252-3610-00L Smart Energy
| Semester | Autumn Semester 2019 |
| Lecturers | F. Mattern, V. C. Coroama |
| Periodicity | yearly recurring course |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Abstract | The lecture covers the role of ICT for sustainable energy usage. It starts out with a general background on the current landscape of energy generation and consumption and outlines concepts of the emerging smart grid. The lecture combines technologies from ubiquitous computing and traditional ICT with socio-economic and behavioral aspects and illustrates them with examples from actual applications. |
| Learning objective | Participants become familiar with the diverse challenges related to sustainable energy usage, understand the principles of a smart grid infrastructure and its applications, know the role of ubiquitous computing technologies, can explain the challenges regarding security and privacy, can reflect on the basic cues to induce changes in consumer behavior, develop a general understanding of the effects of a smart grid infrastructure on energy efficiency. Participants will apply the learnings in a course-accompanying project, which includes both programming and data analysis. The lecture further includes interactive exercises, case studies and practical examples. |
| Content | - Background on energy generation and consumption; characteristics, potential, and limitations of renewable energy sources - Introduction to energy economics - Smart grid and smart metering infrastructures, virtual power plants, security challenges - Demand management and home automation using ubiquitous computing technologies - Changing consumer behavior with smart ICT - Benefits and challenges of a smart energy system - Smart heating, electric mobility |
| Literature | Will be provided during the course, though a good starting point is "ICT for green: how computers can help us to conserve energy" from Friedemann Mattern, Thosten Staake, and Markus Weiss (available at http://www.vs.inf.ethz.ch/publ/papers/ICT-for-Green.pdf). |