Northern German Regulatory Sandbox: Energy Transition Alliance for Innovations and Effective Climate Protection

At a glance

• Test the holistic transformation of the energy system to demonstrate a fast way for decarbonization of all consumption sectors, especially integrated coupling of different sectors with hydrogen and energy efficient district solutions primary in the heating domain
• Realistic test of the transformation path for a secure integrated energy system with the goal to reduce the CO2 emissions by 75 % in the region until 2023
• Different technologies to connect different sectors will be modeled

The challenge

The project Northern German Regulatory Sandbox (Norddeutsches Reallabor NRL) as cross-state cooperation project will test the holistic transformation of the energy system to demonstrate a fast way for decarbonization of all consumption sectors.

The project is characterized by its holistic system approach and focuses on two areas of technology which will be tested in a wide-area, technology open and realistic market form: integrated coupling of different sectors with hydrogen and energy efficient district solutions primary in the heating domain.

The solution

Project goals:

• Create sustainable innovations in the coupling of different sectors by large and scalable demonstrators, which will give economic impulses for the development of future markets especially in industry and their value chains
• Secure and expansion of the industry location of northern Germany, strengthen the sustainability and competitiveness of local companies
• Realistic test of the transformation path for a secure integrated energy system with the goal to reduce the CO2 emissions by 75 % in the region

Project part: Overall system simulation

A fast-developing energy transition creates new challenges for the energy sector. This requires new concepts for the future to secure the energy supply at any point in time. A first step to create and implement such concepts is the simulation to determine their impacts on the energy system and to generate appropriate solutions. Within the project different technologies to connect different sectors will be modeled. These models will be used later in various simulation models with task-specific modeling accuracy to enable the analysis of the effect on the overall system. The size of the models will range from microgrid up to generic hub model.

The added value

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Project goals of the project part: Overall system simulation

The goal of this project part is,

a) to represent the existing energy infrastructure and demonstrators simulatively and collectively in the model region of the NRL and

b) to explore different approaches of the integration of cross-sector systems into the overall energy system, of grid operation with cross-sector systems and to secure the power supply with cross-sector systems.

Furthermore, the goal is to analyze the effect on the overall system if the cross-sector systems, especially hydrogen technologies are introduced system wide in the model region.