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S1E05

Bridging Research & Industry: Smart Grids, ML,&P2P Markets with Bharath Varsh Rao - TEB Podcast S1E5

with Bharath Varsh Rao· AIT Austrian Institute of Technology· 55m

TL;DR

Recorded inside AIT's inverter test lab, this episode traces why distribution grids are flying blind: Austrian DSOs are barred on data-protection grounds from using smart-meter data for real-time control or planning, so Rao's team infers the whole grid state from a strategically placed subset of meters. He is blunt about the trade being made — a fossil-heavy system needs little flexibility, and Europe is deliberately sacrificing controllability for renewable share. The sharpest number is the queue: nine years to connect a new plant, with roughly 15 TW of renewable capacity waiting in it.

Synopsis
Bharath Varsh Rao of AIT hosts The Energy Bridge inside the SmartEST laboratory, where inverters, storage systems and EV chargers are tested before they can be sold in Austria. He explains what a smart grid is actually for, why negative day-ahead prices follow directly from merit order, and why curtailing solar is a waste nobody wants. The core problem he works on is observability: data-protection law keeps DSOs from using smart-meter data operationally, so AI methods reconstruct grid state from a handful of strategically placed devices. Rao also covers the gridcloud project's storm-prediction use case on Turkey's Karaburun peninsula, the legal anatomy of renewable versus citizen energy communities and why Austria's boomed after the price spike, the honest verdict on a blockchain peer-to-peer market his team ran in a Styrian village, and the nine-year connection queue he now wants to shorten.

Key metrics

by the numbers · 5
  • 9 years
    time to connect a new power plant to a medium- or high-voltage feeder
  • 15 TW
    renewable generation capacity Rao says is sitting in the connection queue
  • −500 €/MWh
    day-ahead price reached days before recording, driven by surplus renewable output
  • 4 years
    length of a European research project — long enough that its output can be obsolete on delivery
  • 30
    research laboratories in the European association formed so members do not duplicate each other's competencies

Topics

8 tags
smart gridsmachine learningpeer-to-peer marketsenergy communitiesgrid observabilitydigital twinsflexibilityresearch commercialisation
Stats
Duration
55m
Words
10.1k
Questions
34

Timeline

12 chapters
  1. Inside the SmartEST lab

    The accreditation laboratory where inverters, storage systems and EV chargers are tested on load and in a climate chamber before entering the Austrian market.

  2. What changed in ten years

    Rao's answer is digitalisation: a domain where little moved for a century changed completely once renewables forced intelligent control.

  3. Negative prices, explained by merit order

    Why a thermal plant that cannot cheaply shut down will pay to stay connected, and how that produces prices far below zero.

  4. The observability wall

    Austrian DSOs may not use smart-meter data for real-time operation or network planning, because consumption data reveals personal behaviour.

  5. Predicting storm damage in Turkey

    On the Karaburun peninsula, overhead poles fall in Mediterranean storms; the goal is a 24-hour warning so crews are moving before the outage.

  6. What an energy community legally is

    The 2018 clean energy package defined two kinds — a local renewable energy community and a location-independent citizen energy community — each a legal entity anyone can start.

  7. Why Austria's communities boomed

    High post-war energy prices drove panic buying of PV, and the first instinct was to share surplus output with family rather than trade it.

  8. The trade nobody states plainly

    Synchronous fossil generation stabilises a grid better than renewables do, so a fossil-heavy system needs little flexibility — and Europe is choosing to give that up.

  9. A peer-to-peer market in a Styrian village

    Neighbours sold power to each other through smart contracts and earned cryptocurrency; the finding that mattered was that microtransactions must be automated.

  10. Nine years to connect

    The queue a new plant must join before construction begins, with roughly 15 TW of renewable capacity waiting in it.

  11. Advice without a power-systems degree

    Rao's view that the transition needs citizens, not only engineers, and that useful work here does not require formal electrical training.

  12. The DC cube

    A walk into AIT's direct-current laboratory — a rectifier bank for destructive testing of DC protection devices at very high current.

Key insights

5 takeaways
  • 01

    Data-protection law, not sensor cost, is what blinds distribution grids

    Smart meters are installed, but Austrian DSOs are not permitted to use that data for real-time control or network planning, because a consumption profile reveals when someone showers or watches television. Rao treats the protection as correct and works around it: AI methods predict the state of the whole grid from a subset of devices placed strategically, with only willing customers contributing data.

  • 02

    Negative prices are the merit order working, not malfunctioning

    Solar and wind clear first because they are cheapest, pushing expensive thermal plant past the market clearing point. A plant that is more expensive to stop and restart than to keep running will bid a negative price — paying to stay connected — which is how a day-ahead market reaches roughly minus 500 euros per megawatt hour.

  • 03

    Flexibility is the price of decarbonisation, not a bonus feature

    Rao states the uncomfortable version directly: synchronous fossil generators stabilise a grid far better than weather-driven renewables, so a fossil-heavy system has little need for flexibility. Europe is knowingly sacrificing controllability to raise renewable share, which is precisely why flexibility has to be built back in.

  • 04

    The blockchain market's real lesson was automation, not the ledger

    A peer-to-peer trading pilot in a Styrian village let neighbours sell output via smart contracts for cryptocurrency. The conclusion Rao draws is about transaction scale rather than technology: these are microtransactions that cannot be managed preemptively the way country-level markets are, so the whole thing must run automatically. He adds that blockchain has since lost its edge in energy.

  • 05

    A nine-year connection queue makes the research timetable the problem too

    A wind project must join a nine-year queue before construction starts, with around 15 TW of renewable capacity waiting — and Rao's current work is compressing the simulation effort behind it. He applies the same impatience to research itself: four-year European projects can deliver results already obsolete, which is why he pushes for agile delivery and a minimum viable product in year one.

