Innovation for smarter electricity use

The results come from some of the 31 innovation projects for reduced electricity use financed by the Swedish Energy Agency and Vinnova in 2023 and which are reported during the month of October.

Cooling systems that reduce the load on the electricity grid and lower costs

For many businesses, cooling and freezing facilities are absolutely necessary. At the same time, they account for a significant cost and strain the electricity grid around the clock. The project Move power and optimize cooling facilities has shown that there are significant gains for both companies and society in reviewing the facilities. Above all, it is about moving the use of electricity to the night and offloading the critical, and therefore expensive, hours in the morning from the point of view of the electricity system.

The total electricity use for refrigeration and freezing facilities for shops and commercial kitchens was found to be reduced by 10 to 30 percent. Projektkoordinatorn Klas Berglöf, from Climacheck, describes the collaboration with Ica Maxi and Ikea as a success factor.

- We are pleasantly surprised that optimization to reduce power during the critical hours also turned out to have a clear effect on the total energy use for refrigeration and freezer facilities, says Klas Berglöf.

Real estate equipment as a power resource for the power grid

In public housing companies there is a large amount of property equipment that is not connected in the same system. This concerns, for example, solar cells, heat pumps, batteries and electric cars. In the project Property equipment as a power resource for the electricity grid, Uddevallahem collaborates with Gothenburg's Stads Bostads AB and Lund's municipality's property AB to jointly find ways to navigate a new energy landscape.

The project looks at opportunities and obstacles for real estate companies to go from controlling the use of electricity solely for the needs of the properties, to also taking into account electricity prices and how heavily strained the electricity grids are. Andreas Skälegård at Uddevallahem thinks it has gone well to connect different equipment technically, which is promising. But there are challenges rooted in the fact that experience is low and the market is immature.

- The process from the technical level to a completed business plan and signed contract is long and winding. To that you can also add that different opinions in terms of risk, fire and safety around batteries slow down investment in batteries in particular, says Andreas Skälegård.

Smart office premises for optimized electricity consumption

In the project Smart buildings with digital technology, the IT company Atea together with Göteborg Energi has combined data from various systems to control and optimize the electricity consumption of office premises. In addition to electricity meters on all floors, local control of ventilation through motion detection, passage systems and camera sensors, there are also desk sensors that detect whether the workplace is occupied.

Göteborg Energi has a property with seven floors with approximately the same number of workplaces per floor in open landscapes. Atea has analyzed data for the property both before, during and after the pandemic. Pär Åberg at Atea says that the pandemic affected energy consumption in the premises less than expected. A reduction of personnel in the premises by 70 percent only resulted in a 10 percent reduction in electricity consumption.

Enligt Pär Åberg will be a key to achieving a more precise control of electricity consumption, which is possible through a collection portal for different systems. Göteborg Energi and Atea will continue their collaboration even after the end of the project.

In another project on the same theme, Low Power Mode for Buildings, Idun Real Estate in collaboration with Vasakronan explores the possibility of a standardized low-energy mode for premises. They have installed an application ProptechOS, in the open property standard RealEstateCore, to the existing property systems such as ventilation, elevators and heat pumps so that it is possible to schedule a reduced electricity use.

- Our application was connected with the local effects market SthlmFlex. Machine learning is used to make a forecast about the amount of energy that can be saved with minimal impact on the tenants, explains Erik Wallin.

Great opportunities for reduced electricity consumption

Anna Karlsson, call manager at Vinnova, can see that the projects can already demonstrate potential to contribute to reduced energy use.

- The 31 projects show that with comparatively small funds, it is possible to quickly make big changes that, in total, save a lot of electricity, especially for the most critical and expensive hours, says Anna Karlsson.

Take part in all 31 project here

On October 23, all 31 project will be presented at a results day. Welcome to listen.