Our Test Community exists thanks to the enthusiasm and collaboration of the participating residents of Walenstadt. To show our appreciation for their steady support, we recently hosted an informational evening, which included updates on our work and a friendly apéro to exchange ideas. 

Claudio Stucki, scientific collaborator with OST’s Institute for Communications Systems (ICOM), presented key milestones along with our first analysis results and an introduction to the next steps planned. Fabian Böhm (PhD student at ETH’s Power Systems Laboratory and OST’s ICOM) then shared information on student projects within Grid2050, followed by a joint discussion and feedback round. This session included a fun quiz, using an OST polling system to test the guests on their knowledge of the energy transition.

Alongside details of the 16 Solar Manager Gateways installed and Grid2050 platform, the progress report described the improvements we have achieved in system performance and fault detection. These achievements, plus the demonstrated potential of our platform for real-world testing of theoretical energy models, have been presented in public presentations at ETH Zürich, OST, and NCCR Automation events, as well as to ETH research groups. These collaborations are expected to lead to new experimental scenarios in the coming months as we broaden our research network and pursue further funding opportunities.