Pull quotes

6 quotes
  • Observability is the biggest hurdle
    Bharath Varsh Rao
  • So if you have a lot of fossil based generation you don't need a lot of flexibility.
    Bharath Varsh Rao
  • The main outcome of the study is you need to automate it.
    Bharath Varsh Rao
  • This connection takes 9 years.
    Bharath Varsh Rao
  • The energy transition is not a problem of engineers. It's the problem of citizens.
    Bharath Varsh Rao
  • We need to work together to to involve multiple partners along the spectrum to push the solution from theory to reality.
    Bharath Varsh Rao
Transcript1582 cuesClick a timestamp to jump
  1. From
  2. purely power system perspective, uh they
  3. stabilize the grid way more than
  4. renewable energy because renewable
  5. energy is is more independent in nature
  6. >> and it's not it's not easily
  7. controllable.
  8. >> Mhm.
  9. >> So if you have a lot of uh fossil based
  10. generation,
  11. >> you don't need a lot of flexibility.
  12. >> Okay.
  13. >> Yeah. You have it.
  14. >> That's the reality. Yeah. I'm giving I'm
  15. giving you guys straight. Yeah. That's
  16. that's how it is.
  17. [Music]
  18. Okay. Yeah, there we are.
  19. Wow, perfect.
  20. So,
  21. welcome to a new episode of Energy
  22. Bridge. We are here with Vat inside the
  23. AIT Austrian Institution of Technology.
  24. Yeah.
  25. >> Uh,
  26. >> in the smartest lab.
  27. >> In the smartest lab. So, I don't know
  28. you, but I feel like a kid in a I don't
  29. know in a playroom like making so much
  30. test. We are going to try to shoot
  31. something here and there. Uh, so yeah,
  32. welcome Barat. Thank you for
  33. >> giving us this um time and we're very
  34. excited to know about your work.
  35. >> Yeah, thanks for having me guys. Yeah,
  36. you're welcome to AIT.
  37. >> Amazing.
  38. >> And the smartest lab. Hey uh but before
  39. we get into your career career journey,
  40. could you explain this place a bit?
  41. >> Sure. Yeah. So AIT uh has quite a lot of
  42. laboratories. Uh and this is one of the
  43. uh the biggest ones. So this is called
  44. the the smartest lab. Uh so smartest lab
  45. was uh mainly designed as an
  46. accreditation laboratory for providing
  47. test reports for uh at the beginning for
  48. inverters but now we've branched out to
  49. uh not only inverters but uh electric
  50. storage systems for electric vehicle
  51. charging stations and so on and so
  52. forth. We also had a micro grid set up
  53. here a few months ago to uh to test the
  54. the viability of a micro grid. So this
  55. is a commercial laboratory which means
  56. that our clients come to this lab
  57. >> Mhm. and then they bring their devices
  58. and uh this is an entry point for them
  59. to sell their uh products in Austria. So
  60. they need to get certified
  61. >> and AIT is one of the uh very few
  62. certifying uh or AIT provides test
  63. reports and then they can later go and
  64. get it certified uh to be able to sell
  65. their products in Austria.
  66. >> And you told us about that place that uh
  67. this is the clim
  68. >> the KMA chamber. Yeah,
  69. >> KMA chamber. Yeah. So the test
  70. specifications requires the device to
  71. operate in in certain environmental
  72. conditions and then we can test that in
  73. the in the clean chamber. So we can have
  74. a varying degrees of temperature,
  75. humidity, uh so on so for other tests
  76. other parameters and we can connect the
  77. the device on load. So that's important.
  78. So the device are actually functioning.
  79. So it's on load and uh we can vary this
  80. temperature profiles to get uh uh
  81. different parameter characteristics and
  82. we can see that and make sure that the
  83. uh the devices adhere to the uh to the
  84. standard.
  85. >> Amazing.
  86. >> Amazing.
  87. >> So that's the main focus.
  88. >> Get into uh uh your journey. So uh tell
  89. us about yourself a bit where you from
  90. uh what did you study and how did you
  91. end up in a in a KMA chamber?
  92. Yeah. Um I am u a researcher right now.
  93. So I'm a scientist as well as business
  94. developer at uh uh a department or group
  95. or we call a competence unit. Uh it's
  96. called power and renewable gas systems.
  97. And I moved to IIT uh approximately 10
  98. years ago. I came here to do my master
  99. thesis.
  100. >> Yeah.
  101. >> And uh before that I was doing my I was
  102. studying my masters at Goblin in in
  103. France in Grenobyl in in the middle of
  104. Alps. And before that uh I I'm come from
  105. India from from Bangalore. So I studied
  106. my bachelor's in electrical engineering
  107. from Vua Technological University in
  108. Bangalore and uh yeah it's been a hell
  109. of a journey. Yeah. And right now 10
  110. years in Austria before that uh in
  111. France and then I'm originally from from
  112. India.
  113. >> Okay. And how old are you?
  114. >> Yeah I'm 33 years old.
  115. >> Yeah.
  116. >> Yeah. And uh I got my PhD four years
  117. ago.
  118. >> Mhm. And uh yeah, it's uh it's it's very
  119. interesting to to work at AIT and
  120. looking at all this amazing
  121. infrastructure.
  122. >> Um and um yeah, meeting a lot of
  123. interesting researchers across Europe
  124. and um yeah, I coordinate European level
  125. projects. I get to travel a lot, meet
  126. incredible researchers across the uh the
  127. European continent.
  128. >> Mhm. and a bit more about your subject
  129. of study at the PhD and um so you
  130. started at a uh doing your PhD you did
  131. your master thesis in at AI then you
  132. continued doing your PhD
  133. >> absolutely yeah so my master thesis was
  134. on uh datadriven methods for uh customer
  135. profiling basically
  136. >> so we have quite a lot of data I mean
  137. this is 10 years ago approximately so so
  138. we had a large scale installation of
  139. smart meters back then in France There
  140. was a very big uh push for linky smart
  141. meters as you may you may know and in
  142. Austria as well the smart meters were
  143. coming up uh that were being installed
  144. in Austria and uh the regulator EC
  145. control of Austria wanted to know if
  146. it's possible to uh uh get the uh
  147. forecasting accuracy lower for uh uh for
  148. for mainly retailers
  149. >> to better manage their portfolio
  150. >> and then they can go to the market with
  151. a better forecast and better portfolio
  152. and that's the reason I was uh
  153. aggregating creating different profiles
  154. of different types to help retailers uh
  155. do better load forecasting. So that was
  156. the focus of my of my master thesis and
  157. then for my PhD I I moved into uh move
  158. back to my roots which is power system
  159. >> uh to do uh very detailed power system
  160. uh control uh implementation. So mainly
  161. control for low water distribution
  162. grids. So doing a lot of lowflow
  163. simulations, optimal power flow, uh I I
  164. I developed a method to uh uh manage
  165. flexibilities in distribution grids and
  166. then this evolved into uh local energy
  167. community control because as you may
  168. know in 2018 or was it 2019 European
  169. Commission adopted the clean energy
  170. transition as a clean energy partnership
  171. and uh uh the clean energy package of
  172. the European Commission uh first created
  173. local energy communities. the concept of
  174. local energy community and that really
  175. blew up in Austria and Austria was one
  176. of the very first countries to adopt
  177. this transformation.
  178. >> We have seen a lot of developing in this
  179. uh area. So you have been here 10 years
  180. so far and we are in a very exciting and
  181. fast growing industry.
  182. What what changes have you seen in this
  183. 10 years researching?
  184. >> Right.
  185. >> Yeah. I mean the the biggest change
  186. would be uh digitalization.
  187. >> Okay. So uh in the last 10 years
  188. digitalization has uh gone into every
  189. single domain because traditionally
  190. power system is a very conservative
  191. domain
  192. >> and and there's nothing really happened
  193. for the last I don't know 100 years and
  194. then in the last 10 20 years everything
  195. changed
  196. >> because you have the invention of the
  197. smart grids.
  198. >> Mhm. So uh smart grids started you know
  199. coming into forefront because we are
  200. installing or we have a desire to
  201. install a lot of uh renewable energy in
  202. in the solution grids again because of
  203. the climate uh goals that we have and
  204. this poses a lot of challenges.
  205. >> Could you tell a bit more about uh what
  206. exactly uh we mean by smart grid?
  207. >> Absolutely. Yeah. So the desire for us
  208. yeah for for Europeans as well as across
  209. the world is to minimize our carbon
  210. footprint.
  211. >> Mhm. So we want to electrify uh most of
  212. the traditionally uh carbon based uh
  213. loads for example you don't want to
  214. transition from heating
  215. >> using renewable
  216. using gas for example or or wood or coal
