PROJEKT
Integral resource optimization network study - Iron study
IRON (Integral Resource Optimization Network) is a fundamental study in the field of “coordination of distributed energy resources”. The objective of this project consisted in paving the way for a stable, distributed automatation network for the optimization of electric energy as a resource.
Energy consumers, generators, and storages are to use a novel infrastructure that permits them to create a self-organizing network for the autonomous coordination of the use of electrical energy. In its final stage the IRON system will offer a communication technology platform that combines any number of actors in the electric network. The newly developed IT access will be deeper and more finely structured than conventional approaches. Ultimately, automation technology will work its way through to the level of end-users’ appliances. Scalability and cost-efficiency are key factors in this approach.
The first phase of the IRON project served to survey the prevailing conditions and to successfully establish the topic among relevant actors by means of intense PR campaigning. “Integral Resource Optimization Network-Concept”, a follow-up project is developing the various new services in order to create a communication infrastructure connecting all relevant actors in the energy network:
- Energy generators (power plants, wind power units, micro turbines, fuel cells, etc.)
- Consumers (appliances, machinery, etc.)
- (Virtual) storages (pumps, temporally flexible loads, time-lag processes such as electric heat, etc.)
The target group includes commercial buildings, single nodes (e.g. wind power stations), private homes, and small industry and trades. Large-scale energy consumers were not included, as they usually have already developed an optimization system of their own.
Technically, the planned IRON System shows the following characteristics:
- Different classes of end nodes, depending on the target group (functionally and with a view to price – target cost is less than Euro 100.–), short pay-back time (2 years)
- Simple, wherever possible, automatic installation, stable, maintenance-free operation, good scalability up to a volume of 100,000 nodes
- Use of the Internet, field busses, and smart building technologies, integration of existing control systems (DMS, isolation of loads, etc.)
- Add-on services such as safety, information, or remote home features
The solutions currently available on the market do not fully meet these requirements. Therefore, new developments are needed in some areas that should build upon open standards as far as possible. Owing to its underlying concept, the IRON System is application-neutral, i.e. it may be used for a multitude of novel services: local synchronization of generation and consumption, real-time pricing, global peak load management, etc. The system operators can pass on the financial benefit gained through the automation technology to their customers.
The appliances of the end-users/ customers will be equipped with an ”IRON-Box”, i.e. an embedded smart control device with “local intelligence”. The individual modules communicate with each other and with higher-level units thus ensuring exchange of information on flexible loads and capacities (locally available transfer and storage capacities). The information thus gained forms the basis for optimization algorithms serving to coordinate the operation of the individual consumers.
The project team is developing a service portfolio, an infrastructure and marketing model as well as a preliminary study to prepare a field test. Taken together these project components constitute a concept that forms the basis for a field test, which will be realized in a follow-up project.
