Mannheim / Wetzlar / Budakalász / Dresden, February 19, 2024: The Bosch Home Comfort Group, Prolan, Robotron, and PPC are taking a joint step forward in the energy-sector deployment of heat pumps. This collaboration demonstrates that today’s infrastructure—comprising heat pumps, control boxes, and iMSys—is already equipped to meet the grid-oriented requirements of Section 14a, and that market-oriented control and time-varying applications can be implemented via the SG-Ready standard.
As part of the collaboration, a Bosch heat pump (Compress 5800i AW) was connected via a relay to the FNN control box (Prolan), and a switching profile from Robotron’s aEMT system was uploaded to the FNN control box via the CLS channel of the PPC SMGW. In this process, the switching profile was not only transferred via the control box to the heat pump’s SG-Ready interface for the planned state change, but was also triggered via an ad hoc command (“wiper command”). This allows the heat pumps to be operated automatically in accordance with market or grid-related considerations.
With this control logic, heat pump operators can benefit from electricity-price-based grid fees—and, in the future, from time-varying grid fees—in their usage. This would also allow grid operators, for example, to react in advance to known power bottlenecks in grid sections and issue startup commands for heat pumps. The power demand from the heat pumps would thus be shifted in time, and a critical situation that might arise later would then be mitigated by lower power demand. As a result, the partners have already been able to implement use cases with existing hardware in the field that go beyond the requirements of Section 14a of the German Energy Economy Act (EnWG).
A massive potential that is just getting started
In light of current and future developments, it is clear what tremendous potential this holds for companies in the energy distribution sector, as well as for competitive and incumbent metering point operators. This applies to both standardized solutions and customized approaches that serve the market’s target audience. By utilizing standardized digital communication, aggregators can effectively tap into the flexibility resources of the heating transition and actively contribute to the decarbonization of the heating sector. The German federal government’s expansion targets—to install six million heat pumps in Germany by 2030—offer enormous potential for CO2 savings. According to the “Heat Pump Traffic Light” from FfE Munich, 75% of existing buildings could already be equipped with heat pumps.
Many heat pumps in the existing building stock are already equipped with an SG-ready interface, meaning they are capable of receiving and processing switching signals via an existing, field-proven interface. This allows existing flexibility to be leveraged during the rollout of the iMSYs infrastructure.
The key lies in thinking not only in terms of grid-oriented control, but also in terms of market-oriented control
With the implementation of Section 14a, it appears that some providers have already exhausted the maximum potential of the digitized infrastructure in the heating sector and achieved their targets. However, the partners’ demonstration shows that by shifting the heat pump load, control is possible not only according to grid-related requirements but also according to market-related requirements. “Smart Grid-ready” technology thus plays a significant role. It is becoming clear that the infrastructure currently under development can be viewed not only as an obligation but also as an opportunity for digitalization experts, grid operators, manufacturers, and users.
