Driving innovation with $5.2m Energy Transition Hub

Siemens and Swinburne University of Technology collaborated to set up a future Energy Transition Hub at the university’s Hawthorn campus in Melbourne. The $5.2 million hub features advanced digital energy technology from Siemens and technical, R&D and teaching expertise from Swinburne. The hub aims to build a future energy grid laboratory accessible to students and industry, and when fully operational, will offer researchers and industry the opportunity to work on solutions for greener, more efficient future energy systems using Siemens Xcelerator, an open digital business platform and marketplace.

Karen Hapgood, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, said the hub will work on technologies to improve energy efficiency, supply, integration, storage, transport and use. It will focus on taking ideas that can make the most impact to market.

The hub will enable users to leverage digital twins of energy grids, map scenarios, research new findings and develop hypotheses. It will be home to a digital twin of Australia’s energy grid that commercial research teams can use to run simulations of innovative solutions and software.

It will also deliver short courses for industry professionals and integrate into Swinburne’s engineering technology courses.

Peter Halliday, CEO and Chairman of Siemens Australia and New Zealand, said collaboration between industry and academia is critical to driving better outcomes on key topics of national importance. Digitalisation allows technology to assist in identifying the opportunities for reducing energy consumption and emissions, accelerating the journey to net zero.

According to Halliday, the hub will extend Swinburne and Siemens’ longstanding relationship.

In addition to microgrid and planning stations, it will also feature Siemens’ microgrid management system (MGMS) and decentralised energy optimisation platform (DEOP) software.

The microgrid technologies include SICAM A8000 and SIPROTEC5 devices for control and protection. The planning stations feature Siemens PSS software.

Jose Moreira, Country Business Unit head – Grid Software, Siemens Australia and New Zealand, said a collaborative and co-creative approach is required to tackle the speed and change in the energy landscape to create solutions that help achieve net zero. The hub is for both students and industry to help spark Australian innovations for future energy challenges.