Energy grid of the future: ENSURE project launches third phase

To achieve its climate targets, Germany wants to convert its electricity supply to as much renewable energy as possible by 2045. Researchers are developing practical recommendations for the necessary transformation of the power grid.
In the current project phase, the ENSURE project is looking at concrete recommendations for the transformation of the power grid. (Source: Matthew Henry / unsplash.com)

The energy transition cannot succeed with the energy grid in its current evolved form. With this in mind, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched the ENSURE project back in 2016. In this project, a large number of researchers, grid operators, producers, and civil society organizations are working together on solutions to enable the electricity grid to cope with current and future challenges in a secure and sustainable manner.

After researching the technological basis (phase I) and testing and simulating applications (phase II), always condsidering the embeddedness of the technologies in the socio-economic frame of Germany, the final phase of the project now follows. In this third phase, the focus is on demonstrating and testing the findings in practice: The researchers use simulations and real-world operations to check whether the combination of technical, regulatory, and social solutions they have developed can contribute to a sustainable energy transition in Germany.

"Good governance" concept and recommendations for energy transition stakeholders

Scientists at ITAS are involved in the project activities in a variety of ways. On the one hand, they evaluate the various ENSURE solutions for their sustainability. Furthermore, they develop a "good governance" concept in two model regions – one urban, the other rural. The aim is to find out how local stakeholders can best be involved in the energy transition.

Another task of ITAS is to derive concrete recommendations for action from ENSURE’s ten years of research, which can guide grid operators, regulators, politicians, technology developers, and society in the future in tackling their challenges in the areas of energy supply, electricity grid, and energy transition.

ENSURE is part of the BMBF Kopernikus initiative, which aims at comprehensive and integrative research on the energy transition to make today’s energy system sustainable, safe, clean, and affordable. (29.11.2023)

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