German grid operator Amprion has unveiled its new main control room (HSL) in Brauweiler near Cologne, that will help facilitate the energy transition.
The Amprion HSL will become a central technical component for achieving Germany’s climate targets, said the grid operator, which has invested around €100m in the new control room.
“With the new HSL in Brauweiler, we are delivering the operating system for the energy transition. It is a central technical component for a safe, climate-neutral energy system,” said Amprion CEO Hans-Jurgen Brick.
The Amprion HSL is the largest network control room in Europe and has a modular structure, so that innovative technologies and operating resources can be gradually integrated into the meshed network.
“With our new HSL we can connect sectors such as electricity and gas. It enables us to make power-to-gas systems climate-neutral and system-friendly and thus makes an important contribution to the development of a hydrogen system,” said Brick.
“So we are prepared to coordinate not only the electricity, but the energy system.”
Amprion’s HSL uses artificial intelligence to safely and reliably integrate renewables into the system.
Self-learning algorithms evaluate the generation forecasts from various sources to develop a forecast for wind and solar energy that deviates from real generation by only 1.5-3%.
Visualisation software, including a “heatmap” combines load flows in the power grid with regional power balances, so Amprion can see whether a region is generating more or less electricity than is being consumed.
The core of the new Amprion HSL consists of two data centres and a new large-screen display, with an area of 108 square metres, making it the largest in Europe and the third largest in the world.
The HSL is able to access millions of pieces of information from the network every day process, visualise and combine to form an always up-to-date picture of any given situation on the network.
The HSL allows Amprion to monitor the transmission networks from northern France to the Czech Republic and from Denmark to northern Italy around the clock.
The transmission system operator has the largest observation area in Europe and is responsible for ensuring the electricity in its grid flows safely to more than 500 million consumers in Europe.