Energy micro-producers, unite for lower living cost and extra revenue
Energy can be a commodity you can trade in, just like any other product. With energy storage capabilities and efficient technology-based management systems, households and businesses can start making money out of the energy they produce locally with renewables.
Energy as a new form of circular economy
Finland has, for a long time, been one of the leading countries in circular economy. It has excelled especially in waste management. Consistent development has made infrastructure available for citizens to efficiently circulate packaging or bio-waste.
We could do the same for energy. It involves circulating energy overproduced in one place to another place where it is needed at a different time. For this, we need infrastructure, just as we have done with waste.
Because energy is intangible, the infra for energy looks different from infra for waste. It consists of a combination of hardware, data, and digital capabilities.
Energy is becoming a key cost item for households
Energy cost is rapidly taking up a bigger percentage of the daily management costs of households and facilities.
Space heating and warm domestic water already account for over 80% of energy consumption in Nordic households. When a household buys an electric vehicle, just as an example, its electricity consumption jumps significantly.
Therefore, households and businesses have implemented alternative local energy solutions, such as solar panels, geothermal heating, heat pumps, or electric boilers. On the other hand, they are effectively using only a simple version of demand response by, for example, timing their EV charging to periods of low electricity price.
Both trends – electric vehicle penetration and local energy systems – reduce the use of fossil fuels, but at the same time, increase electricity consumption.
Households can be key to greener society
When household infrastructure is in place for moving energy from one place to another at times when it is needed, every citizen can be part of the green transition – and at the same time, get financial gain from their activity.
It’s a good start to have local energy systems in place, such as solar panels, geothermal heating, heat pumps or electric boilers. They give households more options to choose reasonably priced options for energy usage.
These measures, however, only mitigate the cost factor. You still end up forking out for energy, although maybe a little less than otherwise.
In contrast, energy storage opens totally new possibilities to shift energy usage to most beneficial times. Electricity storage can operate on the reserve capacity market creating more revenue.
Pilot plants are already in operation for storing heat in sand, for example. For electricity, partners already exist who can provide electricity storage capacity at an industrial scale.
Sensible energy management builds on cooperation
Typically, one housing company or cooperative is too small an entity to get maximum benefits from a local energy system. Therefore, partners are needed who provide aggregation services across large numbers of households and housing cooperatives by joining their forces.
“Local area energy planning stems from working together towards mutual goals. The utilization of waste energy flows and demand response are key factors in energy and cost-efficient urban planning of the future while lowering carbon emissions at the same time”, says Oskari Fagerström, Group Manager, District Energy Solutions at Granlund Group, a Finnish construction and real estate sector expert group specializing in productivity improvement, digitalization, new energy solutions, and sustainability.
(Read also Granlund’s blog: Five Insights into the Future Superblock.)
A practical example could be a parking company, owned jointly by a group of housing entities, with electric vehicle charging stations. It can benefit from using buffer batteries to ensure reasonably priced charging services for households at times when demand is high and selling stored energy when it yields the best price.
More earnings without compromising comfort
Renting commercial space has been a traditional way for housing companies to earn extra money. Trading in energy can be another way to additional revenue in the future.
Energy storage capacity allows comfortable living also during peak times throughout the entire energy system while harnessing the local energy resources for added earnings instead of only shifting the consumption to cheaper hours.
Energy could be the next new earning source to ensure reasonably priced living.
Tietoevry provides an Energy Management platform which allows energy resource owners to connect to energy wholesale markets and start earning from demand response.
Read more about the NSDC initiative and get in touch with Antti Seppälä. Let’s work out a solution that rationalizes your energy management and brings in new revenue to bring down the cost of living.
Want to discuss more about energy storage and trading?
To learn more about how energy storage can help urban areas become carbon neutral, reach out to the Project Manager.
Antti will be present at the World Alliance for Low Carbon Cities Forum in Porvoo (September 18th, 2024), take this opportunity to engage with him in person!
Antti Seppälä, antti.seppala@tietoevry.com