  217. you want to transition to electricity
  218. because electricity we can make it more
  219. green
  220. >> and we can make uh electricity move also
  221. move away from carbon based generation
  222. like you know coal power plants uh uh
  223. diesel power plants for example. So our
  224. goal is to make it more green. So we
  225. have more renewable energy that is
  226. solar. We want to have more wind for
  227. example. And uh this poses a lot of
  228. challenges
  229. >> and and that's the reason we want some
  230. intelligent uh way to manage these these
  231. challenges that that comes up with this
  232. renewable energy because you can't
  233. predict solar accurately. You can't
  234. predict wind very accurately because
  235. wind is blowing whenever the wind wants
  236. to blow and uh that's the reason there
  237. is smart grid. So it's a intelligent way
  238. of controlling different assets within
  239. the grid. So that uh there are concepts
  240. like uh uh self-healing for example if
  241. there's a fault then there are
  242. algorithms which automatically heal the
  243. grid uh to restore uh the the
  244. electricity to to the customers and
  245. minimize the uh the blackout time for
  246. example. All of these things are are
  247. smart grids.
  248. >> Amazing. So it's a smart grid is a
  249. concept of uh coordination between
  250. assets in a sector load generation and
  251. how to manage the the balance. How
  252. important is the storage in this uh
  253. concept?
  254. >> Absolutely. Uh um so we're producing a
  255. lot of energy and uh this is uh
  256. renewable energy that we're talking
  257. about. Uh so it's important that we
  258. utilize it as much as possible
  259. >> because if we have too much renewable
  260. energy so we saw this uh a few weeks ago
  261. or was it last week in in Spain and in
  262. the Iberian Peninsula. So we have a lot
  263. of renewable energy that's being
  264. produced. So we want to efficiently
  265. utilize it because it's a shame to to
  266. curtail it.
  267. >> Exactly.
  268. >> So we don't want to curtail solar power
  269. because there is quite a lot of solar in
  270. Europe right now. So during midday when
  271. the sun is at the highest in summer
  272. there's so much solar production that we
  273. won't be able to consume it. Yeah.
  274. >> And then right now we're curtailing it
  275. and and that's a shame. Yeah. Because
  276. you have such a large infrastructure of
  277. solar energy and we don't want to to
  278. waste it. And that's the reason uh
  279. batteries are important but batteries
  280. are beyond that. So it's not just
  281. storage. Batteries can also support the
  282. the grid. Batteries can help customers
  283. uh uh manage their renewable energy
  284. production, their load, the loads and
  285. their consumption in general. And it can
  286. also support the distribution grid or
  287. transmission grid to to provide some
  288. kind of services to to the grid. So
  289. there are more than that. Yeah.
  290. >> Yeah. Just one more thing it's um let us
  291. know if it's related or not because um
  292. we saw last days we are 13 of May
  293. reporting this and the day ahead market
  294. >> showed prices near to minus500
  295. per megawatt hour. Is it related with
  296. the production of renewables?
  297. >> 100%. Yeah. Yeah. Because uh uh the
  298. there's a concept called merit order uh
  299. at the at the uh uh any any market that
  300. you're looking at. So any for example
  301. Apex uh uh the head market. So the the
  302. the concept of uh merit order is is is
  303. persistent in all the markets. Of course
  304. there's a lot of discussion about this
  305. needs to be changed and so on and so
  306. forth.
  307. >> We're going to make an episode just
  308. exactly. Sure.
  309. >> Yeah. So the concept is very simple. You
  310. want to give priority to the generators
  311. which is the cheapest
  312. >> because you want to keep the generators
  313. uh that are cheapest to to to be able to
  314. produce more electricity so that it's
  315. cheaper for everybody. So which is the
  316. cheapest energy in in Europe right now?
  317. >> Solar.
  318. >> It's solar. Yeah. Solar and wind.
  319. >> That's the cheapest
  320. >> and uh uh you know the concept of uh
  321. load and generation. So there's an
  322. intersection at at a point. So it's uh
  323. uh there's also this this concept in
  324. merit order where there's an
  325. intersection everything beyond that
  326. point so it's called the market clearing
  327. point everything beyond that point is is
  328. not considered in the uh in the market
  329. action
  330. >> everything below it is considered so if
  331. you have a lot of solar uh production
  332. and and wind production across Europe so
  333. all of these are very cheap and then uh
  334. that's the reason for for example uh the
  335. thermal power plant uh which is very
  336. expensive to run and which cannot be
  337. turned off very easily It's at the end
  338. of the
  339. >> it's at the end of the merit order and
  340. they need to make it cheaper
  341. >> to be able to uh uh participate in in
  342. the market. So if they go beyond the
  343. market clearing price, they're out of
  344. the market and they will they'll have to
  345. shut down.
  346. >> So for them it's
  347. >> more expensive to shut down and come
  348. back again next week or next day
  349. >> than the heating system.
  350. >> Exactly. Yeah. It's more expensive and
  351. that's the reason they uh offer a ne
  352. negative price. So they're willing to
  353. pay you to be connected. Okay. So this
  354. is a parenthesis because we want to go
  355. into your research but thank you for
  356. that
  357. >> also about just adding to that and it it
  358. it addresses grid and the stability of
  359. the grid uh how more and more renewable
  360. has to be integrated within the grid and
  361. you're working with digitalization with
  362. the ML model for the grid and with the
  363. smart grid how important it gets more
  364. and more because uh we are in uh Vienna
  365. the grids are slightly modernized
  366. compared to Eastern Europe and they have
  367. very
  368. >> let's say quote unquote somebody said
  369. shitty grid
  370. >> why it's it's so important for them to
  371. to integrate smart grids then
  372. >> right absolutely I mean uh now the uh
  373. the the because there's so much diverse
  374. set of loads and generations that are
  375. connected to the distribution grid
  376. >> it is impossible for uh DSOs to to
  377. manage this because there there's the
  378. one main issue is observability. So
  379. distribution grids are not observed. So
  380. the smart meters that are connected
  381. >> uh especially in Austria due to GDPR uh
  382. laws and data protection laws, it cannot
  383. be used by a DSO to do some kind of
  384. real-time control. It's not allowed. So
  385. the distribution system operators are
  386. not allowed to to use this data for
  387. network planning as well as real-time
  388. operation.
  389. >> Mhm.
  390. >> Yeah. What what are the hurdles for
  391. them?
  392. >> Like why? It's data protection because
  393. uh uh you can know quite a lot about uh
  394. your personal behavior like for example
  395. if I have your profile your your you
  396. know apartment for example your
  397. consumption profile I can I can say a
  398. lot about what you do in the in the
  399. house I can I can say when you watch a
  400. TV I can say when uh you're taking a
  401. shower all of this is possible yeah
  402. >> is it like considered a personal data
  403. >> it's personal data yeah so uh your
  404. consumption data is personal data
  405. >> because it it gives a lot of information
  406. about your behavior and and it's
  407. rightfully protected It needs to be
  408. protected. It's rightfully protected.
  409. Yeah. And and that's the reason DS at
  410. least in the current regulation envir
  411. regulatory environment, they're not
  412. allowed to use this data in real time.
  413. And and that's the reason we have
  414. developed some AI methodologies to to be
  415. able to predict at a rather high
  416. accuracy
  417. >> with a subset of these measurement
  418. devices. So we don't have full
  419. observability. We can have few
  420. measurement devices strategically placed
  421. in in a in a distribution grid to be
  422. able to predict everything else like the
  423. distribution grid.
  424. >> Aggregated data with many consumers.
  425. >> Exactly.
  426. >> Not one one by one.
  427. >> No, but we can we can also do one by
  428. one. So we just need to have a certain
  429. number of smart meters uh uh connected
  430. from from the DSO or uh from the
  431. customers who are willing to provide
  432. this data to to the DSO. Uh so with the
  433. help of this we can predict everybody
  434. else in the in the vision grid. So this
  435. is one example where uh digitalization
  436. as well as you know AI applications
  437. helps in and good management because
