In the German town of Haren, building work will shortly begin on a large nursery school. The building is to be provided with smart technology from the University of Twente that harmonizes the demand for and supply of (sustainable) energy. The system ensures, for instance, that when the solar panels generate more electricity than the building uses, this energy is stored as heat and can be used later. The core of the system is the TRIANA management and control method developed by the University of Twente. This is the first time that the method is being used in practice.
With the growth in decentrally generated energy from sources such as wind turbines, high-efficiency boilers and solar panels, coordination of the energy supply and demand is becoming increasingly complex as well. After all, solar panels supply less energy on cloudy days and wind turbines don’t always turn at the same speed.
Smart grids in combination with smart appliances and energy buffers provide the solution for harmonizing the supply and demand. A smart grid must be able to coordinate decentralized energy generation, storage and energy consumption in real time. And all this without the consumer suffering any inconvenience.
TRIANA
Researchers at the CTIT research institute of the University of Twente have developed a management and control method known as TRIANA that is able to handle this task. Moreover, it can operate both on a small scale and at city or district level. According to the UT researcher Albert Molderink the aim of the system is to ensure that as much locally generated energy as possible is consumed locally as well. This technology will be applied in practice for the first time, in collaboration with the RWE energy company, in the newly constructed nursery school in the German town of Haren. The heart of the Home Energy Controller, which regulates the building’s energy management, is the software developed by the University of Twente.
In the nursery school the system will control various elements such as washing machines, dryers, electricity storage, hot water production and a charging station for an electric car. The building will be provided with solar panels to generate energy, a heat pump for the hot water facility and a storage unit for temporarily storing heat. According to Molderink, application of the system provides valuable information which in turn will enable further improvements to the system. Moreover, applying the system in a nursery school is a good way of teaching children about sustainable energy at a young age.
The project is being conducted jointly by the RWE energy company and the University of Twente. The nursery school itself, which will accommodate 100 children, is being constructed by Bauamt Haren, the municipality planning authority. In addition, UT researchers are also collaborating with RWE within the Smart Operator project to realize a large-scale application of the smart grid system.
The UT research forms part of the recently launched Green Energy Initiative of the University of Twente.
Note to the press
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