E.ON to sink €7.5m into research at RWTH Aachen University

The aim of the partnership is to translate scientific findings into practical solutions and to scale innovations that can help advance the energy transition faster, more efficiently and more affordably.

Research focuses on smart grids, heating solutions, as well as battery and storage technologies.

An example cited of the collaboration to date is the Grid Cube, an AI-based, decentralised control system for local substations in the LV grid intended to prevent bottlenecks at an early stage, even when data availability is limited. Following successful field tests, the solution is being developed further into a scalable product.

"The energy transition needs innovations that work in the real world. This is exactly what our partnership with RWTH Aachen University has stood for over the past 20 years: bringing scientific excellence together with practical implementation,” says Victoria Ossadnik, Member of the Board of Management of E.ON SE for Digital & Innovation.

“Together, we develop solutions that move from research into practice and deliver tangible impact."

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One focus of this new phase of cooperation is on solutions for a successful heating transition, with new approaches needed in the heating sector in particular to help climate-friendly technologies reach practical application more quickly.

Decentral heat pumps and climate-friendly heating grids are essential building blocks with significant potential for innovation. In the future, the newly launched E.ON Heat Lab is intended to research and test these solutions, ranging from lower temperatures in district heating grids to intelligent heat transfer stations that deliver heat to customers reliably and efficiently.

Heating transition

Professor Ulrich Rüdiger, Rector of RWTH Aachen University, says that the collaboration between RWTH Aachen University and E.ON demonstrates how long-term partnerships between science and practice can help drive the transformation of the energy system.

“With the E.ON Heat Lab, we are creating essential research infrastructure to test and further develop technologies for the heating and energy transition."

In the collaboration E.ON and RWTH Aachen University are focusing on areas that are crucial to a modern energy system.

At the E.ON ERC, more than 220 researchers across four institutes with eight professorships are working on future-relevant energy topics. The institutes combine expertise in electrical engineering and information technology, mechanical engineering, materials science and economics.

Beyond the E.ON ERC, a dynamic innovation environment has developed around Aachen, which E.ON actively helps shape together with scientific partners, start-ups and other stakeholders.

With the clean tech software company envelio and smart grid intelligence provider gridX, both of which became part of E.ON's innovation portfolio in 2021, E.ON reports developing successful digital solutions that are already integrated into its grid companies and further scaled.