Austria's cities are facing a wide range of social, ecological and economic challenges: the effects of climate change, demographic change, growing social inequalities and the management of structural change or - especially at present - pandemics can endanger the infrastructural supply of cities strongly. In order to equip critical infrastructure with regard to energy supply in the event of a crisis, expensive emergency power systems are often purchased at present, which often offer little or no additional benefit over the function of supply in times of crisis. With the introduction of the Renewable Energies Expansion Act, the possibility of forming local energy communities will arise in the future. One of the reasons for this is the idea of creating incentives to make private capital available for the expansion of renewable energies through additional incentives, while at the same time rewarding systemic behaviour (consumption at times of high renewable production) financially. Last but not least, in this context the question remains how to design and implement energy communities in order to achieve the broadest possible impact and acceptance and also to raise awareness among participants.
A number of questions arise from the underlying problem in the specific setting of Neudörfl. Neudörfl has a local heating grid which is supplied with waste heat by an industrial company (Fundermax GmbH, partner in the project). In addition, a CHP plant is used to generate green electricity in the industrial company. At the location of the industrial company there are also large potential PV areas on the corresponding hall roofs. The municipality has also set itself the goal of exploiting the photovoltaic potential in public buildings and supporting citizens in making use of their potential.
Based on this initial situation, the basic goal in the project is therefore to ensure the energy supply of the municipalities critical infrastructure in the event of a crisis by cooperation / bundling of all existing resources and prioritisation of critical infrastructure, while at the same time having a positive impact on climate, environment and regional value creation in regular operation. This is to be achieved through the formation of an energy community and a coordinated energy flow optimisation by using the energy forms heating and electricity as well as storage and flexibility options. By involving the stakeholders, especially the end customers, a basis for broad acceptance and participation is to be created. Incentives for the increased use of or investment in renewable energies in the region are to be created in order to be part of a community for resilience and renewable energies (RES2 Community).
The traditional intention of the Energy Community is to be extended by two additional functionalities in the project:
- blackout preparedness and prevention function for critical infrastructure
- system design and sample implementation of the required ICT infrastructure for the implementation of Regional Energy Communities based on open IoT data platforms