  438. observability is the biggest hurdle
  439. >> and we're trying to solve this
  440. observability issue.
  441. >> Okay. And you worked uh on a project
  442. called grid cloud.
  443. >> Yeah.
  444. >> Uh what were what exactly was the
  445. project and how did it apply to uh the
  446. topic that we we have just touched on?
  447. >> Absolutely. Uh so grid cloud is um
  448. European initiative. So it's uh funded
  449. under Aronet uh funding instrument part
  450. of the EU. It's a transnational uh
  451. funding scheme and uh the main focus of
  452. the of the grid cloud project is uh
  453. digital twins to enable digital twins to
  454. support grid operation. So that's the
  455. main focus of the of the uh grid cloud
  456. project.
  457. >> Uh so we have uh different countries
  458. part of the grid project. We have
  459. actually three countries. So it's
  460. Austria, Germany as well as Turkey.
  461. >> Yeah.
  462. >> Uh so we have different use cases that
  463. we are uh addressing in these three
  464. countries. So I think uh the most
  465. interesting one uh right now especially
  466. with the with the climate change is the
  467. Turkish use case
  468. >> where uh
  469. >> because there there is this this area
  470. called Karabun. So it's a peninsula in
  471. in Turkey in Ismir region of Turkey on
  472. the Mediterranean like right across
  473. Greece
  474. >> and they're uh they're experiencing uh
  475. quite a large number of uh storms and
  476. weather events
  477. >> and that's the reason you have this this
  478. transmission uh poles right which is
  479. carrying cable because they're overhead
  480. lines in in Turkey and they're being
  481. affected. So a lot of them are just
  482. falling off
  483. >> because of the heat
  484. >> because of the uh the the storms
  485. >> extremely high wind conditions uh rain
  486. hail because of that the the cables are
  487. being affected and then the the poles
  488. just
  489. >> drop because it's so windy because it's
  490. it's the Mediterranean and it's it's
  491. extremely stormy weather and we want to
  492. be able to predict this uh that it's
  493. it's going to happen somewhere I don't
  494. know in the next 24 hours
  495. >> with weather data with electrical
  496. information that we have also historical
  497. data so that the uh the crew who's
  498. responsible for fixing this issue can
  499. already preemptively start driving or
  500. they're ready that this is going to
  501. happen and they can go and they can
  502. minimize the the blackout time so that
  503. our customers are not affected uh for
  504. for longer than than they should be. You
  505. know, that's the that's the focus
  506. >> and what we were talking just before we
  507. we started shooting about how exactly
  508. these these fundings and how how these
  509. projects work within AIT. if you could
  510. just tell us a bit more about uh the
  511. structure of project that are under AIT
  512. how are they funded and and who are the
  513. stakeholders
  514. >> right yeah so AIT uh gets one/ird of its
  515. uh funding from uh funded projects so
  516. which is uh uh for example national
  517. level funding FFG so the Austrian
  518. research promotion agency
  519. >> is one of the uh the funding agencies
  520. that funds uh projects again this is
  521. like a public call that we as AIT a
  522. research institution we partner up with
  523. uh with our large network of partners.
  524. So we create a consortia
  525. >> and we come up with a very nice
  526. proposal. We submit to this and then we
  527. win this proposal.
  528. >> Who who are the partners that AIT work
  529. with with industry and
  530. >> yeah we have partners from industry from
  531. from public organizations from uh uh
  532. from all all sorts of life. So because
  533. we are doing such a complex project
  534. right now so it's not really focused on
  535. one industry anymore. Mhm.
  536. >> So it's more sector coupling
  537. >> and and we are focusing on on social
  538. scientists for example, universities and
  539. institutions that focus on on social
  540. science. They're also part of the
  541. project. So it's it's quite broad at the
  542. moment. So it's a sector coupled uh
  543. solutions. So so this this is one
  544. funding agency that we uh uh apply for
  545. funding to of course the European Union.
  546. So we have the Horizon Europe funding
  547. instruments life um of course the the
  548. CTP clean energy transition partnership
  549. um and so on and so forth. quite a lot
  550. of uh funding agencies that uh that that
  551. provide research funding and we also
  552. create a consortia and submit a proposal
  553. uh to this uh consort to to this uh call
  554. and uh we win proposals. So this is
  555. one/ird of the funding bulk. Yeah. And
  556. then the other uh uh uh one/ird is
  557. coming from um private contracted
  558. research.
  559. >> Mhm. So we contract research or we we
  560. contract with with the industries and
  561. different companies technology companies
  562. to help develop a prototype for them.
  563. >> Mhm.
  564. >> Uh so they may not have the expertise uh
  565. and and and knowledge to to domain
  566. knowledge to develop this prototype.
  567. >> So we develop it for them and then we
  568. hand it hand it off to them and they
  569. bring it to the market.
  570. >> Okay.
  571. >> So this is the the the second uh uh
  572. funding instrument or or the way we uh
  573. derive funding. So it's the direct
  574. conduct of research and then the the
  575. remaining one/ird is uh uh funding from
  576. the the government of Austria.
  577. >> Okay.
  578. >> So this is fixed funding that we receive
  579. every year from uh from the ministry of
  580. innovation of Austria.
  581. >> Yeah.
  582. >> And uh uh this enables us to do a lot of
  583. uh supporting work for the first two. So
  584. all the background research that needs
  585. to be done that cannot be funded
  586. >> uh from the European Commission or from
  587. the uh the Austrian funding agency is
  588. done with this
  589. >> with this. Yeah. Yeah, this is something
  590. that we discussed before recording. It's
  591. uh you are bridging the industry with
  592. >> research and academia. So it's uh it's
  593. amazing. Um
  594. >> absolutely. So AIT is is uh uh we we
  595. work as a bridge between academia as
  596. well as industry. So it's uh really uh
  597. bringing all the low tier low technology
  598. readiness level research so that
  599. universities develop. It's it's very
  600. innovative ideas that they're
  601. developing. So we bridge it. So we build
  602. a prototype or we build a a concept that
  603. that goes beyond the uh the low tier
  604. research so that the industry can adopt
  605. it and bring it to the market.
  606. >> Amazing. And and maybe something that
  607. you have done in this research if we can
  608. go to the CE region h how do you see the
  609. uh have you done some research in CE?
  610. >> Yeah I mean so we have multiple
  611. projects. Yeah, absolutely. Um that we
  612. have worked with the partners from from
  613. the uh CE region for sure. Austria,
  614. Central European uh and also Eastern
  615. European regions. Yeah, absolutely. So
  616. we have partners from Romania, Czech
  617. Republic, Bulgaria. Absolutely.
  618. >> And what kind of projects and and what
  619. have you seen there in the in these
  620. countries?
  621. >> Yeah. Um so the European grid is is one
  622. grid. So it's a single grid across
  623. across Europe. And the challenges that
  624. we are facing, everybody's facing across
  625. Europe. Yeah. From from Northern Europe,
  626. from from Finland to uh Portugal. Yeah.
  627. So this is one European grid. Of course,
  628. there are specific national level
  629. challenges that uh that different
  630. countries across Europe have, especially
  631. in Eastern Europe. We could look at the
  632. energy mix for example. It's more carbon
  633. based
  634. >> compared to Austria. Austria is
  635. strategically located in the Alps. So we
  636. have a lot of hydro power
  637. >> and a lot of wind right now. So that's
  638. that's that's an advantage. Uh but I
  639. think there are countries in Eastern
  640. Europe still transitioning to renewable
  641. energy uh at the moment and the progress
  642. is incredible. I think
  643. >> they're very fast.
  644. >> Yeah, a lot of countries are really
  645. pushed towards uh um yeah large scale
  646. implementation of renewable energy
  647. projects.
  648. >> Mhm. And uh uh of course they will now
  649. start facing all the challenges of this
  650. new integration of renewable energy that
  651. we have already faced in in central
  652. Europe and Eastern Europe
  653. >> like 5 10 years ago.
  654. >> So all the solutions that can be that
  655. developed and tested actually quite well
  656. tested can be easily implemented in the
  657. uh Eastern European regions. Can I add
  658. just one thing short answer because Raul
  659. is
  660. no
  661. >> we also see this knowledge gap between
