Duration: January 2023 - December 2025

Total funding volume: 3.224.713€

Funding volume of the university: 562.782,50€

Sponsored by: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection

Climate and energy policy is rapidly changing the energy supply system in Germany. The nationwide integration of renewable energies and the integration of charging stations for electromobility are causing a high level of dynamism that is currently almost impossible to quantify. A forecast of potential outages that adapts to the dynamic electricity grid will be necessary in future in order to ensure the high demands placed on a resilient distribution grid, particularly in terms of security and quality of supply. In an intelligent, grid-wide energy management system, the rapid response to efficiency losses is also crucial for the sustainability of the distribution grid.

Concrete recommendations for action must be transmitted interactively to operators and service personnel in real time in order to support and guide them with activity-relevant and situation-adapted information directly at the systems. The support prepared by AI and made available in the form of digital media directly at the systems "in the field" also makes it possible to provide employees with didactically individualised skills so that challenges such as the shortage of skilled workers due to advancing demographic change can be better overcome. Furthermore, experts' travel activities can be optimised and, if necessary, reduced, which also has a positive impact on the CO2 footprint. Especially in times of crisis, as the coronavirus pandemic has shown, digital process support can be an important component in maintaining security of supply. The key to this is an assistance system based on a digital twin enhanced with cognitive capabilities.

The starting point is the sensory monitoring system for medium-voltage switchgear developed in the FLEMING project, which detects technical problems at component level. As part of the AProSys project, an optimised multifunctional variant of this system is being adapted for service life prediction. The integration of customised forecasting models into the AI-supported assistance system forms the fundamental component, which in particular accurately predicts events relevant to security of supply in the dynamically changing electricity grid for a long-term period. AI algorithms based on this provide operators and technical maintenance personnel with prioritised recommendations for action at line-up level. The assistance system not only indicates potential failures, but is also being further developed so that it can provide support in technically complex issues and impart valuable problem-solving skills in the sense of a cognitive system. Another component of this cognitive assistance system is digital support for planning activities within workforce management and knowledge management. Concepts for the reorganisation of services in the distribution network are being developed and validated so that the assistance systems can enable efficient operation and economical maintenance in companies.

Goals and approach: Various levels of the distribution grid must be integrated in order to achieve the project objectives. The control and protection components form the lower level for the complete switchgear, which is equipped with generic sensor solutions for current, voltage and temperature measurement as well as for recording vibration or acoustic signals. These sensor solutions are to be upgraded for the simultaneous monitoring of several components or systems, including their function. Building on this, the focus is on the practical implementation of the cognitive assistance system, which dynamically derives prioritised recommendations for action for the switchgear under consideration based on the sensor signals at component level and suitable prediction models. The aim is also to use this system to monitor neighbouring energy technology systems and the surrounding area, e.g. with regard to electrical events such as partial discharge in underground cables. Personal safety is also ensured through reliable anonymised detection of service personnel present. The forecasting and assistance systems developed will be experimentally validated by the operators involved in the project and piloting is being sought in order to provide concrete evidence of the added value for the transformation of the distribution grid as part of the energy and mobility transition in Germany.

Project partners: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Westfalen Weser Netz GmbH, Research Institute for Rationalisation (FIR) at RWTH Aachen University, SICP- Software Innovation Campus Paderborn