Current Research Projects

Climate-neutral transformation of city quarters – interconnected real-world laboratories with intelligent decision support for energy-optimized flexibilization through sector coupling

In the past, the climate-neutral design of city quarters usually failed due to a lack of economic viability and the interests of various stakeholders. In order to remove these obstacles in a targeted manner, existing districts need to be made climate-neutral. There is particular potential here for the rural region of OWL, which has a high population density and is strongly characterized by SMEs. This is where the FlexLabQuartier project comes in. In this project, the climate-neutral transformation of existing districts is being researched in planning and operation and demonstrated in real laboratories. The aim is to break down barriers to the construction and operation of climate-friendly neighborhoods. To achieve these goals, FlexLabQuartier is investigating solutions in an interdisciplinary project consortium from a technical, social and economic perspective. The focus is on the decarbonization of quarters through an energy supply based on renewable energies, the use of flexibilities in sector coupling and energy efficiency.

HSBI is primarily responsible for the realization of a socio-technical real-world laboratory. The focus here is on developing climate-friendly solutions for coupling the electricity and mobility sectors and on investigating the social and psychological obstacles, as it is primarily the residents themselves who are affected by these solutions.

Project partners:
Energie Impuls OWL, Universität Paderborn, HORIZONTE-Group Technik GmbH, Westfalen Weser Netz GmbH, Westaflexwerk GmbH, Stadtwerk Verl GmbH, Stadtwerke Bielefeld GmbH (Associated), Stadt Verl (Associated), Sennestadt GmbH (Associated), Gemeinde Borchen (Associated) 

Project funding:
EFRE/JFT-Programm NRW

Probabilistic sector coupling optimizer
ProSeCO is developing an energy management system that enables the intelligent control of decentralized renewable energy systems and electrical loads in the electricity and heating sector. The aim is to increase the proportion of renewable energy and reduce the ecological footprint. The energy management system is based on a probabilistic digital twin, which consists of a digital twin of the grid under consideration and dynamic risk models (DRM). These models take into account various uncertainties and inaccuracies (e.g. consumer behavior, missing measurement data). AGNES focuses on the research and development of DRMs for mapping the random behavior of electricity consumption and volatile electricity generation by renewable energy systems. In addition, a meaningful field evaluation is being carried out to test and validate the energy management system in a low-voltage electrical grid.

ProSeCO aims to develop innovative solutions to control renewable energy systems and validate them in practical applications. The combination of digital twins, dynamic risk models and an energy management system enables the efficient use of renewable energies and thus makes an important contribution to sustainability and climate protection.

Project partners:
Germany: Stadtwerke Bielefeld GmbH, Sennestadt GmbH (Assoziiert), Digitalisierungsbüro Bielefeld (Assoziiert) 
Austria: Technische Universität Wien, Siemens Österreich AG
Portugal: Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto

Project funding:
CETPartnership, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK)

Flexible virtual replication of operational technology networks in the power supply industry
Efficiency and safety are paramount in the ever-changing world of energy supply. The modernisation of energy supply networks requires the development of new functions and extensive testing, ideally under real-life conditions. Grid operators and system suppliers face technical and time challenges. The aim of FlexONet is to develop an innovative framework for creating virtual models of Operational Technology (OT) network infrastructures. This approach enables the detailed representation of infrastructures, e.g., substations, in terms of their communication infrastructure and functionality as a virtual model.

The working group Grids and Energy Systems of the Institute for Technical Energy Systems at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Bielefeld is investigating an automatic re-powering in the medium-voltage grid after a fault shutdown of a power supply for a waterworks using a concrete test scenario. The validation and testing of this innovative solution will take place on the OT network infrastructure of the developed framework approach. To ensure the accuracy of the virtualisation, a hardware setup of the test system will be realised in the laboratory.

Project partner:
Fraunhofer IOSB-AST, TU Dortmund, H&S Hard- & Software Technologie GmbH & Co. KG, Stadtwerke Bielefeld GmbH, Sprecher Automation GmbH

Project funding:
Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK)

Interoperable Research Infrastructure for Managing Sustainable Grid Cells
A clean energy transition with a high share of renewable energy can lead to problems with the grid security of electrical grids. This is due to the volatile feed-in of renewable energy with simultaneous high loads from dynamic consumers, such as electric vehicles, as well as prosumers. To avoid this, autonomous control of energy cells as well as recommended actions for grid operators are being developed in IRI4SGC. In order to reproduce and test an accurate image of the real grid, a highly flexible and scalable infrastructure is needed. For this purpose, the existing laboratories of the partners will be connected virtually. This new collaborative approach supports the idea of long-lasting and sustainable products and helps to reduce resource requirements. The cross-continental connection between the European Union and the regions of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the exchange of skills and expertise, are at the heart of addressing the challenges of the clean energy transition in all regions involved and considered.

Project partner:
Germany: University of Applied Sciences and Arts
Austria: Graz University of Technology
Brazil: Federal University of Amazonas Brazil
Bolivia: Universidad Mayor de San Andrés Bolivia
Nicaragua: Universidad Tecnológica La Salle (Associate)

Project funding:
4th EU-LAC Joint Call in STI 2022, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Innovation Campus for Sustainable Solutions
Research and transfer are essential at universities of applied sciences. With the Innovation Campus for Sustainable Solutions, the university aims to develop a comprehensive, future-oriented profile in research, teaching and transfer. The initial focus will be on research-based transfer in materials research and the "Circular Economy". Here, exemplary structures are to be created and working methods developed, from which transfer activities in other research fields can then benefit.

