The TUW AI Energy Lab is an experimental research infrastructure of the Research Group of Industrial Energy Systems. It links the energy carriers electricity, heat and hydrogen into a shared facility that is coupled through a central SCADA system. The aim is to develop and experimentally validate methods for operating sector-coupled energy systems at laboratory scale — ranging from classical model-based approaches to AI methods such as machine learning and reinforcement learning.

The lab consists of two sub-facilities that can be operated modularly — the TUW H₂ Lab and the TUW Heating Labs. Their components serve as sources, sinks, storage units and converters and can be combined in flexible configurations. A unified measurement, communication and visualisation layer provides the basis for testing methods for operation, predictive diagnostics and digital twins on real components under reproducible conditions. The lab is designed in such a way that additional experimental modules and external consumers can be integrated into the system — this modular architecture positions the lab as an open platform for cooperation, both within the institute and with external partners.