SmartEnergyHub - A Big-Data Approach for the Optimization of Energy-Intensive Infrastructures

The Energiewende in Germany comes with growing uncertainties due to constantly changing regulatory requirements, volatile and less controllable generation from renewables and rising energy costs for consumers. As a result, operators of large scale infrastructures, such as airports or production industries, have to reconsider their energy supply and management. Prognosis and combined optimization of multiple forms of energy are mandatory to reduce costs and to profit from monetary incentives. For solving such an optimization problem in real time and subsequently controlling the energy supply and demand respectively, information and communication technology (ICT) is mandatory. Within the SmartEnergyHub research project an approach is developed to identify energy optimization potentials based on a big data approach, which uses high volumes of sensor data. Therefore, SmartEnergyHub combines models for energy demand prediction, as well as optimization techniques for efficient energy consumption, production and procurement to find optimal operating schedules. This paper describes the software requirements that have to be met by such a system and presents an architectural concept for its design using the Stuttgart Airport as an example.