Germany Clean Air Tender

Throughout Germany the Schleswig-Holstein state capital is in an inglorious fourth place for nitrogen oxide pollution in the air only topped by Stuttgart Munich and Reutlingen annual average 2016. This is largely due to traffic dominated by combustion engines. In addition to other measures to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions the city is focusing on the expansion of electric mobility. In order to be able to expand the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles in a targeted and cost-effective manner one thing has been lacking so far an intelligent and flexible power grid. For Professor Marco Liserre and his team from the Chair of Power Electronics at Kiel University CAU the answer to this challenge is KielFlex. The aim of the project coordinated by the researchers is to make Kiel fit for the electrical future in no time at all i.e. by the end of 2020 and it should be a global role model. To do so a consortium consisting of Kiel University ABB AG Mannheim Fraunhofer Institute IFF Magdeburg Kieler Verkehrsgesellschaft Seehafen Kiel the city of Kiel and Stadtwerke Kiel AG is transforming the entire city into a laboratory.Kiel is electric - shipping becomes cleanerBy 2020 the Kieler Verkehrsgesellschaft transport company intends to integrate 36 electric buses into its own fleet and retire old diesel vehicles. In the future all of the roughly 180 vehicles should be electric ones. There are already 15 electric cars on the road for Stadtwerke Kiel and this year the energy supplier plans to convert 50 percent of its fleet to electric vehicles. In the short term the company wants to produce around 45 tons less CO2 in this way. Electric cars are also becoming increasingly attractive in the private sector. In addition there are investment projects by Seehafen Kiel GmbH Co. KG to supply ferry and cruise ships with shore-based electricity during their layover in the port. There are currently 42 public charging points for electric cars in Kiel and the municipal utilities are planning up to 200 more. The task of the KielFlex project which is scheduled to run for two years is to position these at strategically favourable locations in the city such as the Stadtwerke depot bus stops taxi stands car sharing points multi-storey car parks and new apartments. From 2020 scientists have calculated that these measures can save more than 12 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions.But what do more and more electric cars and electrified urban public transport mean for the municipal electricity supply Will it remain stable in its current form or will there be an extensive and expensive expansion of the grid This is at the core of KielFlex We want to manage Kiels electricity grid even more flexibly and find ways of intelligently integrating the new loads into the existing grids says Henning Schrer Head of Asset Management at Stadtwerke Kiel AGs grid company. This not only saves money and time but also could reduce the number of construction sites in Kiel. Using smaller storage systems in the charging stations and via so-called absorption loads researchers at Kiel University Fraunhofer IFF and ABB AG want to influence the voltage in the network and thus counteract the load caused by the individual charging processes. This is intended to keep any work on the power grid as low as possible even as the switch to electromobility progresses. ABB is supporting the research and pilot project with its many years of experience in the areas of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and intelligent load management as well as its OPTIMAX optimisation tool says Markus John Head of Power Generation and Water Germany. With this smart load management power peaks in the network can be avoided with foresight and additional investments for infrastructure expansion can be minimised. Professor Przemyslaw Komarnicki from Fraunhofer IFF says In this ambitious project it is important that a uniform information system is available for controlling the energy flow between the power grid and electric vehicles so that all elements can function smoothly and communicate with each other. Intelligent energy storage systems should also ensure the stability of the planned supply network for electric vehicles. We would like to contribute our many years of experience in these areas.Field test 2020Before the system is tested in 2020 in a district in Kiels city centre and its inhabitants become participants in the project Liserres team will simulate the flexible power grid solution in the laboratory at the CAUs Faculty of Engineering. A charging station for electric cars will also be installed on campus to explore the potential of voltage control. Where charging points are set up in the city the researchers are currently coordinating activities with the citys public utilities and transport company.EUR 6.5 million will be necessary for KielFlex more than half of the funds around EUR 3.7 million has been raised by the project partners from the Immediate Clean Air Programme 2017 to 2020 from the Federal Ministry of Energy. In Kiel over the past few years we have built up the expertise and networks required to considerably advance research into the transfer of energy solutions says Marco Liserre. KielFlex for example benefits from inventions from the power electronics experts HEART project which has been running since 2014. In this project the scientist is working on nothing less than implanting a new intelligent heart a transformer 2.0 into the power grid. The project that has now been started as a spin-off of this research should make Kiel a role model for a global solution to energy system transformation. This is also due to the fact that it takes into account public and private transport on land and water. Important things will start from Kiel.