The global heavy engineering giant Siemens (News - Alert) announced that in partnership with a number of European partner companies and universities, it is going to participate in the EcoGrid EU demonstration project, planned to be running through 2015.

The EcoGrid demonstration project is sponsored by EU. The project involves the installation of a prototype smart grid, which is scheduled to be put into operation on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The 21-million-euro development and demonstration project will run until 2015.

The project aims at setting up of a future-proof smart grid on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The 16 participants are based in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.

Siemens is going to play a vital part in the project by contributing its technological expertise in the balance between fluctuating renewables-based power supply and the intelligent control of power consumption within a smart grid. The control system from Siemens will be used for balancing energy loads in domestic and commercial applications.

In this project, Siemens is going to link its highly advanced building automation systems with its energy management technology. This will enable Siemens to expand the control of classical power transmission and distribution grids to the level of buildings. The system will enable consumers to adapt their energy consumption according to dynamic energy prices offered by the real-time energy market. Furthermore, the consumers will be able to feed renewables-based power back into the grid and act as decentralized power generators.

“We’re thus underscoring our comprehensive technical competence in optimizing the balance between fluctuating renewables-based power supply and the intelligent control of power consumption within a smart grid,” Jan Mrosik, CEO of the Smart Grid Division within Siemens’ Infrastructure & Cities Sector explained in a statement.

By continuously receiving updated price signals from this marketplace, the Siemens load management solution will help convert optimized control signals for the connected power loads. Instead of generation tracking loads, loads will be controlled in the EcoGrid project – based on momentarily available power generated by renewables, Siemens further explained in a press release.

Earlier this month, Siemens announced that Granite Construction Company (GCC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Granite Construction, is using Siemens' Sinvert PVS1051 UL inverter with an integrated e-house solution and a 1,000 KVA oil transformer. The 1MW solar power generation system will provide clean energy to power Granite's aggregate mining facility.

Siemens Sinvert PVS1051 UL is used in photovoltaic (PV) systems to convert the direct current from the PV generators into a three-phase current which is then supplied to the connected power grid.


Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell