ENSURE

Project description

The Kopernikus projects are one of the largest German research initiatives on the energy transition (www.kopernikus-projekte.de). Their aim is to enable a climate-neutral Germany by 2050. Scientists call the combination of electricity, transport, heat and gas sector coupling. In future, Germany will need an energy grid that makes sector coupling possible.

The Kopernikus project ENSURE is working out what such a network and the path to it could look like. Innovative operating equipment is required to operate the grid of the future, but this is not yet available. This is why the ENSURE partners are developing and testing such innovative, digitalized components for medium-voltage and high-voltage grids, both in the form of initial pilot systems in practice and in simulation using a digital image.

The aim of the second phase of ENSURE, which started in 2020, is to develop an overall concept for the energy supply by 2050 that is embedded in the existing socio-economic framework and ensures the transferability of the results within Germany and Europe. On the way there, the concept for a planned "ENSURE energy cosmos" is to be finalized, tested in initial pilot plants and calculated in a digital model. Subsequently, the third phase of the project will involve testing the systemic interaction of the elements that have so far only been tested individually in a real system on site. The area selected for the energy cosmos in the first phase of ENSURE is located in the Steinburg district between Itzehoe and Elmshorn. This is where the new technologies will be deployed, measured and tested for their operational suitability.

The FH Westküste University of Applied Sciences is closely linked to the region that stretches from Hamburg in the south to the Danish border in the north. The west coast of Schleswig-Holstein is characterized by the particularly high proportion of wind energy from onshore and offshore plants in the electrical energy supply and the considerable expansion of the grid in recent years. The ENSURE energy cosmos is emerging in the middle of this region. The FH Westküste University of Applied Sciences not only has a professional interest, but also takes on the structurally important task of anchoring the ENSURE energy cosmos in the region in the best possible way. The Institute for Transformation of the Energy System at the FH Westküste University of Applied Sciences is providing intensive support for the research project, the design and testing of the pilot plants and their integration into the region.

By cooperating with 20 other project partners from business, science and society, the project enables the university to establish contacts and build a network beyond the region, raise its profile and look beyond the West Coast.