Status: 27.10.2023, 21:00 PM
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At the start of the "Fuchstal leuchtet" project, all cooperation partners from the municipality, research and industry met at the battery storage facility at the Fuchstal Energy Future. © Municipality
The municipality of Fuchstal is collaborating with the Munich University of Applied Sciences, the Augsburg University of Applied Sciences and the Technical University of Braunschweig on a research project: The research project is called "Fuchstal leuchtet".
Fuchstal – In order to ensure the expansion and integration of renewable energies, the question must be clarified as to whether it is possible in practice to operate a grid that is fed exclusively by power converters. As an energy-self-sufficient municipality, Fuchstal is working on the grid of the future.
This has a financial volume of 1.3 million euros, as Mayor Erwin Karg informs. 98 percent of the sum is contributed by the state. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. The project executing agency is Forschungszentrum Jülich in North Rhine-Westphalia, which in turn is a partner for science, business and politics.
Fuchstal is an excellent choice
"The operation of a power converter-dominated island grid" is being tested, as Professor Georg Kerber from the Munich University of Applied Sciences explains. As the winner of the "German Sustainability Award" and as a municipality that is largely self-sufficient from renewable energies through its own construction of wind turbines, solar parks, a battery storage system and a heating pot with an associated "Power to Heat" system, Fuchstal with its existing infrastructure is ideally suited to
You can find even more current news from the region around Schongau on Merkur.de/Schongau.Forschungsfrage answers.
With the discontinuation of conventional gas and coal-fired power plants, which currently make a significant contribution to grid stability, and with the increasing use of small converter-based generation plants such as photovoltaic and wind power plants, the fundamental behavior of the power grid is changing. The central task is whether and how a stable operation of a grid that is fed exclusively by power converters is possible in practice.
The project is divided into three phases
The project is divided into three sections, each with a practical field test, Kerber continues. During the first field trial, the "Power to Heat" system at the warming pot in Leeder will only be reliably supplied for a certain period of time with the help of the battery storage system. Testing of this concept is scheduled for July 2024.
Subsequently, the four wind turbines in the state forest will be integrated into the concept. The aim is to determine whether the battery storage system can be simultaneously charged by the "Power to Heat" system, which converts electrical energy into heat, and fed by the wind turbines. This concept is expected to be tested in practice in July 2025, the professor looks ahead.
The aim is to provide stable emergency care
Finally, the municipality of Fuchstal will be integrated into the concept: The extent to which the "network of the future" can be realized will be examined. Practical testing of the final concept is expected to take place in March 2026.
The technical goal of the "Fuchstal leuchtet" project is to provide a stable emergency supply to the municipality of Fuchstal. The supply is provided by the interaction of the PV systems, the wind turbines and the battery storage system with the grid-forming inverter. If this goal is achieved, the answer to the research question can make a significant contribution to the transition from conventional generation plants to renewable energies and thus to the success of the energy transition.
All news and stories can also be found on the Facebook page of the Schongauer Nachrichten.
According to Professor Kerber, the energy infrastructure of the municipality of Fuchstal and the ownership structure of the plants are "almost unique" in Germany. The "Fuchstal real-world laboratory" already corresponds to the interconnected grid in 2040 and is therefore ideally suited for investigating the research problem. In addition, the absence of a specially adapted, central grid regulator and the simultaneous construction of a converter-powered network without rotating machines is a novelty.
The local newspapers in the district of Weilheim-Schongau are represented under "merkur_wm_sog" on Instagram.
"The project with the aim of providing emergency care to our community makes it possible for a proven concept to be available in the event of a blackout and thus to give the citizens security," says Fuchstal's mayor Karg. And he adds: "We are pleased that our community can make a contribution to the success of the energy transition throughout Germany, not only locally, but also by looking at the research problem."
JOHANNES JAIS