Sim4Blocks presents communal energy management at EM-Power
“The smarter E Europe” event is an innovation hub for empowering new energy solutions that brought together four events in June this year: Intersolar Europe, ees Europe, Power2Drive Europe, and EM-Power. Sim4Blocks partner Enisyst had a booth at the EM-Power exhibition for intelligent energy use in industry and buildings, and gave a presentation titled ‘Efficient control of energy systems in distributed communal properties – an intelligent operation management system helps to keep the overview’. Presentation The presentation was focused on two areas: the integration of the power-to-heat system in the pilot site’s town hall, and the use of buildings’ thermal mass (through intelligent control) to increase the flexibility of the power-to-heat system operation for demand response (DR) applications. With 30kWh of electrical storage, the school in the pilot site has an area electricity network installed with one connection to the grid. This one connection is to help increase the consumption of its own on-site generated electricity from a large photovoltaic (PV) system and to reduce peak power feed to the electricity grid. The battery will also be used for other DR services including for other flexibility markets. Exhibition booth During the event, Enisyst also displayed the Sim4Blocks project in their exhibition booth and visitors showed a great deal of interest in the developments of the Sim4Blocks project. Visitors were particularly interested in the use of local flexibility at building and district level in order to increase the consumption of electricity generated on-site. The popularity of such systems is developing across Europe, especially when there is a large economic incentive at play. As Dirk Pietruschka, managing director of Enisyst GmbH said, “there is more interest in selling electricity directly to tenants or residents.” For example, residents can receive export prices for excess electricity they produce, which can be sold back to the grid. The use of electricity that has been generated on-site can also reduce energy bills, and there is greater flexibility potential to adjust power output as needed. More specifically, Pietruschka explained that the new ‘Mieterstrom Law’ in Germany provides additional incentives for electricity from PV systems, as electricity is used directly by the tenants in their buildings or districts. “The tariff for electricity is also much lower than the price normal tenants or small companies pay for their electricity, which makes onsite consumption extremely interesting for market push,” he added. This new system means that there is no use of the grid, no grid charges and the tariff is paid for directly used electricity. In particular, this is most attractive in areas where grid charges are high. “With combined heat and power (CHP) units and PV systems, buildings and parts of buildings, together with intelligent control, can cover 70 to 80 per cent of their own overall electricity consumption,” said Pietruschka. However, the increased use of this type of generated electricity can become detrimental to the economy if left unsupervised. Such a model has the potential to infiltrate the market and leave grid operators receiving reduced grid utilisation fees, Pietruschka noted. “Business models will need to be changed from consumption fees to connection and peak load fees, otherwise the economic viability of such concepts might be at stake.” Visit “The smarter E Europe” website for more information on what went down at this year’s conference.
Countries
Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, United Kingdom