Phoenix Contact was one of the first companies to use the term All Electric Society to describe the comprehensive electrification, networking and automation of all areas of the economy and infrastructure. At the beginning of September 2023, Phoenix Contact unveiled the All Electric Society Park at its Blomberg location. Joel Stratemann, Manager Business Development Integrated Energy Solutions at Phoenix Contact, explains the idea behind it, the technologies required – and how realistic he thinks it is for the All Electric Society to become a reality.
What inspired Phoenix Contact to create the All Electric Society Park?
Joel Stratemann: For the past almost five years we have had the vision of an All Electric Society. And we want to bring that vision to life and show that it can be solved with existing technology. Everything we need is there. And that was one of the key reasons why we decided to build the All Electric Society Park.
Can you describe the challenges in integrating the various components of an All Electric Society?
J. S.: It has been a challenge to design the technologies and solutions for networking electrification in such a way that all the different applications work closely together. The interesting thing is that we connect the applications not only with electrical energy, but also with thermal energy. So there is an exchange between electrical and thermal energy, for example through heat losses. This is what we call sector coupling.
How feasible is it to produce sufficient renewable energy to power an All Electric Society?
J. S.: Generating enough renewable energy is a challenge, but achievable. But we need to use the energy as efficiently as possible. We also need the technology to store and distribute the energy, and to recover the heat loss from various applications.
What’s needed to make sector coupling work across different industries?
J. S.: Communication is a very important part. All the different applications are connected through different protocols and communication interfaces. We need standardisation and IoT concepts to realise the kind of cross-communication between all the different applications. For example, someone in manufacturing uses Profinet, Profibus or Modbus for communication. An e-mobility supplier uses OCPP or something like that. We have to realise some kind of cross-communication. But we have to connect not only the electrical side. E-mobility or energy storage has heat losses. On the other hand, buildings need a lot of heat. So we need the infrastructure to bring all the energy together and connect all the applications.
How is the energy efficiency in the All Electric Society Park compared to conventional systems?
J. S.: Much more efficient. Let me explain the concept with an example: we have six high-power charging stations in the park. Each high-power station can charge at 350 kilowatts, and they have maybe five percent heat loss. That makes 17.5 kilowatts of heat loss. At six, we have 105 kilowatts of heat. We can recover that and use it to heat the building. That’s a game changer. So we are much more energy efficient. Then we talk about heat pumps and performance numbers. Normally, if you have a heat pump in a private house, the performance number is three or four. In the park, we have achieved a performance number of eleven. That means one kilowatt electrical input and eleven kilowatts output. That’s very efficient. And it is a lot of fun.
Did you have all the necessary technologies at hand when implementing the park or were there any gaps?
J. S.: No. The core components are all available on the market: photovoltaics, heat pumps, hydrogen storage, battery storage, energy management systems – everything is available. What is missing is cross-communication. For example, if you talk to an energy storage supplier about how to store energy, he’s absolutely right and he’s an expert. But if you talk to him or her about how we can reuse the heat loss of the energy storage, sometimes it’s a bit difficult.
How has this project influenced Phoenix Contact´s own practices?
J. S.: We’ve learnt that it’s not just the products you need, but also the knowledge to create the All Electric Society concept. And we don’t only have the All Electric Society Park in Blomberg, we also have building G60: it’s the first production site on the Blomberg site to be energy positive. This means that we generate more energy than we need to run the building and the production within it. Using the same concepts and technologies as in the All Electric Society Park.
The transition has been costly for consumers so far. Will the All Electric Society eventually become economically beneficial for the average person?
J. S.: In my opinion, it will. Of course, some technologies are more expensive. A heat pump, for example, is more expensive than conventional heating. But in terms of combating climate change, it is better. And in the All Electric Society we are talking about concepts: an individual may not need a heat pump. Instead, there might be a big concept for a city or a district, how to supply the citizens with electrical and thermal energy. It is also possible that in the future the technology will be at the same level, but the energy will be much cheaper than today.
The ultimate goal of the All Electric Society concept is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Do you think we are on track to achieve this?
J. S.: I firmly believe that we will get there. I just have to look out of my office window – I see the All Electric Society Park and I see it working. And we have a lot of customers who are now carbon neutral using the technologies that are available. So, yes, it’s absolutely achievable.