Substantial amounts of electricity can be moved through the grid using heat pumps and electric radiators. These are the findings of the initial phase of a research and development project, EcoGrid 2.0, which demonstrates how management of demand can ease the integration of a rising proportion of wind and solar power without compromising security of supply.
The output of wind turbines and solar panels meets around 50% of Denmark’s electricity demand. This output varies in intensity as the wind blows and the sun shines, while demand varies in predictable patterns over time. These fluctuations must be managed to achieve a perfect balance between supply and demand at all times. One of the tools available for balancing the grid is demand management — the shifting of electricity consumption away from critical times. The EcoGrid 2.0 project, led by the Danish Energy Association, is experimenting with advanced ways of shifting large volumes of demand as needed. Running from January 2016 to June 2019, the project is investigating how the control and management of electric heating and heat pumps can help balance national and local grids. As part of the project, researchers have taken control of the heat pumps and electric radiators in 800 homes on the Danish island of Bornholm, which is aiming to become 100% carbon-free by 2025. In one of the many demonstrations, the heating was turned off in all households for an hour in the morning and then again for an hour in the evening during the peak consumption period (householders were allowed to set certain indoor temperature limits before the project began). The electricity consumption from these houses was reduced by over a third in both periods. This initial phase of the project shows that it is possible to aggregate and control heating devices to reduce consumption when supply runs short, a process referred to as demand response. “The number of heat pumps is expected to grow from 80,000 to over 110,000 in the coming ten years in Denmark, so the potential for large volumes of demand response is significant,” says Emil Maher Larsen from the Danish Energy Association. The large volumes of data collected from devices and homes on Bornholm are being stored on a central platform, says Kim Kock-Hansen from Bornholms Energi & Forsyning, the company producing, selling and distributing electrical power to the island’s residents. The data will feed into efforts to develop a set of tools that can be used by the power system operator and distribution companies to run an efficient and stable power system with fluctuating supplies of wind and solar energy. EcoGrid 2.0 will end in 2019, but the project partners hope that the results will have a lasting effect. “There is a growing interest in the solutions we are developing with offers from energy companies to collaborate and bring our technology to their customers,” says Mahler Larsen. “We have recently added 20 new large customers — mostly schools with heat pumps — from a different part of Denmark and we have a request to include a fleet of electric vehicles in our project. The results are spreading like wildfire.”
TEXT: Jesper Tornbjerg, PHOTO: Anders Beier, EcoGrid
This article is part of the Nordic Clean Energy Series
, published by FORESIGHT Climate & Energy to support Nordic Clean Energy Week. A week where energy leaders from around the globe gather in Copenhagen and Malmö to discuss the policies, business and technological solutions and challenges involved in tackling climate change.
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