iPower kick-off

The challenge for tomorrow's energy system is to develop solutions that make the energy system better geared to receiving power from renewable energy sources such as wind turbines, which only produce electricity when the wind is blowing. In Denmark, the government's long-term energy plan is for society to be independent of fossil fuels in 2050, but as soon as 2025, 50 per cent of electricity must come from wind power.

"The iPower consortium must find solutions to designing and controlling an intelligent and flexible power grid - a so-called 'smart grid'. We must find out how all the many millions of consumption units in private homes and industry can contribute to the flexibility which is needed when the electricity system is supplied with fluctuating energy," explains head of the iPower platform Anders Troi from Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy.

"The breadth of expertise in the consortium, which boasts some of the biggest players in the energy market as well as small specialist companies, together with the ballast from the research world means that we are able to design long-lasting solutions and specific products which can be introduced within the foreseeable future."

The platform is headed by Head of Programme Anders Troi from Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy. Professor Jacob Řstergaard from the Centre for Electric Technology at DTU Electrical Engineering is responsible for the research part of the platform, and CTO Frank Elefsen from the Danish Technological Institute is responsible for innovation.

Provided by Technical University of Denmark