Siemens to provide load and building management solution for EcoGrid EU project

Nuremberg, Germany - Siemens together with a number of European partner companies and universities will participate in the EcoGrid EU demonstration project. Within the framework of the EU-sponsored project a prototype smart grid will be installed and put into operation on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The project will run until 2015. Siemens will contribute an intelligent control system for energy loads in domestic and commercial applications. A solution for smart utilization of electrical energy will be implemented through the networking of the DEMS decentralized energy management system and components from the Siemens building technologies portfolio. “We’re thus underscoring our comprehensive technical competence in optimizing the balance between fluctuating renewables-based power supply and the intelligent control of power consumption within a smart grid,” said Jan Mrosik, CEO of the Smart Grid Division within Siemens’ Infrastructure & Cities Sector.

The objective of the EcoGrid project is to demonstrate that intermittent wind- and solar-based power generation can through smart load control form the basis for reliable and sustainable power supply. A near-real-time electricity marketplace serves as the basis for balancing power generation and consumption. The Siemens load management solution continuously receives updated price signals from this marketplace, which are converted to optimized control signals for the connected power loads. One of the most important features of a future intelligent energy system will thus be implemented on Bornholm: instead of generation tracking loads, loads will be controlled in the EcoGrid project – based on momentarily available power generated by renewables. The load management solution in the future smart grid will therefore be one of the most important components for the integration and optimum utilization of renewables-based power.

Siemens highly advanced building automation systems are not only capable of controlling heating, ventilation and air conditioning applications in an energy-efficient manner, but also of optimizing power consumption. By linking energy management technology with building automation, Siemens is expanding the control of classical power transmission and distribution grids to the level of buildings. The interplay of power distribution grids across the different voltage levels and the availability of bi-directional data communication will enable consumers to adapt their energy consumption according to dynamic energy prices offered by the real-time energy market. Furthermore, the consumers will be able to feed renewables-based power back into the grid and act as decentralized power generators.

EcoGrid EU is a 21-million-euro development and demonstration project with EU funding totaling 12.5 million euros for the setup of a future-proof smart grid on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The 16 participants are based in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. The results of this project, which will run until early 2015, will constitute the basis for roll-out of future smart grid projects Europe-wide. Within this framework, the EcoGrid project will demonstrate how a smart grid works when the connected households and industrial loads on Bornholm adapt their power consumption to the amount of available power, in this case more than 50 percent renewable-based, for example wind power. To this end, the home automation devices, the communication infrastructure and the smart grid applications such as the Siemens load management solution are to be installed by 2012 so that operation of the smart grid prototype in the Baltic Sea can start on schedule.

Energy-efficient and ecofriendly solutions for setting up smart grids are part of Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio. In fiscal 2010, revenue from the Portfolio totaled about EUR28 billion, making Siemens the world’s largest supplier of ecofriendly technologies. In the same period, our products and solutions enabled customers to reduce their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 270 million tons, an amount equal to the total annual CO2 emissions of the megacities Hong Kong, London, New York, Tokyo, Delhi and Singapore.

The Siemens Infrastructure & Cities Sector (Munich, Germany), with approximately 87,000 employees, offers sustainable technologies for metropolitan areas and their infrastructures. Its offerings include integrated mobility solutions, building and security technology, power distribution, smart grid applications, and low- and medium-voltage products. The Sector comprises the Divisions Rail Systems, Mobility and Logistics, Low and Medium Voltage, Smart Grid, Building Technologies, and Osram AG. For more information, visit http://www.siemens.com/infrastructure-cities

Reference Number: ICSG201110002e