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 to two course-accompanying projects, which include 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).
Performance assessment
Performance assessment information (valid until the course unit is held again)
The performance assessment is only offered in the session after the course unit. Repetition only possible after re-enrolling.
Mode of examination
oral 15 minutes
Additional information on mode of examination
Oral exam (15 minutes) and submission / presentation of two practical group projects. The first, larger project will start in the 2nd week of the semester and run until the 8th-9th week; the second, smaller project will last for the remaining 5-6 weeks of the semester. They both represent compulsory continuous performance assessment tasks (i.e., ‘obligatorische Leistungselemente’), and are awarded grades that count proportionally towards the total course-unit grade. Not taking part in either or both of the projects yields a grade of 1.0 for the project(s) in question.
Grading: 20% for the first practical group project; 10% for the second project; 70% oral exam.
This information can be updated until the beginning of the semester; information on the examination timetable is binding.
Performance assessment as a semester course