EC simulation framework. Follow-up projects will lead to a technological innovation leap in flexibility management in ECs and beyond. Hub4FlECs is therefore an important competence building block in Austria for the technical realisation of the transformation of the energy system.

Acronym

Hub4FlECs

Project running time

01/03/2023 - 29/02/2028

Projectbudget in EUR

500.000

The implementation of Energy Communities (ECs) is a strategic objective of European energy policy to engage citizens in the transition to a sustainable, renewable energy system and to utilise private capital as a catalyst for this transformation. Despite the inherent potential, the economic incentives for participation in ECs are currently not sufficiently designed to ensure broad uptake and efficiency, resulting in the underdevelopment of this sector.

Previous research has shown that the application of innovative technologies, in particular the intelligent management of energy flexibilities, plays a key role in overcoming these challenges. Despite the scientific interest, the technological realisation in integrated energy systems at company level has so far been insufficiently implemented. It is therefore assumed that ECs represent a market for innovation through the use of advanced technologies in the face of rising energy prices. However, several problems need to be overcome:

the overarching socially acceptable goals agreed in the EC and accepted by the participants must be technically realisable,
the subsystems as a whole must interact as optimally as possible, and
Standardisation and automation must lead to widespread use of the solutions.

To overcome these challenges, the University of Applied Sciences Vorarlberg and the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland rely on agent-based methods that are characterised by scalability, robustness and interoperability. The aim is to develop competences that enable application-oriented research for individual technologies and system solutions in the context of ECs. The focus here is on technologies such as heat pumps, thermal storage, batteries, e-charging stations, etc., which can be tested and optimised in an EC simulation framework at overall system level.