Windnode

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) has created a nationwide framework for developing exemplary solutions with the funding competition “Smart Energy Showcase – Digital Agenda for the Energy Transition (SINTEG)”.

After two years of preparation, the WindNODE project – the northeast German model region for intelligent energy – started on December 1, 2016. WindNODE as a joint project of SINTEG. It covers all six eastern German federal states including Berlin and is under the umbrella of the six heads of government. Around 50 network partners will work on joint solutions for a total of four years in order to integrate large amounts of renewable energy into the power grid as efficiently and intelligently as possible.

The energy transition requires digital solutions that create standardized interfaces in an increasingly decentralized energy system, guarantee data protection and data security, and act as a “switching point for digitization”. In the WindNODE concept, the digital networking platform will in the future form a bracket that connects producers and users, power grid and markets, and allows for flexibility (e.g. movable industrial loads, power-to-heat and cooling systems, electromobility) to work together in an optimally coordinated manner.

Stadtwerke Frankfurt (Oder) is a partner in the WindNODE project, bringing with it experience in the operation of generation plants and the cross-border supply of district heating. During the project period, IT-supported solutions are to be developed that enable fully automated control of all necessary processes in the generation plants, adapted to the current network situation. When wind and solar power are fed in, the grid conditions often change so quickly that manual control is hardly possible. At the end of the project period, the solutions developed are intended to ensure optimal operation of the generation plants and thus the best possible use of renewable energies.