Smart Grids for Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Electricity is the backbone of our economy and society. Rising demand, increasingly scarce raw materials and climate change pose major new challenges to our energy system. It is essential to speed up our efforts to find new solutions that provide a maximum degree of economic efficiency, energy security, and environmental compatibility. Information and communication technology (ICT) will play a key role in this process.

Germany, Austria and Switzerland have decided to join forces in promoting research and development projects geared toward the creation of ICT-based energy systems of the future. This international co-operation focuses chiefly on the development and testing of strategies for introducing smart grids. This will provide Germany's "smart grid pioneer regions" with further opportunities to intensify and expand their research on forward-looking energy systems beyond national borders. A corresponding Memorandum of Understanding was officially signed at the annual e-energy conference on 26 November 2009.

For the German side, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology has taken on the lead responsibility for this trinational co-operation effort. Its partners are the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) in Austria and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (BFE).

The collaboration between the three countries will focus on the development of intelligent electricity networks, which are usually referred to as "smart grids" or the "energy internet". An additional focus involves systems integration for electric mobility.

For both the energy internet and electric mobility, the collaborative efforts will target the following fields of action:

1. Information

• Knowledge-sharing among stakeholders
• Information-sharing and coordination with regard to government funding programmes

2. Synergies

• Identifying and taking advantage of synergies 
• Fostering cross-border co-operation between various national projects (model regions, centres of excellence, etc.)

3. Co-operation

• Developing joint solutions for cross-cutting issues such as interoperability, standardisation, safety/security requirements, legal compatibility, and business models

4. Public outreach

• Coordination of public relations efforts
• Enhancing user acceptance 
• Expediting technology transfer

Every ministry has appointed an external, private sector partner for the collaboration between Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In Germany, B.A.U.M. Consult GmbH is the partner of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.

Three task forces have already been established in order to ensure quick, practical progress toward our objectives. These task forces pool the findings and innovations from each country and exchange them with their counterparts in the other two countries.