  662. Eastern Europe and Western. How do you
  663. see that it it could be better this
  664. knowledge transfer with those
  665. professionals?
  666. >> I I would say to to create more projects
  667. to create more consorts together with
  668. the uh uh with the research entities,
  669. universities, um industry partners from
  670. from Eastern Europe to uh share
  671. knowledge because I think working in a
  672. project together that's funded by the
  673. European Commission or anybody else that
  674. doesn't really matter uh is extremely
  675. advantageous because we learn from each
  676. other because we attend meetings
  677. together. we have uh brainstorming
  678. meeting to to really discuss all the
  679. issues that we have and then find a
  680. unifying solution. So uh I think that's
  681. really again I'm coming from the
  682. research point of view. Of course from
  683. the commercial point of view there are
  684. different ways to do this but from the
  685. research point of view it's really to to
  686. collaborate and then exchange
  687. researchers. So we from AIT go to a
  688. university in an Eastern European
  689. country or vice versa and that's how you
  690. you build this um
  691. >> collaboration collaboration. Absolutely.
  692. Hey uh you you worked a lot with energy
  693. communities as well designing energy
  694. communities and uh I believe in uh you
  695. were telling us that in 2018 you already
  696. started working on that.
  697. >> Tell us a bit more about what exactly
  698. energy community means and how you
  699. designed them and what's the benefit of
  700. it.
  701. >> Absolutely. uh so in 2018 end I think I
  702. don't remember exactly the date at the
  703. moment but uh European commission
  704. adopted officially the uh clean energy
  705. package
  706. >> which for the first time uh put it in
  707. law uh what an energy community is so
  708. there are two kinds of energy
  709. communities uh a renewable energy
  710. community
  711. >> and a citizen energy community
  712. >> okay
  713. >> so this is fully defined already so a
  714. renewable energy community is a
  715. community that is local
  716. >> okay So it's it depends on the country
  717. of course and how the regulations are
  718. transposed but it's it's local. So it's
  719. it's one uh street or or one small
  720. village and and uh uh if you look at the
  721. the power grid so it's usually a one one
  722. feeder or multiple feeders together.
  723. >> Okay.
  724. >> Are in one community.
  725. >> Mhm.
  726. >> So this is a legal entity by the way. So
  727. community is a legal entity
  728. >> and anyone can start it.
  729. >> Anyone can start it. Anyone can be part
  730. of it. So there is of course there are
  731. specific requirements but generally yes.
  732. Mhm.
  733. >> And in citizen energy community it's not
  734. uh in one location. It can be anywhere
  735. in in a country.
  736. >> Okay.
  737. >> So if you are living in in in Foralberg
  738. I'm living in Vienna. So we can create
  739. energy community together.
  740. >> Mhm.
  741. >> Call a citizen citizen energy community
  742. and we can share energy. So in forber if
  743. you're producing a lot of photoike power
  744. you can sell it to me in Vienna.
  745. >> So it's independent of the of the
  746. location. So it can be anywhere in in
  747. Austria in a particular country and of
  748. course across Europe. Uh this
  749. transposition has happened in different
  750. ways
  751. >> and it's still happening.
  752. >> Yeah.
  753. >> So currently I'm uh uh developing a
  754. study for the European Commission DJNR
  755. uh on exactly looking at the current uh
  756. LEC ecosystem across Europe.
  757. >> LC what is that? local energy community
  758. ecosystem
  759. >> across Europe to to really check what's
  760. the current status
  761. >> of uh of this transposition uh so of of
  762. the of the EU level regulation into
  763. national laws
  764. >> to see how well it's happen so for
  765. example in Austria it's fully done so
  766. it's been fully transposed of course
  767. there are some challenges that we're
  768. still trying to address in some
  769. countries it's not fully done so there's
  770. only certain parts of it is done and in
  771. in in uh some countries it's absolutely
  772. not done
  773. >> and Austria had a lot of energy
  774. community coming up.
  775. >> Why is that? And uh what are the
  776. enabling regulation for it?
  777. >> So it's mainly uh uh there was this um
  778. incentive to to create local energy
  779. communities because of the the prices.
  780. >> Mhm.
  781. >> So uh couple of years ago due to war you
  782. might already know that the energy
  783. prices were rather high during this time
  784. and uh there was a lot of investment in
  785. photoalt generation across Europe uh
  786. mainly Austria. So there's a there's a
  787. bit of a panic buying of PV plants and
  788. uh that's the reason if you have a photo
  789. volic panel and uh you would want to
  790. also provide this energy to your family
  791. members. So that's really the main
  792. initiative the main incentive. So you
  793. want to uh uh provide your for example
  794. parents living in the countryside they
  795. have a lot of space they have uh you
  796. know rooftops that they uh install PVs
  797. with and then there's a lot of excess
  798. energy that they don't use. So they'll
  799. do their children and and piano. So
  800. that's really the the main focus. I
  801. would say a large number of energy
  802. communities are are owned by few people
  803. in in Austria, a handful of people.
  804. >> Okay.
  805. >> Uh and uh of course there are bigger
  806. ones right now, but the incentive is
  807. that that they want to share energy comm
  808. energy across the the community. But do
  809. you think that energy community will
  810. play a role
  811. uh in in demand respond
  812. >> side in energy transition
  813. >> right yeah that's a it's a difficult
  814. question at the moment to answer because
  815. uh the regulations are very stringent so
  816. right now there are very few countries
  817. across Europe where uh local energy
  818. communities can provide flexibility to I
  819. don't know what to the grid or to um to
  820. to an aggregator and finally the
  821. aggregator goes to a market. This is not
  822. fully defined at the moment.
  823. >> Okay.
  824. >> Yeah. But there is an interest at least
  825. from uh the European Commission to to
  826. see how this could be done.
  827. >> Mhm.
  828. >> And that's the reason the the study that
  829. I'm I'm doing with the uh with DJR is
  830. also looking at flexibilities.
  831. >> Okay. And how uh what could be the
  832. enabling barriers or enabling conditions
  833. and barriers for flexibility inclusion
  834. flexibility extraction from energy
  835. communities.
  836. >> And do you think there could be uh it
  837. should be done more in the fossil uh
  838. dependent countries in the eastern
  839. European region such as Poland maybe
  840. >> right
  841. >> should be done more there.
  842. >> Yeah. So from a power system uh
  843. perspective uh fossil based generation
  844. especially synchronous uh uh generators
  845. are from again from purely power system
  846. perspective uh they stabilize the grid
  847. way more
  848. >> than renewable energy because renewable
  849. energy is is more independent in nature
  850. >> and it's not it's not easily
  851. controllable.
  852. >> Mhm.
  853. >> So if you have a lot of uh fossil based
  854. generation
  855. >> you don't need a lot of flexibility.
  856. >> Okay.
  857. >> Yeah.
  858. >> You have it.
  859. >> That's the reality. Yeah. I'm giving I'm
  860. giving you guys straight. Yeah, that's
  861. that's how it is from the power system
  862. perspective.
  863. >> Uh but that's not what we want. So we
  864. don't we we are
  865. >> okay. I mean we're willing to sacrifice
  866. a bit of control to to increase the
  867. share of renewable energy.
  868. >> Uhhuh.
  869. >> And renewable energy goes hand in hand
  870. with flexibility.
  871. >> Yeah. And well this is the the friend
  872. that you don't want in the room but it's
  873. needed. Do you think that gas will play
  874. a role in the next 10 15 years or
  875. >> I mean glass will gas will of course
  876. play play continue to play a role
  877. because uh the transition from from
  878. again gas based heating mainly to
  879. electric based heating is is happening
  880. right now but it's it takes time to to
  881. to replace all the new houses that are
  882. being built in in in Vienna are have to
  883. be uh electric heating or they're at
  884. least trying to do that across Austria
  885. as well.
  886. >> Mhm. And all the new constructions,
  887. they're of course going to be electric
  888. based. Uh but there's still a lot of um
  889. houses that have gas heating.
  890. >> And then it takes a lot of time to to uh
  891. transition this to to electric. And it
  892. it's a long process.
  893. >> But not in heating. I mean not only
