As one of two property owners on the campus of Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Akademiska Hus plays a key role in the EU-funded project Fossil-free Energy Districts (FED). The project plan is to have the entire marketplace rolled out in the autumn and Akademiska Hus is having busy days to get all the new installations ready on time.
As one of two property owners on the campus of Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Akademiska Hus plays a key role in the EU-funded project Fossil-free Energy Districts (FED). The project plan is to have the entire marketplace rolled out in the autumn and Akademiska Hus is having busy days to get all the new installations ready on time.
“Akademiska Hus is a large property owner with many academic campus areas all over Sweden and we are increasingly focused on innovations,” says Per Löveryd, Innovation Coordinator at Akademiska Hus.
FED is one of several ongoing energy projects in which Akademiska Hus is involved and often there is a cross-fertilization between the investments. FED, for example, uses solar cells, direct current buildings, cooling storages and batteries from other projects, while the project itself finances installations for over SEK 13 million.
“We are mainly working with the control systems of the buildings. Among other things we are planning to use the thermal inertia of the buildings to store energy and for that reason we need to rebuild the control systems. We also have energy-generating units on the campus area, for example pumps for heating and cooling as well as our power central where biofuels for generating heat and power with hot water and boilers are combined with combustion research.”
FED consists of a digital marketplace developed by the project partner Ericsson. It includes electricity, heating and cooling and estimates both the consumption and production of the buildings as well as forecasts for weather and energy prices. The buildings can then trade energy surplus with each other within the system which is also connected to the energy grids of the city.
"The big difference for us is that the FED marketplace will overrule our current control systems. Since the trading in FED system is done by digital smart agents there will be less manual work for our technicians," says Per Löveryd.
Although FED as a project will be completed within two years, Akademiska Hus’ commitment is on a long-term basis. The marketplace will continue to run on Chalmers’ campus and Per Löveryd believes that it may also be implemented on other campuses of Akademiska Hus.
“The investments we are making now are real and will of course not be stopped when the project ends. There is a life after FED and we hope that it can also inspire new projects that will enable us to continue to develop the system.”
About the project The Fossil-free Energy Districts project, FED, is an innovative effort by the City of Gothenburg to decrease the use of energy and the dependence on fossil fuel in a built environment. A unique local marketplace for electricity, district heating and cooling is being developed together with eight strong partners.
The City of Gothenburg, Johanneberg Sciene Park, Göteborg Energi, Business Region Göteborg, Ericsson, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Akademiska Hus, Chalmersfastigheter and Chalmers University of Technology are all contributing with their expertise and knowledge to make FED attractive for other European cities as well.
During 2017−2019 the FED testbed will be situated on Chalmers Campus Johanneberg. FED is co-financed by the European Regional and Development Fund through the Urban Innovative Actions Initiative, an initiative of the European Commission for cities to test new solutions for urban challenges.
