At the end of February, eleven regional energy suppliers - including Stadtwerke Gießen - founded the "Institute for Transformation Tasks in the Energy Industry and Energy Technology", or ITEE for short. The Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM) is providing scientific support to the organisation. SWG board member Matthias Funk is one of the chairmen.
Giessen. Whether expanding renewable energies, converting and digitalising energy grids or decarbonising the heat supply: The transformation of the energy system is primarily taking place locally in the municipalities. As a result, regional energy suppliers are in particular demand to find solutions for the tasks ahead. This can be done better together than alone. On the initiative of the Technical University of Central Hesse (THM), Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG) and ten other regional energy suppliers therefore joined forces at the end of February and founded the "Institute for Transformation Tasks in the Energy Industry and Energy Technology", or ITEE e.V. for short. Three other energy companies are planning to join the association in the future. Additional members from the energy industry are also welcome.
Closing ranks between research and practice
In addition to SWG, the current members of ITEE e.V. are Stadtwerke Bad Homburg, Stadtwerke Bad Nauheim, Energie und Versorgung Butzbach, EGF EnergieGesellschaft Frankenberg, Stadtwerke Friedberg, Stadtwerke Herborn, Stadtwerke Oberursel, Siegener Versorgungsbetriebe, Energie- und Wassergesellschaft mbh, Wetzlar (enwag) and Stadtwerke Weilburg. Stadtwerke Marburg, Kreiswerke Main-Kinzig and Energieversorgung Limburg are also planning to join in the near future.
Matthias Funk, Technical Director of SWG, and Dr Thorsten Reichel, Managing Director of Stadtwerke Bad Nauheim, will share the chairmanship. "In order to successfully master the energy transition, I believe it is currently particularly important for market participants to find new solutions - also in order to overcome the energy crisis. For me, the newly founded institute points the way forward because research and practice are cooperating and the implementation of innovative projects is thus broadly based," explains Matthias Funk.
In addition to the exchange and networking of member companies, the close collaboration with research is right at the top of the ITEE's agenda. This is why THM provides scientific support to the association with the interdisciplinary Competence Centre for Energy Technology and Energy Management (etem). And for good reason: the scientists have been working for years on technical and legal issues relating to energy conversion, distribution and utilisation. For example, etem is currently involved in the energy concept of the FlexQuartier in Giessen, which combines heat and energy supply in a decentralised, low-energy residential environment. Centre spokesperson and THM Vice President Professor Olaf Berger adds: "We can contribute our scientific expertise to the ITEE and support local energy suppliers in implementing the municipal heating transition and transforming the energy networks."
Next steps in preparation
In the next step, member companies and THM would like to transform the association into a so-called affiliated institute. Although the ITEE would remain legally independent, it would be linked to the university in terms of organisation, personnel and location. The plan is for employees of the participating energy suppliers to study part-time at the THM in future - for example energy technology, mechatronics, energy economics and management or electrical and information technology as well as mechanical engineering.
About Stadtwerke Gießen
Stadtwerke Gießen is a municipal cross-linked company that supplies around 190,000 customers with electricity, natural gas and district heating and operates five of its own swimming pools as well as another one on behalf of another company. They are also responsible for regional public transport and offer other municipal services.