Can the electricity grid withstand all the heat pumps and wallboxes that will have to be installed in the next few years? The project partners of the Flair² research project are developing and testing a solution.

By 2025, three million heat pumps are to be installed, five years later six million. This is almost a six-fold increase compared to the 1.2 million heat pumps installed by the end of last year. Consumers who were previously supplied via the gas grid or oil for their heating are now to be supplied via electricity grids as well. Even if energy is saved by switching to the efficient technology, the new heaters will put a strain on the electricity grid. Even if they are switched on and off at the same time with time switches, as is still often the case, or if they all respond to a price signal at the same time.

The Flair² control module, which our institute developed with the project partners, is intended to provide a remedy. Flair² stands for "intelligent control of flexible systems". The partners are currently testing it in around 100 households in the LEW distribution grid and in the Berlin electricity grid together with the communications service provider e*Message Wireless Information Services. The research and development project is intended to break up the simultaneity of heat pump controls that were previously considered grid-friendly, in which fixed blocking times are specified.

The jury was convinced by the project's approach to the very relevant challenge and how it tackles it. They awarded the project as pv magazine top innovation.

Read more details in the published article.