Smart Energy Systems and Grids

Even today Austria and several of its European neighbours are fortunate to possess powerful energy supply systems, in the form of virtually nationwide hierarchical electricity grids and of regional district heating and gas grids in more populated areas. In the past these were all controlled separately.

In the course of the energy transition the key issue in future will be to exploit synergies from an overall system perspective and to link up all sectors (electricity, heat, gas, hydrogen) by means of smart grids. Smart energy grids are the tie between buildings, industry and transport. Connectivity and convergence are the vital aspects here. In the energy supply industry digitalization is becoming a key competence, bringing about the necessary understanding within the infrastructure, between the various grids (cross-sectorally) and with all other new stakeholders in the field of energy.

In energy research the interdisciplinary challenge for some years now has been to integrate energy engineering competence with information and communication engineering (ICT) competence so as to achieve smart grid and smart energy system solutions.

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