  894. heating but in electrical generation,
  895. electric generation. Gas will play a
  896. role in in this flexibility. I mean this
  897. is uh anyways not a lot especially in
  898. summer because like you mentioned
  899. >> negative pricing. So uh uh there is not
  900. a lot of uh gas generation anyways uh in
  901. in in summer. In winter sure there are
  902. still gas palants that are uh active in
  903. Europe but not a lot.
  904. >> Okay.
  905. >> So I don't think gas is going to again
  906. from the electricity point of view not a
  907. lot
  908. >> but heating massive massive
  909. >> massive
  910. >> amazing and because we we saw uh all the
  911. work that you have done uh so far you
  912. you also designed some P2P market. Yeah.
  913. >> Yeah. This this was part of a project
  914. called blockchain grid project.
  915. >> Yeah.
  916. >> Uh this was I think finished was it four
  917. or five years ago. Uh and this was again
  918. during the the whole blockchain hype.
  919. >> Uh we wanted to see if uh if it's
  920. possible to uh create a peer-to-peer
  921. energy market uh within a community in
  922. in uh in in Styrark.
  923. >> Mhm. So this is actually a real uh
  924. village uh where we deploy this uh
  925. market and uh uh there all the customers
  926. uh who produce electricity can sell uh
  927. this to their neighbors with the help of
  928. the of the blockchain. So we have smart
  929. contracts. It automatically uh computes
  930. how much you're producing,
  931. >> how much you're feeding into the grid
  932. and you can virtually sell this power
  933. and you can earn u cryptocurrency
  934. >> and and what was the out the outcome of
  935. the study? Is it possible or
  936. >> so the the main outcome of the study is
  937. you need to automate it.
  938. >> Okay,
  939. >> automation is the most important thing
  940. because these are microtransactions and
  941. unlike u the European level or or
  942. country level markets, you can't
  943. preemptively
  944. uh uh manage this. Mhm.
  945. >> So it needs to be done automatically.
  946. >> Yeah, that's the main outcome. And of
  947. course, blockchain is is losing its edge
  948. at the moment, at least in energy.
  949. There's not a lot of funding and uh not
  950. a lot of interest in energy uh in
  951. blockchain. So
  952. >> yeah, it's it's dying down, I would say.
  953. We're at the end of the year of the
  954. whole blockchain, but there's still a
  955. lot of uh proponents of blockchain who
  956. who really believe in it. Um uh but
  957. we'll see how it goes. Yeah, that's
  958. that's what I could say at the moment,
  959. too.
  960. >> For now, we'll leave it to the crypto
  961. guys. Yeah, exactly.
  962. >> Hey, it we we were discussing about the
  963. role of academy and industry
  964. collaboration and AIT is doing it
  965. wonderfully and we saw that you are a
  966. research scientist also a business
  967. developer. You're contracting with uh
  968. bigger industry companies.
  969. >> How tell us a bit more about how you
  970. collaborate with different stakeholders
  971. and what you have to do in in to get all
  972. the research going here.
  973. >> Right. Yeah. uh for for the first part
  974. uh for uh contractor research.
  975. Um so it really depends on on the the
  976. client's requirements.
  977. >> Mhm.
  978. >> Yeah. So uh we have uh a large uh
  979. collection of solutions that that we
  980. have developed uh within AIT. Uh so it
  981. really depends on the on the
  982. requirements of the of the client. So we
  983. have uh control engineering expertise.
  984. So we have a lot of um algorithms, a lot
  985. of prototypes uh that are controllers
  986. for for distribution groups. Again, I'm
  987. of course AIT is quite wide, but I'm I'm
  988. really narrowing it down to
  989. digitalization and power system
  990. applications here.
  991. >> Sure.
  992. >> Uh so we have things related to AI
  993. applications. We have a lot of advanced
  994. forecasting methods, statistation
  995. methods, uh predictive maintenance
  996. methods that uh that we can uh provide
  997. to uh uh solution operators
  998. uh the the companies which develop
  999. scatter systems for example uh uh the
  1000. companies which provide solutions for
  1001. local energy communities for example. So
  1002. all of these are our clients. So we uh
  1003. uh develop this based on their needs and
  1004. then we provide this prototype to them
  1005. and they need to put a lot of effort of
  1006. course to bring this to to the market
  1007. and make it more viable in the market
  1008. based on their own requirements.
  1009. >> Okay.
  1010. >> So this is the first stream. Yeah. This
  1011. is really uh a a client relationship AIT
  1012. client relationship and then we develop
  1013. this exclusively for them.
  1014. >> Of course the funded research is more
  1015. broad. We have a lot of consorcia
  1016. members and we have consorcia members
  1017. who are from industry, from academia,
  1018. from research
  1019. >> with different set of exploitation
  1020. criterias that that they need. So
  1021. universities mainly focus on
  1022. publications. They don't really care
  1023. about software solutions for example.
  1024. Industrial partners, they care about
  1025. software solutions but uh we need to
  1026. test them in the relevant environment to
  1027. make sure that they actually work
  1028. >> and then they uh they can take it away.
  1029. So there's another exploitation plan. So
  1030. it's it's very customizable. It's very
  1031. diverse. So that's the the key here.
  1032. >> Yeah. And of course AIT is also doing
  1033. spin-offs.
  1034. >> Those are who are helping spin-offs and
  1035. we have different uh models how to
  1036. transfer uh the the IP the intellectual
  1037. property that AIT owns to the startups.
  1038. >> That's great. And we were discussing uh
  1039. Daniel about uh also how successful
  1040. spin-off gets to the market and also
  1041. about time for them to get into the
  1042. market. Tell us about some successful
  1043. case studies that
  1044. >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh infrared is one of
  1045. the uh uh highly successful
  1046. uh spin-offs from from AIT. So this
  1047. startup is coming out of uh the group of
  1048. digital resilient cities. DRC is uh is
  1049. also part of Center for Energy and uh uh
  1050. they're developing uh AI tools,
  1051. visualization tools, showcases for city
  1052. planners.
  1053. So if you want to plan a city
  1054. >> Mhm.
  1055. >> if you want to make it more green, you
  1056. can in in in in no time actually with
  1057. virtual reality, you need to wear some
  1058. virtual reality glasses and you're able
  1059. to to to build the city with different
  1060. stakeholders. So you can uh contact uh
  1061. different community owners, you can
  1062. contact uh people who are interested in
  1063. in making the city more green. You can
  1064. bring just general public into this
  1065. design process
  1066. >> and really see how what they need
  1067. actually
  1068. >> and based on this you can design this
  1069. this city or a portion of the city or do
  1070. renovations for the city
  1071. >> and then uh yeah so you can develop
  1072. detailed plans out of it so that the
  1073. builders know exactly what to what to
  1074. build.
  1075. >> Okay. Amazing. And what are your next
  1076. research? How do you see the next 5
  1077. years?
  1078. >> Uh definitely uh AI applications for
  1079. sure. Yeah. Uh so the current research
  1080. interest for me is to to minimize the uh
  1081. uh the amount of time it takes to to uh
  1082. connect a new power plant.
  1083. >> Mhm.
  1084. >> To the uh transmission or distribution
  1085. grid.
  1086. >> Okay.
  1087. >> Yeah. So if you are uh for example Rahul
  1088. you you are interested to build a wind
  1089. power plant
  1090. >> Mhm.
  1091. >> in in Lower Austria. So you are able to
  1092. uh convince some uh u venture capitalist
  1093. to to to to give you some funding to
  1094. build this wind power plant.
  1095. >> Mhm.
  1096. >> But the problem is you should be able to
  1097. connect this wind power plant to the
  1098. closest medium voltage or high voltage
  1099. feeder.
  1100. >> This connection takes 9 years.
  1101. >> Wow.
  1102. >> There's a queue. Yeah.
  1103. >> Or Okay.
  1104. >> So there's a queue. So you need to get
  1105. on this queue even before you start
  1106. building anything.
  1107. >> Okay.
  1108. >> So it takes about 9 years to to actually
  1109. >> to be able to connect this plant. So in
  1110. the meanwhile if you're already finished
  1111. with the plant so all the wind wind
  1112. turbines are already up and it's
  1113. spinning already but you can't
  1114. connecting energy
  1115. >> you can't connect it.
  1116. >> So what do you think that it can be
  1117. solved? It's a regulatory challenge or
  1118. >> it's a it's both. So of course there's
  1119. very stringent regulation on exactly how
  1120. to to uh connect this but there's also a
