Official Kick-Off of SWITCH

We are thrilled to announce the official launch of the SWITCH project, titled "Stabilizing weak grids through machine learning: empowering farmers in end-of-line communities in North Africa through artificial neural networks." This project is part of the "Long-Term Joint European Union - African Union Research and Innovation Partnership on Renewable Energy (LEAP-RE)", which is funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 program.

On July 13^th, the consortium, consisting of eight partners from Algeria, Germany, Italy and Morocco, convened virtually to initiate the project and discuss the initial steps required to commence work across the six different work packages. The primary goal of SWITCH is to develop an innovative and comprehensive solution to stabilize weak grids and enhance the security of energy supply in rural "end-of-line" communities in North Africa.

The interdisciplinary team will explore how electricity supply in these "end-of-line" communities in Morocco (MAR) and Algeria (DZ), which frequently suffer from power outages, can be improved through the integration of smart renewable energy systems, AI-driven prediction methods, and optimal Agri-PV (Agricultural Photovoltaic) solutions for local-level islanding. Additionally, the project aims to increase local revenues. SWITCH proposes a flexible approach to address the challenges faced by end-of-line communities through the temporary islanding of distributed renewable energy generators. This will be facilitated by a novel and open-access AI-driven tool that predicts power outages, solar power availability, and local demand, guiding local operators/users to operate their smart decentralized energy supply system (Agri-PV) in a manner that supports a weak grid during regular operation and autonomously supplies electricity to key consumers in case of power outages through islanding. These core technological tasks will be accompanied by capacity building in the communities, with a special focus on women, to contribute to their (economic) empowerment, as well as for decision-makers (grid operators, policymakers) to create an enabling policy/regulatory environment.

The two-year SWITCH project is funded through a cooperation of four different funding agencies in Algeria, Germany, Italy and Morocco. In Germany, SWITCH is supported by funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The consortium includes the University Ain Temouchent (UAT) and the University of Adrar (UA) in Algeria, Women Engage for a Common Future e.V. (WECF) in Germany, Aitown S.R.L. in Italy, Al Akhawayn University (AUI), the University Mohammed Premier (UMP) and the Institut National des Postes et Télécommunications in Morocco and coordinated by Institute of new Energy Systems (InES) at Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt (THI) in Germany. You can read up on the project and related news on the LEAP-RE website: https://www.leap-re.eu/switch/