Smart Power Hamburg: A virtual power plant for Hamburg

The structure of the energy supply in Germany is changing due to the "Energiewende", which leads to an increasing share of renewable energies and decentralized generation plants feeding into the energy system. At the same time, conventional but very reliably running power plants are taken from the grid. In comparison, renewable energies like wind or solar generate electricity energy unsteadily. Thus, innovative solutions for balancing power generation and consumption are required in order to guarantee a steady and safe energy provision. Cities can contribute to this challenge by taking unused flexibility in their infrastructure into account. The research project Smart Power Hamburg (SPH) investigates such possibilities in the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. A virtual power plant (VPP) is -constructed by using existing infrastructures. The flexible operation of generating plants is assured, so that the plant network can provide classic and new ancillary services for the power grid. For this purpose, the municipal energy supplier HAMBURG ENERGIE (HE), the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg) and the RWTH Aachen University (RWTH) collaborate in order to identify and develop innovative VPP solutions within the research project Smart Power Hamburg.