Digitalizing Water Infrastructure for Energy Flexibility – The Oberwart Waterworks

The Oberwart Waterworks pilot, led by Enlion, is the Austrian contribution to the BlueBird project. It focuses on transforming municipal water infrastructure into an active, flexible, and energy-efficient system that supports both local grid stability and wider energy market participation.

A new perspective on water and energy

Waterworks are traditionally viewed as essential public infrastructure, operating continuously to ensure water supply reliability. However, their pumping systems, retention tanks, and operational cycles also represent significant and so far untapped energy flexibility potential.

The Oberwart pilot demonstrates how this potential can be harnessed through digitalization, predictive control, and integration with the BlueBird platform.

Prediction and Scheduling of Power Consumption

This use case focuses on developing data-driven forecasting models for electricity consumption at the waterworks. By analyzing historical data, pump operation patterns, and real-time measurements, Enlion and partners create day-ahead schedules that anticipate energy needs.

The goal is to improve planning accuracy and enable smarter control strategies, paving the way for demand-side flexibility.

Optimizing the Retention Tank as an Energy Storage Unit

In this case, the retention tank is treated as a flexible energy buffer. By shifting pumping operations based on energy prices, grid conditions, or renewable generation availability, the waterworks can consume electricity when it is abundant and cheap and reduce load during peak demand.

This optimization not only improves energy efficiency but also contributes to grid balancing and CO2 reduction.

Integration with the Virtual Power Plant (VPP)

The final step is the integration of the waterworks into the BlueBird Virtual Power Plant (VPP). This connection allows the waterworks to provide aggregated electrical flexibility together with other distributed assets such as PV plants and battery systems to energy markets.

Technical implementation and collaboration

The implementation involves close cooperation between Enlion, the Waterworks Oberwart, and several BlueBird Work Packages:

1. Optimisation: development of forecasting and control algorithms
2. Market Integration: enabling participation in flexibility and energy markets
3. Platform Integration: connecting the pilot infrastructure to the BlueBird cloud and data services

A model for smart municipal infrastructure

The Oberwart pilot demonstrates how municipal utilities can become key players in the energy transition. By connecting critical infrastructure like waterworks to digital platforms, local operators can reduce costs, enhance sustainability, and actively support the power system.

As part of BlueBird, this project contributes to a scalable European model for integrating public infrastructure into future flexibility markets – creating smarter, greener, and more resilient communities.