Open communication for smart district heating

Purpose and goal

Our aim is to create an open information and communication platform for an improved exchange of information within the value chain of district heating. Relevant information is energy demand, indoor temperature and buildings heat storage capacity as well as services for regulation of heat supply in buildings. This will improve the efficiency of district heating since it will make demand & response and load shifting possible in district heating networks. The focus areas during the project have been to expanded project constellation and identify the test bed areas for initial pilot test.

Results and expected effects

Two test areas have been identified during the project. Additional test areas in the Municipality of Värmdö will be included in the next step. An energy service for buildings based on thermodynamic calculations online and heat demand forecasts with regulation &control will be development in the next phase. The service could potentially reduce carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to the emissions from 16 000 to 31 000 cars. Two key players, IMCG and FVU, have been linked to the project. This will ensures more thorough analyses of the requirement that district heating companies will have

Approach and implementation

Two workshops with all stakeholders have been held at IVL. The project was communicated at two different conferences, ´Substations and energy measurements´ as well as Vinnova´s own program conference. During the project has over 30 different contacts have been made to identify needs and expand the constellation to step 2. Indoor temperature sensor has been installed in multifamily dwelling in Sollentuna in order to carry out pilot tests for the development of the energy services. We have also made a drafting sketch on an ICT platform including business logic that will be built up in step 2