Smart city Aspern delivers benefits

Siemens Austria has reported “new solutions for climate protection throughout Europe” from the Aspern smart city initiative.

Aspern Smart City Research, launched by the City of Vienna and Siemens back in 2013, is an urban lakeside development on the northeast side of the city that was planned to test new social, environmental and other concepts for future urban settlements.

From the outset, the energy system has been foundational with the goal to develop and test solutions that are market-oriented, scalable and economical.

According to Siemens Austria, the initiative – now mid-way through the second phase – has responded to complex but central energy policy questions from essential domains of the energy system, based on real data and operational experience from field tests.

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Moreover, the research questions are also constantly adapted to the latest challenges, a key one currently being the European Green Deal.

“The development of a climate-neutral, sustainable economy and society requires new approaches and – as has now become apparent – ever closer cooperation between urban developers, energy providers, grid operators, the housing industry, property developers and industry,” says Siemens Austria CEO Wolfgang Hesoun.

“What was piloted within the framework of the research is already being used, for example in Austria as part of a project with the Bundesimmobiliengesellschaft [real estate company]. In addition, the knowledge gained is already being reflected in newly developed or expanded Siemens products and solutions.”

Examples include a building information modelling viewer and building energy management system, as well as the SICAM enhanced grid sensor, ChargeControl and microgrid control solutions.

The first phase of the initiative running from 2013 to 2018 was focused on the development of the research infrastructure as a basis for the collection of real-time data and the practical testing of solution concepts.

In the second phase, which started in 2019 and runs through 2023, these concepts are being tested in system operation.

The aim is to create practical solutions for residents, grid and building operators as well as energy suppliers. The basis for this is the seamless communication of buildings with their occupants, the grid and energy markets via aggregators, energy service providers and trading platforms, as well as smart charging of electric and hybrid cars and the analysis of new approaches to the provision of thermal energy for decentralised heating and cooling.

Analysis of data is ongoing and Siemens Austria envisages further innovative solutions to emerge, particularly around building intelligence and its interaction with the grid as the penetration of distributed energy grows.

City of Vienna participants in Smart City Aspern includes energy providers Wien Energie and Wiener Netze, the Vienna 3420 Aspern Development company and the Vienna Business Agency.