‚Reutlingen Energy Center‘ (REZ) at the University of Applied Science Reutlingen develops strategies for the optimal operation of distributed energy systems consisting of controllable energy converters such as combined heat and power (CHP) units and heat pumps along with volatile renewable energy converters such as photovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal with the consideration of thermal and electrical storages.

The proposed tasks in ENsource include the development of a simulation tool, which is able to handle any combination of the aforesaid energy converters and storages. This tool should deliver optimized schedules for the controllable energy converters with objective functions such as minimizing primary energy consumption or CO₂ emissions and/or operational cost. For verification the results will be compared to experimental data from the CHP and heat pump test bench at Reutlingen University. Afterwards, within the project ENsource the tool will be adopted to the case studies.

Within the project ENsource the Herman Hollerith Center (HHZ) of the university develops a methodology to modelize conflicting energy systems achieving regio-political, ecological, regulated and economical objectives. The modulization concentrates on socio-economical factors. Furthermore an adaption of enterprise architectures management techniques from information technology to energy technology will be conducted which will allows a steerage and further development of the energy infrastructure of organizations. Exemplarily the methods will be developed and tested on three different case studies which represent different business models dimensions.