Stadtwerke: heat plans, local energy markets, no engineers

Energy and electrical engineering projects wait for engineers

What happens. Utilities have more projects than engineers: new heat sources, storage, control of networks, replacement of old controls. Open positions for electrical and energy engineers stay open for a long time, and the people who are there work on faults and daily business.

What it costs. Projects are delayed or never started, planned savings do not come, and the staff who are there carry the load until they leave as well.

Why the usual fix fails. Posting the job again changes little in a market where engineers have many offers. Agencies deliver people who need months to learn the network. A large engineering firm brings a team and an overhead that a project of this size does not carry.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From the project description, the plant data and the questions that are open I check which part can be handled as a defined task, for example a model, a control concept or an optimisation, with documentation that your own staff can continue. The fixed-price remote diagnosis shows what can be delivered at a fixed price, and what has to stay with your staff. Temporary agency work is the alternative where you need a person in the team.

New local electricity communities and storage rules create new planning tasks

What happens. In Switzerland, the new electricity law allows local electricity communities of consumers, producers and storage operators and sets minimum payments for feed-in (Federal Council). A utility or an industrial park can now share power among neighbours. Who gets which power at what time, from which source, is a daily question that did not exist before.

What it costs. Billing and operation are manual for a new product. Without a plan the community does not use its own generation, and the storage is operated by simple rules and earns less than it could.

Why the usual fix fails. A fixed split of the generation by share is easy and ignores the hours. A spreadsheet works for a few participants and fails with more. A software package for billing does not decide how to run the storage and the loads.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From the metering data of a site, the generation profile and the tariff rules I check how much a schedule of storage and flexible loads gains compared with the simple rule. The fixed-price remote diagnosis answers whether a planning tool for a community is worth building for your case.

Background: Economic predictive control

Municipal heat plans must become operating networks

What happens. Cities have to produce heat plans (Heat Planning Act), and the plans show new heat networks with heat pumps, storage, waste heat and a rising share of renewable sources. Between a plan and a network that runs stands the question of how the plant is operated: which source runs when, at which supply temperature.

What it costs. A heat network with many sources run by rules of thumb uses more electricity and fuel than needed, and feed-in temperatures that are too high raise losses and block waste heat and heat pumps.

Why the usual fix fails. An engineering study sizes the plant for a design day and not for the operation. Heat pumps run well only at a low supply temperature, and old customer installations need a high one. Operating by the experience of the dispatcher does not carry over to a network with many more sources.

How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From the plan, network data and demand profiles I check how a model of the network and an optimisation of the dispatch and the supply temperature would run the heat sources. The fixed-price remote diagnosis answers what such an operation could save in your network and what has to be measured first.

Background: Economic predictive control