Energiewende - the Game

"Energiewende" is a computer game about the transition of our energy system from fossil fuels to renewable and sustainable energy sources. The game was developed by Manuel Herold, Matija Kucko, Andrea Monacchi, John N. A. Brown, and Wilfried Elmenreich as contribution to the CROSMOS GameJam. At this event teams had to develop a computer game to a topic just revealed at the contest in just two days - 2014 the topic was related to the services of Stadtwerke Klagenfurt. 

The game Energiewende let's you try out the strategic and tactical aspects of an electrical energy system that is mostly powered by renewable energy sources. Unlike a coal power plant, photovoltaic or wind power plants cannot save fuel in times of low load for using it later. Therefore, it is necessary to plan the distribution and placement of power plants well according to the expected power demands of their users - in the game they are modeled as houses with an energy consumption behavior of typical households. After placing power plants and transmission lines, the game features a real-time mode, where your system is simulated throughout three phases of a day (night/morning, daytime, evening). In case there is not enough energy in one phase, you must prevent a blackout (otherwise you loose the game) by balancing the grid. This is done by turning off devices in the houses. But be aware - user might not like this, especially if you turn off a device the user was about to use right now. A "complain-o-meter" is showing the aggregated dislikings of the users - once the complain-o-meter runs over, the game is lost.
Thus, one learns also about the typical consumption of devices and their potential for balancing the grid. The method shown in the game called demand response is currently a frequently discussed method for the future smart grid.

Got everything? Try out the game by clicking the image above. Have fun!

Need motivation to save energy? - Go for social media competition!

There is a large potential by closely monitoring the energy consumption of your appliances in a comprehensive overview. Being aware of the largest energy consumers and the general energy demand over the day, one can optimize his/her household to reduce power consumption or to shift consumption to a daytime where the demand/supply situation is better.
However, what is the motivation to do so?
As it can be seen in other situations (like riding a bike vs. taking the car, etc.), saving a few bucks might not be enough motivation to effectively change the consumers' behavior.
Austin Montgomery, University of Waterloo gives a possible solution to this problem in his video "Making the Smart Grid Smarter with Social Media": make it a competition on social networks!



By the way, this is my favorite video from the IEEE SmartGridComm 2011 video contest. Check http://www.ieee-smartgridcomm.org/video.html for the other nominated clips.

Siemens smart grid innovation contest winning ideas

In April 2011, Siemens called for an idea contest on Smart Grid Innovation. Now, the four best ideas out of 464 submitted contributions have been announced in an award ceremony in Berlin on September 15th. The winning ideas in short:
Christian Huder from EIT ICT Labs, (Germany) won one of the four prices with his idea
"Smart Grids - comparison or regulatory approaches and their implications on business models" discussing the roles of state, market, and providers.
Slobodan Matic from University of California, Berkeley, (USA) elaborated successfully on the concept of an "Integrated Modular Architecture for Distribution Automation".
If you want acceptance, you need games. Vasilis Nikolopoulos from Intelen, (Greece) explored this topic under the idea of "Advanced Demand Response Behavioral Gamification". Consumers having used to social media and gaming will be happy to play a game of consumption optimization in the future grid.
Multi-agent systems are a promising model for smart grids. Logenthiran Thillainathan from the National University of Singapore introduces the concept as an architectural paradigm for autonomously operating smart grids.

Congratulations to the winners and looking forward to see the ideas soon in action!


Source: Siemens Smart Grid Innovation Contest - Meet the Winners