  1121. lot of uh power system simulations that
  1122. we need to do
  1123. >> to be able to to uh provide this test
  1124. report
  1125. >> okay
  1126. >> and make sure that the the win turbines
  1127. or whatever generation that is connected
  1128. is actually capable of uh of following
  1129. some parameters that they need to follow
  1130. and we're trying to address this with AI
  1131. to make it more fast so that we want to
  1132. reduce this this 9 years waiting time by
  1133. a factor of I I don't know how many
  1134. still still the research but
  1135. >> whatever it takes. I mean there's
  1136. approximately 15 trillion 15 terowatt of
  1137. uh of renewable energy that is sitting
  1138. in the queue right now.
  1139. >> Mhm.
  1140. >> Wow.
  1141. >> 15 terowatt.
  1142. >> We're going to stay aware what is
  1143. happening with this study will be
  1144. interesting
  1145. >> and uh but just about so also with with
  1146. research what happens that uh if it's
  1147. taking too long it becomes redundant in
  1148. the market. Absolutely.
  1149. >> How do you make sure that the the
  1150. research is up to date with the market
  1151. and what's needed in the market?
  1152. >> Absolutely. Uh some of the research that
  1153. we do is uh is it's quite ambitious. So
  1154. they're already 10 years beyond
  1155. state-of-the-art.
  1156. >> So then we have enough time to catch up
  1157. >> at least the the solutions we can catch
  1158. up and bring it to the market. But there
  1159. are some solutions which are
  1160. >> maybe one year beyond the market or two
  1161. years beyond the market. And then these
  1162. research projects are very very long. So
  1163. European projects are four years and
  1164. yeah completely get that the the uh the
  1165. products or the research that we do at
  1166. the beginning of the four year but at
  1167. the end of the project it's already
  1168. obsolete and that's the reason I think
  1169. we should really focus on on creating
  1170. more agile project management style. So
  1171. I think agility is super important in
  1172. research and then this is not currently
  1173. being done. So uh this is one something
  1174. that I'm pushing as well
  1175. >> within our group to to make it more
  1176. agile. So we want to have a minimum
  1177. viable product.
  1178. >> Yeah.
  1179. >> Maybe the first year and already try to
  1180. look at exploitation with the indust
  1181. partners part of the project.
  1182. >> So that's one way.
  1183. >> Do they function at a startup or already
  1184. or that they need to get into the market
  1185. they need to be adapt to the market or
  1186. uh they are more orthodox in the
  1187. research way first they they get the
  1188. research on board and then but how how
  1189. do they function now?
  1190. >> Yeah there are different methods here.
  1191. So uh we can either so the the IP that
  1192. is generated within the project can be
  1193. adopted by the industrial partner
  1194. already part of the project.
  1195. >> Mhm.
  1196. >> Or we can go for a startup. So both is
  1197. possible. So we can either just license
  1198. the solution that is developed within
  1199. the project
  1200. >> to a partner an industry partner and
  1201. they use this license to
  1202. >> develop it further and bring it to the
  1203. market or we go for the startup uh
  1204. route.
  1205. >> Yeah. And it's also possible to put the
  1206. startup plan already part of the
  1207. proposal
  1208. >> for the research project. So Europe
  1209. funds this. So EU funds
  1210. >> uh all the prerequisites to fulfill all
  1211. the prerequisites for the for the
  1212. startup as part of the project.
  1213. >> Okay. And
  1214. >> this is not being done at the moment. So
  1215. there's such a huge gap right now and
  1216. nobody is really utilizing this this
  1217. opportunity. I think that's where AIT is
  1218. really the bridge and and then uh they
  1219. they go out of the system of AIT or they
  1220. are still within the
  1221. >> uh they will go out of the system of AIT
  1222. because AIT will help uh with all the
  1223. knowledge transfer IP of course and all
  1224. the initial uh uh steps that are needed
  1225. to to to establish this this entity this
  1226. this independent entity or a startup
  1227. >> and then this will be out of the AI
  1228. ecosystem.
  1229. Okay.
  1230. >> Right. So the invitation is for the
  1231. industry to come here and collaborate.
  1232. Right.
  1233. >> Absolutely.
  1234. >> And then they can raise money when once
  1235. they are out of the system they can get
  1236. in the VC money because before that it's
  1237. a funded money from the
  1238. >> Exactly. Y so uh once the independent
  1239. entity is created so they can it's it's
  1240. out of ecosystem.
  1241. >> So they can yeah raise money and then
  1242. they can develop the product they can do
  1243. whatever they want after that. And do
  1244. industries sorry just one more question
  1245. about it. Do industries already because
  1246. uh of your partnership they take it to
  1247. scale.
  1248. >> Yes. So this is also possible. Uh we
  1249. recently had a conversation about
  1250. corporate venturing
  1251. >> or comp corporate clienting as well. So
  1252. uh if there is a particular industry
  1253. which is very niche and they're looking
  1254. for a very niche product then we develop
  1255. it together within a research uh project
  1256. like we always do. uh funded partially
  1257. by uh uh public funding uh from from uh
  1258. research calls basically and then uh the
  1259. startup is created.
  1260. >> Mhm.
  1261. >> And typically big companies they do not
  1262. want to assume the risk of the uh of
  1263. this very innovative new solution.
  1264. >> Y
  1265. >> and that's the reason they do uh
  1266. corporate clienting.
  1267. >> Mhm.
  1268. >> So you have a startup that is a direct
  1269. client or the the the single client of
  1270. the startup is this big industrial
  1271. partner.
  1272. >> Okay.
  1273. They fund that and then they're able to
  1274. scale it up uh rather quickly.
  1275. >> Okay. Amazing. Uh well maybe to be
  1276. closing from here AIT labs uh you can
  1277. see the hear the noise of the like
  1278. feeling here in the lab. So maybe um
  1279. what would you recommend to future
  1280. professionals in energy field
  1281. researchers
  1282. uh to get into this energy transition
  1283. flow?
  1284. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean absolutely. I
  1285. think the most important uh uh uh item
  1286. that you need to do is uh yeah just just
  1287. get up and then um go around talk to
  1288. people and then you can do a lot without
  1289. formal education in in in power system.
  1290. So formal education electrical
  1291. engineering or energy system. So you can
  1292. do quite a lot because the energy
  1293. transition is not a problem of
  1294. engineers.
  1295. It's the problem of citizens.
  1296. >> Wow.
  1297. >> So, it's anybody who is a citizen of
  1298. Europe or across the world
  1299. >> is is involved in energy transition. So,
  1300. it's everybody that that needs to stand
  1301. up and then and push for renewable
  1302. energy, push for push for uh uh uh more
  1303. green solutions across all the sectors,
  1304. not just energy, all the transportation
  1305. sector, which also needs to be uh
  1306. transitioned to to renewable energy.
  1307. Basically, all the sectors. Yeah. So I
  1308. think that's the most important thing.
  1309. >> That's a great statement.
  1310. >> Yeah, for sure. And also since you are
  1311. doing it successfully, what what would
  1312. you tell others uh why is so needed to
  1313. bridge academia industry and research
  1314. together? Why why uh I mean how can also
  1315. it be successfully replicated by others?
  1316. >> Yeah, absolutely. I mean uh it's super
  1317. important to to bridge the all the let's
  1318. put it this way all the stakeholders in
  1319. the the technology readiness level.
  1320. >> Mhm.
  1321. >> So where universities are at the lower
  1322. end of the of the spectrum and
  1323. industries are at the higher end of the
  1324. spectrum. Mhm.
  1325. >> It's very important to to to bridge all
  1326. this this entire entire spectrum because
  1327. all innovation like all the amazing
  1328. ideas concepts are developed at the
  1329. university and the only way to to bring
  1330. this to the market
  1331. >> Mhm.
  1332. >> is that we have a bridge between all the
  1333. different stakeholders along the the
  1334. technology relevance level because
  1335. industry wants something that the
  1336. universities have
  1337. >> or that they're coming up with.
  1338. >> But it's an extremely high feat. to to
  1339. bring whatever innovation that that this
  1340. brilliant minds they they they come up
  1341. with to the market.
  1342. >> Theory to reality
  1343. >> theory to reality. So this is extremely
  1344. challenging.
  1345. >> Mhm.
  1346. >> And that's the reason we need to work
