The “Technology Region Karlsruhe” is a hot spot of ICT innovation in Germany. Technology challenges like “Smart Grid” and visibility in places like the EU commission are vital for it. On April 16th, 2015, a 60 people delegation representing politics, industry and research travelled to Brussels. The event organized there hosted important officials from Europe: Merce Griera i Fisa (Head of Sector, Smart Cities and Sustainability, Research and Innovation in DG Connect), Vladimir Sucha (General Director of the EC Joint Research Centre JRC), Daniel Caspary (Member of the European Parliament) as well as from Karlsruhe: among others Frank Mentrup (Lord Mayor of Karlsruhe), Frank Mastiaux (CEO of EnBW) and Wolfgang Grenke, (President of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce). Easy Smart Grid proudly represented the Smart Energy Start-up scene in Karlsruhe.
In the Smart Grid workshop, Mercé Griera i Fisa gave a key note emphasizing the high level of ICT infrastructure investment currently planned by the commission. This includes use of a special, more reliable version of LTE (Long Term Evolution) mobile phone technology to enable smart meter communication. The group of 14 participants including representatives from local administration, research (like KIT) and industry - big players (EnBW) and small (Thomas Walter from Easy Smart Grid just right of the monitor) discussed their activities and the requirements of future energy systems in this workshop.
In a plenary session, various EC projects (regions and cities, education, joint research centre - JRC) were presented. As Europe is the level at which energy markets and regulation are decided, it is imperative for Easy Smart Grid to propose and discuss its innovative solution there. The need for interoperability of standards is a major JRC activity to make sure electrical equipment can be used everywhere in the EU: Currently ~350 standards are competing in Europe alone! Easy Smart Grid already established contact with the JRC as it could reduce this Babylonian confusion at the connection point by providing one simple protocol for load shifting, for all devices.
The evening reception was an ideal opportunity to network and establish new contacts. While in Brussels, Easy Smart Grid rounded off the agenda by visiting representatives of the “Alliance for Rural Electrification” (ARE) as well as the Becquerel Institute. With both there are strong synergies as the Easy Smart Grid technology solution enables faster integration of renewables into micro grids at lower cost, and further exchanges were agreed.
(Photos courtesy of Dietmar Persch, Head of Communication of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Karlsruhe).