In third period of Aspern Smart City Research digital platforms, AI and digital twins help urban districts become climate neutral.
On the next level to CO2-neutral cities
One of Europe’s most important energy research projects, Aspern Smart City Research (ASCR), entered its third program period in 2024, which will run until 2028. The new research section’s motto is „ASCR NeXt Level. 2028“. The third phase of the innovation joint venture between Wiener Stadtwerke, companies of the City of Vienna and Siemens is build on the „Living Lab“ in Vienna’s aspern Seestadt urban development area and on already established innovations. The focus is being extended to urban infrastructures, with the innovations developed so far being scaled to the city using the latest technologies. The goal is to find holistic solutions to let the energy transition come to reality and to transform urban areas to be climate-neutral.
In the first two phases of the joint venture, interdisciplinary researchers, developers and employees from different areas of the parent companies created innovations and developed products and solutions that are already established on the market and have attracted international attention and applications. In the third phase, the innovations developed so far will be scaled up to the city using the latest technologies. Not only Vienna, the capital city of Austria, benefits from the concrete application research, but it also serves as a blueprint for urban spaces worldwide and should therefore have an impact on interested stakeholders far beyond Austria’s borders. A cooperation model between a technology company and a major city of this size is something special in Europe.
“Phase one of ASCR was characterized by R&D and the development of concepts. In phase two, prototypes were evaluated and the first concrete products and solutions were developed. Now we are uniting everything to take it to a new level,“ says Harald Loos, Head of the Research Department at Siemens Austria and Co-Managing Director of ASCR GmbH. „Over the last ten years, all partners have been able to generate a lot of added value from the ASCR co-creation joint venture. An essential advantage for us was to be able to work together on scalable solutions for a growing city with our customers and having a productive research and test environment in combination with the expertise of a global technology group at our disposal,“ reports Loos. „In order to manage the challenges surrounding the CO2-neutral city, we need to industrialize the energy transition. With Siemens Xcelerator, Siemens has laid the foundations for overcoming these challenges,“ he says, looking ahead to the activities of the current third research period.
In order to manage the challenges surrounding the CO2-neutral city, we need to industrialize the energy transition.
Harald Loos, Head of Research Department at Siemens Austria and Co-Managing Director of ASCR GmbH
ASCR’s current research activities are clearly focused on the two domains of energy grids and buildings. The new overarching approach is to bring together the drivers and enablers of the energy transition. Moving force include smart buildings, electromobility concepts, PV systems, energy storage systems and many more – all of them are flexibly consuming, generating and storing energy elements. The electricity grid enables the necessary exchange between all elements of the urban energy system. As it is now possible to spread renewable energy sources and energy storage options, the electricity grid is facing major challenges. These challenges are addressed in projects including the use of automation and digitalization. The intelligent use of storage systems or interaction with flexible consumers through specifications for charging stations for electric cars or heat management in a building show, that flexibility plays an important role.
„The approach in the third research phase is to make the complex interaction of the subsystems involved more efficient and, above all, scalable in order to achieve the energy transition goals. The results of the previous two research programs have been successively incorporated into the development of the future Siemens portfolio. Now, in the third phase, the first Siemens Xcelerator tools such as Building X, Electrification X and Gridscale X are ready to be used in Aspern and will be improved through AI integration. This enables a distribution grid operator to utilize physical capacities more efficiently with the help of transparency and a new understanding of risk,“ says Alfred Einfalt, ASCR researcher and Principle Key Expert for Smart Grids in the research department at Siemens Austria.
The SICAM Enhanced Grid Sensor (EGS) from Siemens is a grid sensor transitioned into a product in the second research phase of ASCR and provides unprecedented transparency in the distribution grid. „This component can be easily installed and configured by grid operators in their transformer stations and integrated into a software platform such as Gridscale X so that the status of the low-voltage grid can be monitored at any time. We designed the system in the first and developed it in the second phase to create a functional product that precisely meets the needs of our customers,“ says Robert Tesch, Head of Electrification and Automation at Siemens Austria. „With our products and solutions, we help network operators to use their existing infrastructure even more efficiently,“ continues Tesch.
With our products and solutions, we help network operators to use their existing infrastructure even more efficiently.
Robert Tesch, Head of Electrification and Automation at Siemens Austria
The second domain, inextricably linked to the first – networks – in the ASCR research project are buildings. They can also be seen as drivers of the energy transition, as they are responsible for around 30 percent of CO2 emissions globally. The efficient functioning of energy systems in buildings requires intelligence and communication. Modern, but also many revitalized buildings have great potential to contribute to the energy transition through the use of PV systems, heat pumps and electrical and thermal storage systems. This requires optimized use and coordinated control of these elements in interaction with energy grid and energy market.
Buildings and their elements must also be maintained, which is why another focus of the ASCR research program is on cost-efficient maintenance and operating processes (facility management) as well as monitoring and analyzing the behavior of energy systems. „With our current products and innovations, we cover almost all areas in the operation of modern new buildings, but also in existing buildings. In addition to the energy system, which includes heating, ventilation and air conditioning technology, the areas of fire safety, access control and monitoring are also important for an efficient building. Technologies such as digital twins, 3D models and AI-supported tools for service and maintenance assist businesses even more efficient. Cybersecurity has become an important topic in all of these areas,“ says Lukas Krammer, ASCR researcher and senior research scientist in the research department at Siemens Austria.
More use of digital platforms
In the building sector digital platforms will be used with much greater extent in the third ASCR research phase. Siemens Xcelerator and the associated systems will play a decisive role like they do in energy systems. The application for the building sector is called Building X.
ASCR’s research activities led to the development of products and services in the building sector, already being used outside the Aspern ecosystem. An energy service was developed for the 24/7 real-time optimization of the energy system in buildings. It allows reduction of energy costs by optimally controlling the energy system. AI algorithms are used to predict consumption and generation. In addition, the ASCR developments as part of the „Digital Building Twin“ and evaluation of methods from „Building Information Modeling“ were initial point for the development of the Building X application „Lifecycle Twin“.
This collaboration gives us valuable insight into the specific challenges faced by municipalities and building operators, we incorporate into the further development of our portfolio.
Martin Lang, Head of Buildings Business, Siemens Austria
„The great asset of ASCR is the customer and partner network. It allows us to create products and solutions with immediate added value for our customers. This collaboration gives us valuable insight into the specific challenges faced by municipalities and building operators, we incorporate into the further development of our portfolio,“ says Martin Lang, Head of Buildings Business at Siemens Austria.
„The fundamental questions of the project have been the same since the beginning. Thanks to the new technologies we have at our disposal, we can implement solutions much more quickly. Partners within and outside the research ecosystem help us to develop and scale the solutions in an economic worthwhile way,“ says Harald Loos, summarizing the direction of impact of the third ASCR phase. „The targeted use of future technologies such as AI or digital twins helps us to overcome the challenges at the necessary speed. Especially in the area of urban infrastructure, resilience and cybersecurity, keyword NIS 2, are a basic requirement,“ he adds.
© Siemens
© Siemens
© Siemens