  1347. together to to involve multiple partners
  1348. along the spectrum to push the solution
  1349. from theory to reality.
  1350. >> That's what we are trying to do to
  1351. bridge the all stakeholders. So yeah,
  1352. thank you very much for receiving us
  1353. here in your lab and I think we're going
  1354. to come again.
  1355. >> Absolutely. Hey, you're welcome.
  1356. >> Because we went to the other lab with DC
  1357. solutions and trying and pushing till
  1358. the limit the
  1359. >> Yeah, why not? We just
  1360. >> go there now and ask her a couple more
  1361. questions on the way. Yeah, let's do it.
  1362. >> Let's see. Okay. Oh,
  1363. okay. So, we came here to the other lab
  1364. and now
  1365. all this equipment is to uh test DC.
  1366. >> Absolutely. Yeah. Right. So,
  1367. >> can you tell us a bit more about this
  1368. lab and what happens?
  1369. >> Uh yeah, sure. Um so, this is our the
  1370. brand new direct current laboratory. So,
  1371. this is the the DC cube. So, that's what
  1372. we we call it. Mhm.
  1373. >> So it's a it's a bank of rectifiers
  1374. basically. So diode diode bank
  1375. >> with rectification element to it and we
  1376. can test uh the uh protection devices.
  1377. So that's the the focus of the light. So
  1378. DC protection devices
  1379. >> mhm
  1380. >> uh in the laboratory with very high uh
  1381. current values.
  1382. >> So that is what we want to do. So we
  1383. want to pass very high through the
  1384. production device and make sure that it
  1385. the standard
  1386. >> that the devices are supposed to be.
  1387. >> Actually we last week we went to inter
  1388. solar and we realized that there are
  1389. starting to be more DC solutions to
  1390. avoid the inverter and just going from
  1391. the PV DC bar and then superchargers or
  1392. DC loads
  1393. >> like a vehicles for example. Yeah. So
  1394. how do you see the
  1395. >> the like uh current DC use
  1396. >> in electric current?
  1397. >> That is the the the next uh step
  1398. actually. So you're absolutely right. So
  1399. we're trying to transition from from uh
  1400. converting um from DC. So a lot of DC
  1401. renewable energy is DC mainly to AC and
  1402. then back to DC. So we can do basically
  1403. everything in DC right now because a lot
  1404. of uh electric vehicles are actually all
  1405. the electric vehicles are DC. So you
  1406. need to like lose some some uh uh power
  1407. there and it loses AC. Exactly. And
  1408. that's the reason DC powers DC devices
  1409. are getting a lot of potential right
  1410. now.
  1411. >> And uh uh it's going to be increasing
  1412. for sure in the next coming years. DC is
  1413. going to be one of the main topics.
  1414. >> Okay.
  1415. >> And especially when there's renewable
  1416. energy, you want to stay in DC to to
  1417. avoid losses.
  1418. >> And we heard some noise. What kind of is
  1419. going on? So right now uh the colleagues
  1420. are uh clearing up I think for
  1421. performing the tests. So this is a
  1422. commercial laboratory. So we have
  1423. clients bringing their devices here
  1424. >> to this lab to be able to
  1425. >> to be destroyed actually.
  1426. >> To be destroyed. Yeah. To be destroyed.
  1427. >> Yeah. So that they adhere to the to the
  1428. standards that the devices are supposed
  1429. to be.
  1430. >> And then you certify them.
  1431. >> No. A doesn't certify. They provide a we
  1432. provide a test report.
  1433. >> Yeah. so that they can take this to the
  1434. certification agency and then of course
  1435. the agency looks through this report
  1436. >> and then then they certify the uh the
  1437. device
  1438. >> and you said uh most of the clients uh
  1439. that are coming are from Korea and China
  1440. >> all over the world all over the world.
  1441. So absolutely
  1442. >> and and AIT is one of its kind. Who does
  1443. this report?
  1444. >> U for Austrian ecosystem. So you we're
  1445. in the smartest laboratory. That's
  1446. >> I think one of the only ones in Austria
  1447. which provides this test reports for
  1448. inverters
  1449. >> mainly and this is one of the very few
  1450. if not the only one in Europe which does
  1451. high voltage uh or high current uh DC
  1452. testing.
  1453. >> Okay. and and there were a deer lab that
  1454. you mentioned there about how many of
  1455. them are
  1456. >> uh I don't know the current number so
  1457. probably 30 labs across Europe the labs
  1458. initiative
  1459. >> yeah just to make a context that this is
  1460. a association to coordinate all the labs
  1461. across Europe right so to know overlap
  1462. work and uh yeah if you can tell us a
  1463. bit more about it
  1464. >> yeah so dabs is a European uh initiative
  1465. uh to it's an association of all the
  1466. research laborator countries
  1467. >> mainly on renewable energy across
  1468. Europe.
  1469. >> Uh so we have members from basically all
  1470. the countries and the goal was to
  1471. establish uh cooperation between
  1472. research institutions so that we don't
  1473. uh uh develop uh similar competencies.
  1474. So we don't want to overlap our comp
  1475. competencies
  1476. >> so that we uh don't uh basically waste
  1477. funding to to because it's it's a lot of
  1478. uh funding that that's being used to
  1479. develop this this and it takes years to
  1480. develop and we don't want to
  1481. >> you know waste it by by developing
  1482. competences and compete against each
  1483. other.
  1484. >> So we want to complement each other. So
  1485. I think that's the reason. So if you
  1486. have a client with a particular product
  1487. so they can go to the uh uh their lab
  1488. consortia and then they can ask which
  1489. laboratory can can do this testing
  1490. >> and then that their lab will send it to
  1491. us or to any other research laboratory
  1492. across Europe.
  1493. >> Okay. Maybe we could reach them.
  1494. >> Yeah.
  1495. >> Totally. I can put you in touch with
  1496. them.
  1497. >> I mean Daniel is electrical engineer so
  1498. he understands everything already but
  1499. what's there if you could explain a bit.
  1500. >> Yeah. So this is the uh the DC.
  1501. >> Show me.
  1502. >> Yeah you can we can go inside. Yeah.
  1503. >> Okay. Wow. Let's go. We're improvising
  1504. here. And
  1505. Okay. Amazing.
  1506. Wow. Okay. So, so here uh
  1507. >> put it here.
  1508. >> Okay. We still have battery. So, we can
  1509. do something.
  1510. >> Yeah. So the main goal of uh the DC cube
  1511. is to convert electricity from AC
  1512. alternate current to direct current.
  1513. >> Uh here we have a a rack of diodes which
  1514. does that in a rectifying
  1515. >> in a rectification fashion.
  1516. >> Yeah.
  1517. >> Wow. This is
  1518. >> so you have different diodes.
  1519. >> Yeah.
  1520. >> Wow. I can here. Yeah.
  1521. >> And this is fully customizable. So we
  1522. can get uh multiple combinations of uh
  1523. of voltage and current. So we can have
  1524. very high current application. We can
  1525. have very high voltage application. So
  1526. this is fully customizable.
  1527. >> Wow.
  1528. >> This is all copper and then there are
  1529. transformers right above.
  1530. >> Wow.
  1531. >> Super. Do you have more questions,
  1532. Robert, of this?
  1533. >> Yeah, I'm just actually very I feel like
  1534. a kid, but it's interesting.
  1535. And also uh if we can go where you blow
  1536. up.
  1537. >> Yeah, sure.
  1538. >> Wow. Yeah.
  1539. [Music]
  1540. Oh, this is so amazing.
  1541. Wow. Now we are walking through the the
  1542. lab,
  1543. >> the external test chamber.
  1544. >> Okay, the external test chamber. So here
  1545. you make the test to blow the
  1546. this is for the protections right?
  1547. >> Yep. Exactly.
  1548. >> Amazing. So so fuses, protection
  1549. devices, relays, um circuit breakers, so
  1550. on and so forth.
  1551. >> And how often these tests happen?
  1552. >> Uh quite a lot. Right now it's very busy
  1553. >> and that's the reason we we are here
  1554. super early otherwise uh this will
  1555. already be starting.
  1556. >> Yeah, we came here super early just to
  1557. for the note.
  1558. It
  1559. >> is amazing. It worth it.
  1560. Okay. So, uh it has been amazing being
  1561. here. Thank you very much for for having
  1562. us
  1563. >> and yeah, I I think we can come back for
  1564. more insights.
  1565. >> It's it's it's really cool. I mean,
  1566. especially uh thank you for taking ush
  1567. for the spin in the in the lab because
  1568. uh
  1569. >> being in the office is always fun, but
  1570. it's it's it's about people behind the
  1571. energy and also in the environment that
  1572. they work in.
  1573. >> 100%. So thank you Barrett.
  1574. >> Thank you so much.
  1575. >> Thank you very much and probably see you
  1576. again.
  1577. >> Yeah absolutely for
  1578. >> another interview. So
  1579. >> thank you for the community for watch
  1580. the interview and stay tuned for the
  1581. next episode. See you there.
  1582. [Music]