Gothenburg

Energy Transition

FED - Fossil Free Energy Districts (Closed)

The FED project confirms Gothenburg as a frontrunner in developing the energy solutions of a fossil-free society. The idea is to reduce energy consumption by establishing a local market place for electricity, heating and cooling. Hopefully, this model will prove capable of speeding up the energy transition across Europe.

Ann-Sofie Hermansson, Mayor of the City of Gothenburg
The project in numbers
80%
of fossil energy peaks avoided with FED project
3
energy carriers traded on local energy marketplace (electricity, district heating, cooling)
9
complementary partners involved in the FED innovation
15.000
end users taking advantage of the FED local energy trading system
EUR 4,654,800.00
Total ERDF budget granted
Challenge addressed

The FED-project supports the EU in the challenges to drastically decrease the use of fossil based energy and increase the security of supply.

FED will support the energy transition in urban areas by demonstrating scalable and replicable solutions for energy efficiency and smart energy management in public infrastructure and housing sector; the adoption of low carbon energy production and moderating the demand for heating and cooling; and deployment of innovative, renewable-based solutions to heat/cool buildings and neighborhoods.

FED will create sustainable business and supports the smart growth challenge of Europe.

Solution proposed

FED aims to develop, demonstrate and replicate a novel district level energy system, integrating electric power, as well as heating and cooling. This solution embraces and enhances the use of technologies such as PVs, heat-pumps and wind into larger system. The solution will drastically reduce peak loads and the use of fossil primary energy to such an extent that Gothenburg has the possibility to be a no-carbon city if deployed on a greater scale.

To overcome the main challenges, the proposed solution contains advancements in system development and operation, business logistics, legal framework as well as stakeholders’ acceptance.

The FED solutions consists of three cornerstones:

FED demonstrator area – The selected demonstration is located at a campus with about 15 000 end-users. It has a well-balanced set of property owners, energy infrastructure, and users, including prosumers as well as buildings with different needs and usage profiles. The area is exempted from the law of concession for electricity distribution, providing the opportunity to test and validate a local energy market. The prerequisites to optimize the use of primary and secondary energy using intermediate storage are well developed, as they are for generation, storage and distribution.

FED System solution – Our solution will optimize the use of low-grade energy to replace primary energy. Adding fossil-free energy sources while optimizing different buildings usage profiles; one building’s energy needs will be balanced with the surplus of another. Intermediate storage, fundamental to be success, consists of heating/cooling storage in the building’s structure, accumulation tanks or geothermal heat pumps, and batteries for electricity. An ICT service will support future volatile energy markets.

FED Business solution – Create new sustainable markets. The success of FED depends on cooperation and energy exchange between several stakeholders. To make it happen, a local energy market creating business value for each stakeholder will be developed.

Partnership
  • Göteborg Stad
  • Johanneberg Science Park AB  - Public/Private Company
  • Göteborg Energi AB  - Public Company
  • Business Region Göteborg AB - Public Company
  • Chalmersfastigheter AB - Private Company
  • Akademiska hus AB - Private Company
  • Chalmers - Research Center
  • Rise Research Institutes of Sweden AB - Research Center
  • Ericsson AB - Private Company
Expected results

The FED-project aims to deliver a grid-connected local energy system with demand and supply in balance, integrating electricity, heating and cooling, and a local energy market and trading system functioning in symbiosis with the existing energy market.

The environmental improvements, with the FED-system in place, will lead to a local energy production that is 100% fossil-free, decreased energy-peaks with 80%, and imported energy into the grid with 30%.

The FED local energy market leads to new business and revenues for the real-estate owners and users, utility companies, and 3rd party suppliers. The new energy marketplace will demonstrate and evaluate at least 10 000 business transactions.

FED creates cost effective energy improvement solutions, thus avoiding higher rental cost for economically disadvantaged citizens.

Main milestones

June 2017: We finish our system design overview. It will result in a FED simulation model, indicators and baseline values, local energy market design, technical description for local energy trading system, installed baseline ICT platform, local energy business models and a socio-economic framework.

December 2017: Our trading system version 1.0 operates and we invite visitors to our showroom. We have access to a replication strategy document and documentation of energy storage control systems. First year of innovation challenge.

June 2018: Our trading system version 2.0 operates including the energy storage control system.

December 2018: All our investments operate as well as fully integrated hardware and control systems. We present financial instruments and viability supporting local energy systems. Second year of innovation challenge.

October 2019: We end our execution phase. We have further knowledge about acceptance of energy systems like FED. Third year of innovation challenge.

The project in numbers
80%
of fossil energy peaks avoided with FED project
3
energy carriers traded on local energy marketplace (electricity, district heating, cooling)
9
complementary partners involved in the FED innovation
15.000
end users taking advantage of the FED local energy trading system
EUR 4,654,800.00
Total ERDF budget granted
Contact of the project
Claes Sommansson
Project coordinator
Zeno Winkels
UIA expert

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Media

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European collaboration for local energy solutions

Zoom-in

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