RWTH Aachen

In today’s rapidly shifting social, political, and environmental landscape, universities are called to take on greater responsibility as drivers of meaningful change. Institutions like RWTH must go beyond traditional boundaries to become solution-oriented universities, tackling humanity’s most pressing challenges while helping to build a resilient and sustainable future. Our goal is to make a leading and lasting contribution to Europe’s competitiveness and sustainability.

According to Univ.-Prof. Dr. ir. Rik De Doncker, RWTH Aachen University, speaker of the Flexible Electrical Networks Research Campus (FEN), “the rising number of distributed renewable energy sources, the ongoing growth of charging infrastructure and electrification of heating sector necessitate a new, more flexible electrical distribution grid. DC technology is ideal for achieving this flexibility while increasing efficiency by allowing power flow management between all voltage levels instead of relying on the ‘top-down principle’ in the existing AC grid. It will also be the key enabling technology to connect the remaining one billion people to a secure electrical power source by reducing the demand of critical materials like copper. Safety and interoperability standards are of utmost relevance for the integration of DC technology. Therefore, we are happy to collaborate with the ODCA to achieve these goals."