Special Issue: Sensoren und Messtechnik für die Energiewende

When you look at the variety of the challenge of sensor technology for the energy transition and recognise the multitude of new results, you would like to start the editorial with “This is a very special issue…”. But that doesn’t seem particularly original to me. Let’s try differently!

Every issue has its own story, and it’s worth telling. This one begins with a development at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), which also explains the special focus of the authorship in this issue. PTB has been dedicated to metrology, the science of measurement, with precision, objectivity and passion for 138 years. Topics, contents and responsibilities are as clearly defined as in a good physics book. Today, however, there are challenges that no longer allow for such classification, which is why a new cross-sectional structure was established between 2017 and 2019: The founding of the innovation clusters of PTB.

The following innovation clusters contributed to this issue: Energy, Environment, and Climate and System Metrology. I would like to thank the responsible management teams as well as the authors, who shed light on sensor technology for the energy transition on a broad scale: They cover energy sources, grid stability, energy use in the city of the future, but also the needs of the energy transition itself, digitalisation and internationalisation.

In the field of energy sources, Victor Gorshelev’s et al. article “Impurity measurements in hydrogen using laser spectroscopy: Carbon monoxide as a case study” focuses on the possibilities of measuring impurities in the important energy gas hydrogen. Another metrological challenge comes from the shipping industry, where the use of N2O is used to increase the performance of the propulsion system, but this use harbours the risk of the significantly more climate-damaging gas being released. One solution could be to monitor the combustion process using measurement technology. Denghao Zhu presents such a method in his article “Progressing TDLAS instrumentation for SI-traceable measurements of nitrous oxide in maritime applications”.

In the area of grid stability, the safety mechanisms and control strategies for our grids need to be founded on well analysed data: More on this can be found in “Dimensioning and creation of grid filters and measurement software that enable fast and robust recording of the grid frequency and the rate of frequency change independent of grid disturbances/harmonics to determine grid stability”. A joint contribution from two European metrology institutes shows that new challenges in grid stability also require new calibration options. Two broadband multi-range voltage dividers covering (remotely) switchable voltage ranges from 60 V to 480 V were developed for the construction of broadband power calibration systems. A. Dubowik et al. describe this development in “Multi-Range Voltage Divider for Wideband Power Measurements”.

Energy networks are supplying ever larger cities. The field of futurology has long been concerned with this development [1]. Measurement technology developments are indispensable as enablers when it comes to shaping the living conditions in such future cities. The fact that the topic of energy efficiency must not be viewed in isolation from the important health issue of radon exposure can be found in “Radon Sensor Networks for Large Buildings: Balancing the Trade-Off between Energy Efficiency and Health” by S. Röttger et al.

Temperature measurements in extreme environments are of great importance for energy suppliers and industry. A new development is fibre optic thermometry, which enables distributed measurements and is also insensitive to the electromagnetic fields that occur in these areas. In his article “Fibre-Optic Thermometry to Support the Clean Energy Transition”, Stephan Krenek et al. describe the metrological possibilities that are being opened up here.

The energy transition will not succeed in isolation. It is therefore important to enter into international cooperation and tackle metrological challenges together. The example of “Hydrogen metrology services” by Helga Hansen provides a very practical illustration of the challenges involved in setting up new metrological services in Tunisia and Namibia. This view is completed by “The Global Dimension of the Energy Transition. Contributions from PTB’s International Cooperation” by Carl Felix Wolff.

Moreover, the energy transition has its very own requirements for quality infrastructure, particularly in the area of digitalisation. Jens Niederhausen shows in his article “The digital transformation of the quality infrastructure supports the energy transition” that this needs to be taken into account. This special issue of TM ends with a very practical example by A. Kammeyer on the subject of “Integrating energy data from a lambda architecture into a Digital Twin”.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the PTB Executive Secretaries of our Innovation Clusters for their support in identifying the topic for this issue, for providing targeted internal discussions and for their support of the PTB authors. Namely, the Executive Secretary of the Innovation Cluster Environment and Climate, Olav Werhahn, the Executive Secretary of the Innovation Cluster Energy, Fabian Plan, and the Executive Secretary of the Innovation Cluster of the Systemic Metrology, Joanna Freyse, were involved. In the end we all look proudly on the achieved results, and we hope to contribute by this to a sustainable future.

Forgive me for saying it here: it is a very special issue! And I hope you enjoy reading it.

Annette Röttger