The WG Grids and Energy Systems is located in the Creative Lab in the research group Circular Economy in InCamS@BI, where transfer formats for shaping the scientific dialogue and generating ideas are developed and tested. The focus of the WG Grids and Energy Systems is on sustainable power engineering. The outputs of the Creative Lab are ideas capable of development, which are further developed into project outlines in the Innovation Lab.

Project funding:
Innovative Hochschule, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Center for Cooperation and Career Management
In various fields, there is a lack of qualified personnel to fill professorships at universities of applied sciences. The Career@BI project of the federal-state program of the funding line "FH Personal" creates qualification opportunities for FH professorships in the thematic field of various bottleneck areas, such as health or engineering sciences, through tandem positions with practice partners over six years. Corresponding qualification projects are designed in different thematic fields by the awarded postdocs together with different project partners from the health industry, social services and engineering. Within the framework of these qualification projects, they conduct research and work as employees of both the university and the application partners.

The WG Grids and Energy Systems has a tandem position in cooperation with the Stadtwerke Bielefeld. In this cooperation, Stadtwerke Bielefeld employs Dr. Michael Kelker with a half-time position in the field of electrical grids. At the University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, Dr. Kelker is expanding his teaching and research experience in the field of electrical grids with a half-time position. He plans to establish his own research focus on the topic of digitalization and artificial intelligence in energy supply.

Project partner: 
Stadtwerke Bielefeld GmbH

Project funding:
FH Personal, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

SustAInable Life-cycle of Intelligent Socio-Technical Systems
Systems using artificial intelligence (AI) rarely consider the entire life cycle of the system. The collaborative project SAIL between University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, the Universities of Bielefeld and Paderborn and TH OWL shifts the current focus from the core component of training towards a sustainable long-term development of AI systems in real life. SAIL addresses both basic research in the field of AI, its implications from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences, and concrete applications in the field of Industry 4.0 and smart healthcare.

The focus of the WG Grids and Energy Systems is in the area of Industry 4.0. In a tandem together with the CoR-Lab of Bielefeld University, distributed AI algorithms for the optimization of energy consumption in industry under consideration of grid stability criteria are developed and researched. Distributed learning and distributed communication represent fail-safe, resource-efficient AI methods for optimizing energy flows within individual industrial networks and ensure increased data security. The AI system will be used to optimize controllable components in industrial plants in terms of avoiding peak loads, so that both the industrial plant has monetary savings and the grid operator can ensure secure grid operation.

Project partners: 
Universität Bielefeld, Universität Paderborn, Technische Hochschule OWL

Projekt funding:
Netzwerke 2021, Ministry for Culture and Science (MKW) of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

Autonomous AI for cellular energy systems increasing flexibilities provided by sector coupling and distributed storage.
The cellular approach addresses decentralized, self-governed energy cells on all hierarchical grid levels. Every cell can encompass electric, gas and district heating grids achieving high efficiency and flexibility due to sector coupling and energy storage solutions such as batteries and Power-to-X systems. Compared to conventional grid operation, each cell optimizes its renewable power generation, energy consumption and storing on a much finer granularity level and a much higher level of complexity of the optimization due to a high number of participants. In order to address this challenge, an autonomous AI-based cell optimizer will be developed for the efficient energy management of a multitude of energy storage devices from the perspective of an energy cell. The AI-based control is integrated and demonstrated under real-world conditions by means of a Digital Twin of the energy system serving as a coherent information and interaction layer for all market participants. 

Project partners:
Germany: Technischer Universität Kaiserslautern, Bielefelder Netze GmbH, VOLTARIS GmbH
Austria: AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, Technische Universität Wien

Project funding:
Multilateral Joint Call of RDI projects on digital transformation for green energy transition (MICall20), Smart Energy Systems ERA-Net

VR grid control centre for training operational management of real electrical grids

As digitisation continues to progress in business and society, it is also advancing in teaching and learning units of universities and universities of applied sciences. This project uses virtual reality (VR) to create an immersive environment of a control centre for electrical grids. The control centre is set up as a virtual space, providing students with a realistic environment in which they can try out the study contents they have acquired on the topic of electrical grids and energy supply/smart grids in various practical trainings. Real grids of local grid operators that support the planned project can be displayed as digital models and integrated into the virtual grid control centre. 

Project funding: 
Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (DH.NRW)

To support local grid stability, the complex system requires the use of AI to estimate the current grid state, to predict electricity generation from renewable energy sources and to support grid system services that use battery charging and discharging. A complex system in which the components of a future power grid are interconnected is susceptible to faults, especially if the components are controlled in a central location. In order for AI to work safely, a distributed AI approach is being investigated. This distributed AI approach uses cognitive edge computing for efficient control, to reduce resources and to increase data security. The principle is to run applications as close as possible to the data sources. AI4DG’s goal is to research and develop a decentralized AI platform for a safe and autonomous control of the distribution grid with a high proportion of renewable energies.

Project partners: 

Germany: Bielefeld University, Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences, Westfalen Weser Netz GmbH

France: Université Grenoble Alpes, Atos Worldgrid

Project funding:

German-French cooperation, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)