District heat networks benefiting from attractive Swedish digital offerings

Business Sweden, the Swedish Trade and Investment Council are currently running an initiative called Heat Networks – Sustainability by Sweden – a joint network of about 35 leading suppliers, industry associations and the Swedish government.

Stella Faber, consultant with the business agency spoke to Decentralized Energy about what particular Swedish companies are doing in the district heating area.

The aim of Business Sweden’s initiative is to promote collaboration and facilitate sharing of technology between Sweden and other markets (primarily the UK) to accelerate the development of heat networks/district energy solutions.

Referring to companies in what Faber calls the ‘digital heating’ field, two are standing out at the moment.

“NODA are specialists in building and network optimisation. They’ve basically built an algorithm working between the network and the building which helps to reduce energy consumption.”

“This company works with big utilities as does Ngenic, who provide Smart Thermostat technology.”

“The smart thermostat is similar to Goggle’s Nest. But Ngenic have taken it a couple of steps further. It has similar technology to Noda, it’s a small application that you install in your home in your flat house or commercial building and ultimately reduces energy consumption so the energy operator or utility can balance the peak loads and the overall heat demand comes down.”

Ngenic’s offering has gone down well among those running heat network operations, according to Faber, who spoke to Decentralized Energy at the Euroheat & Power Congress in Glasgow this week.

“They are young companies – Ngenic has 40 pilots in 40 different utility companies in Sweden, all water-based heating but they are expanding rapidly because the pilots have been very successful and they have managed to reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent for one of the utilities. That represents massive savings.”

Can these companies replicate this success in other jurisdictions and play a bigger part in transforming the way energy systems work?

“Yes. Business Sweden are working with them in the UK. The UK is a focus market for them as a next step and they are also interested in other European markets such as Germany, France and Italy where there is a lot of district heating. They work with decentralised heating and also any type of water based heating.”

There is more to come from innovative developers emerging from Sweden. Flexible Heat & Power (FHP) is one such initiative, a research project ambitious for the use of renewable energy in heat networks.

FHP has the aim of connecting heat and power networks by harnessing the complexity in distributed thermal flexibility. The main objective of FHP is to increase the level of renewable energy in power grids by using the flexibility of power to heat resources.

Source: Decentralized Energy
District heat networks benefiting from attractive Swedish digital offerings