Managing data and complexity in energy systems
Comput Sci Res Dev
Managing data and complexity in energy systems
Friederich Kupzog 0 1 2
Wilfried Elmenreich 0 1 2
Ronald Bieber 0 1 2
0 Austrian Computer Society , Wien , Austria
1 Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt , Klagenfurt am Wörthersee , Austria
2 AIT Austrian Insitute of Technology GmbH , Wien , Austria
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A decade ago, pioneers across the world began to think of
information and communication technologies as key
contributors to the transition of our energy system to a network of
sustainable low-carbon producers and consumers. This idea
was dreamt up some time before, but with recent
technological advances in terms of computing power, communication
bandwidth and significant reduction in system costs, more
and more approaches became feasible. The worlds of
electrical engineering on one side and informatics/information
and communication technologies on the other side had a new
connection point, which was called “smart grid”. In those
days, strong day-to-day efforts were required to explain the
motivation for smart grid research.
In subsequent years, the field experienced a strong push
with rising interest from industry and even energy
infrastructure operators. Many basic concepts such as demand response
or voltage control became common sense. In addition, from
the beginning on, the research field was well supported by
research agendas throughout Europe, with policy makers
demanding and happily adopting better clarity and common
definitions.
Some years later, the field had developed from a set of early
concepts to a spectrum of component and system solutions
of much higher maturity. Many approaches were validated
in the field in the frame of national and European research
programs such as FP7, e-Energy in Germany or
“Energiesysteme der Zukunft” in Austria. With this, a substantial research
community had developed. It was time to identify the field
of “Energy Informatics” as a full-grown research field.
Young researchers entering the field today will have very
different experiences compared to the situation ten years ago.
The available literature now exceeds by far what can be
overseen by a single person. However, many concepts are clearly
described now, taught in lectures and defined in books. It is no
longer possible to compare innovative solutions to the old or
“conventional” power system; applications of Energy
Informatics have found their way into most aspects of design,
planning and operation of power systems where required.
The vision of a technological “smart grid” revolution has
been replaced by the insight that there will be an
incremental update of existing infrastructure with a large number of
different innovative aspects applied to different parts of the
system. Furthermore, with the D-A-CH + Energy
Informatics conference series a researcher today has a good starting
point to learn about important research challenges and to
network with other researchers in the area.
The objective of D-A-CH + Energy Informatics 2016 is
to further support this process of a research-based
development and implementation phase of adequate information and
communication technologies (ICT) and to foster the
transfer between academia, industry, and service providers in the
D-A-CH region Germany, Austria and Switzerland in close
cooperation with other European partners. The conference
addresses both scientists and practitioners.
The guiding topic of this issue is “Managing Data and
Complexity in Energy Systems”. A strong contribution from
Informatics is required to handle the sharply growing
complexity of energy systems with a large share of renewable
energy sources and more and more dynamic operation
paradigms. At the same time, it is mandatory to gain deeper
insights into the behavior of the infrastructure and its users,
taking into account the resulting challenges in privacy and
data analysis. All submitted papers focus on this field and
can be categorized into four main topics:
Energy networks—digitalization of electricity network
infrastructure, integration of renewable energies, behavioral
and forecast models for system users, modelling of future
scenarios.
Mobility–coordinated charging management for e-cars and
second use of batteries.
Buildings —optimization of the interaction between building
management systems, HVAC and energy networks,
innovative techniques for energy management.
Cross cutting—Privacy enhancing technologies, validation
of networked smart grid systems, analysis of energy data,
market modelling.
We would like to thank all authors who have submitted
their work to the conference. Following the successful
conferences in Oldenburg 2012, Vienna 2013, Zurich 2014 and
Karlsruhe in 2015 respectively, 48 manuscripts have been
submitted in 2016, whereof twenty revised versions have
been included in this issue.
D-A-CH + Energy Informatics is a yearly event organized
on joint initiative of Smart Grids D-A-CH—a cooperation
of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and
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