What measures must be taken to ensure that energy can be supplied at a reasonable price and in a climate-friendly fashion in future? What we need is a strategy for the sustainable supply and application of energy. An intelligent optimization strategy must capture the economic energy efficiency potential available on the demand side, integrate existing and new storage technologies into the system, drive the expansion of renewable energies and at the same time effectively link highly efficient technologies for the local and centralized generation of energy.

Focus on demand: Standards and criteria for the efficient use of energy.

Take the use of electricity: the number of electrically driven devices and systems is increasing in all consumer sectors, as is the scope of their application. Electricity is a quality product which forms the basis for a growing number of services indispensible to daily life. Our primary challenge is to cover electricity needs cheaply, securely, and without impact to the climate while at the same time exploiting the full potential available for efficient use. Statutory minimum energy efficiency standards and market transparency regarding the energy consumed by the many applications provide an important basis for the capture of the demand-side energy efficiency potential.

Producers and consumers with a common cause.

Take the supply of electricity: in contrast to the past, we can expect an extremely versatile future. Large gas and coal-fired power plants, small co-generation facilities and a large number of wind, biomass and photovoltaic installations will together generate the electricity required. The aim must therefore be to create marketable solutions for an intelligent system which offers the right incentives to capture the full energy efficiency potential available in the supply chain, from generation and distribution to storage and consumption, and to achieve the German government’s ambitious climate mitigation goals. An intelligent system uses the potential offered by today’s information technology and enables the communication of all components within the system to ensure optimization. We must create solutions which are adaptable to future needs while taking into account technical, economic and organizational requirements.

We set store by smart systems and innovative services.

Intelligent energy systems call for innovative energy services which satisfy both efficiently and economically the needs of the energy consumer and the needs of the companies active along the value chain. At the same time, an EU Directive requires that all EU Member States achieve energy end-use savings of 9% by the year 2017 by increasing their energy end-use efficiency and using energy services. In cooperation with partners from the political arena, industry and associations we develop strategies and solutions for modern energy services and innovative products for intelligent energy systems as a means of giving direction to the challenge of a sustainable and secure energy supply.