Grid expansion and paths to climate neutrality as topics of the Energy Days 2022

On November 14 and 15, the future of the energy industry was the focus of the Energy Days 2022 at Palais Eschenbach. With numerous expert presentations, the conference organized by conference provider imh focused on the transformation to climate neutrality, the future of grid infrastructure and sustainability in business practice. The Renewable Energy Technologies competence area was also able to contribute its expertise to the podium.

Joint plenary session to kick off the event

Before the conference was divided into the two specialist sessions “Sustainability Now” and “Grids of the Future”, a plenary session marked the joint start of the event. This was moderated by Manfred Tragner, head of the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Renewable Energies, who, after a keynote speech by Stefan Bruckbauer (Chief Economist UniCredit Bank Austria) on the impact of energy prices, also led the discussion on the topic of “Energy Transition Now – How to succeed in the transformation”. In the debate, it quickly became clear that the different players can work very well together on a meta-level and also have the same goals, but that in detail, different approaches to the topic prevent a unified thrust. There was agreement on the need for strong stakeholder and user integration to accelerate the implementation of the energy transition.

Benedikt Ennser (Head of Energy Legal Affairs, Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology) gave a keynote speech on the second strand of issues surrounding grid utilization, congestion caused by e-mobility and the risk of blackouts. In it, a key figure for the expansion of photovoltaics in Austria was also mentioned: In the three PV funding calls 2022 so far, a total of more than 1 TWp was contracted. This means correspondingly high demands on the grid. These were also addressed in the following discussion with Gerald Führer (Managing Director BC Consulting GmbH), Michael Weixelbraun (Head of Operations Regions APG Austrian Power Grid AG) and Andreas Abart (Operations Manager Stromnetzt Netz Oberösterreich GmbH). A key finding of this second round of discussions was that we need to get moving more quickly on grid expansion in order to be able to guarantee the stability of the grids in the face of the targets set for renewables and electromobility.

Thematically separate program tracks

On the first afternoon, two separate program tracks were used for the rest of the presentations. In one part of the program, further questions and challenges concerning the “grids of the future” were discussed. Among other things, the focus was on topics such as congestion management, the crux of photovoltaics, renewable gas and hydrogen, the digitalization of grids, and the “ecosystem” of e-mobility. In the latter block of lectures, Bernhard Grasel, Lecturer and Researcher of the Competence Center Renewable Energy Technologies, addressed the topic of bi-directional e-charging stations and went into detail about special features, grid repercussions, possibilities for grid support as well as aspects of islanding and intelligent control.

The presentations in the second program track, “Sustainability Now,” were themed “Mision Zero: The Road to Climate Neutrality.” The presentations here were dedicated to the main topics of national energy strategy 2030, EU taxonomy, circular economy, greenwashing, CSRD & reporting obligations according to the ESG as well as the product carbon footprint.