Fingrid is a company responsible for the electricity transmission in the high-voltage transmission system in Finland. For a few years now, SEAM and Fingrid have worked together to find ways for developing effective and safe energy optimization services, which are currently becoming more popular around the world. SEAM has also created a reporting tool, which meets Fingrid's requirements.
"Until these days, in Finland only the large scale industry has been familiar with the benefits of energy optimization and demand response. Today, companies like SEAM can assist bigger and smaller energy consumers to utilize these services efficiently. There's a lot of positive movement in the field and several factories and neighborhoods are currently figuring out ways to take advantage of energy optimization in their own facilities", sums Jonne Jäppinen, Development Manager, Fingrid.
Lower price stands for less emission
According to Jäppinen, energy optimization interests all kinds of energy consumers for a couple of reasons. They want to save costs, reduce their carbon footprints and promote green values. The good news is that economical savings and green values go often hand in hand.
"In practice, energy optimization is based on utilizing demand response, which means shifting electricity use from peak hours to off-peak hours, cutting consumption and adjusting it to a smarter level. Most of the time, cheap electricity has proved to be the best option also ecologically; especially this is true with hydroelectric power. When the prices are high, the electricity is usually produced with more expensive production machinery, which also causes more emissions."
Pioneers leading a large pilot project
In spring 2014, the cooperation of SEAM and Fingrid lead to a contract with a big, industrial freezer facility. The result of this pilot project can be expected during the autumn, when all the implementations have been carried out and the system is in the use.
"In a Nordic level, we're talking about a leading project in its field. The freezer's energy consumption has been directed to the more affordable off-peak hours, and to the moments when the power system needs further support to maintain its balance."
"Additionally, we are utilizing freezer's own thermal energy storage. A vast amount of frozen products creates a huge thermal capacity, which gives us even more flexibility in directing the energy consumption."
Technological innovations bring possibilities also for the smaller facilities
Energy optimization is quickly becoming an interesting option also for the smaller facilities, since companies like SEAM can combine them into bigger entities. These kinds of facilities can include hydroelectric plants, corporate centers or private housing areas.
"Technology and automation have to be developed in a way that utilizing them doesn't bring any harm for the actual energy consumers. As new technologies have become more common, the prices of these services have also headed down. There are numerous interesting projects going on throughout the world, and in the future we can e.g. monitor and regulate the energy consumption via mobile devices. At the moment we're looking for different sized companies from various industries to join us", ends Jäppinen.
