‘Smart Energy District’ is a flagship project that aims to develop and implement a smart district equipped with a digital platform for monitoring and controlling electrical installations and equipment. The goal is to study and propose viable and reliable solutions for various actors in the electric energy sector.
Description
The new forms of decentralised electricity production and changing consumption habits are putting distribution networks under pressure. To overcome this challenge, the Engineering and Architecture Department of the HES-SO is funding the Smart Energy District project1. The aim of this project is to set up a research and testing platform on the scale of French-speaking Switzerland, whose solutions can be replicated by the various stakeholders in the energy field.
Four universities of applied sciences in the Engineering and Architecture field of HES-SO (Fribourg, Geneva, Vaud, and Valais) are committed to this transition. This initiative aligns with the Confederation's 2050 Energy Strategy, and they are pooling their expertise within the 'Smart Energy District' project. This project aims to design, develop and deploy a smart district equipped with a digital platform for monitoring and controlling electrical installations and equipment. The goal is to study and propose viable and reliable solutions to the various actors in the electricity sector.
With a budget of CHF 1.5 million, the project started in January 2024 and will run until 2027.
Smart Energy District Pilot Site
The choice of a pilot site in French-speaking Switzerland is currently under review in collaboration with the industrial and public partners of the project. This pilot site will allow technical solutions to be tested in the field before being replication in other contexts and environments. In particular, it will provide access to consumption and production information (monitoring) and allow the control of electric vehicles, heat pumps, batteries, and more, in order to optimally manage the distribution network.
The ultimate goal is to offer a high degree of standardisation and interoperability that is flexible, secure and resilient, allowing different actors to deploy their services using the same infrastructure while integrating sectors such as networks, heating and mobility.
1 A Smart Energy District is a geographically defined area that integrates advanced energy technologies and data analytics to optimise energy consumption, the integration of renewable energy sources and grid resilience. Two main objectives are intrinsically linked to this project:
- To provide a high level of standardisation and interoperability;
- To achieve a more sustainable, efficient and reliable energy system for people, businesses and institutions.
