DENMARK
Propelling Smarter Power
By any standards, Denmark is a prime venue for doing business. Forward-looking in its approach to business and armed with the necessary infrastructure, human resources, services and dynamic public policy, the country has developed an extremely diverse and well-rounded economy that offers rare investment opportunities.
Although Denmark’s commercial cleantech success is attributed in large part to its leadership in the wind power industry, the expertise it has accumulated over the years transcends this. Danish know-how, CIT systems, infrastructure design and engineering are highly relevant, even in countries where the wind doesn’t blow quite so hard.
Experience for Export
Denmark’s cleantech advantage is due to its own extensive experience in dealing with environmental challenges. Denmark has gone from almost 100% dependency on foreign fossil fuels to 100% self-sufficiency. The quest for energy independence started decades ago, when the 1973 oil crisis caused the country to rethink and restructure its energy policy.
Adopting a holistic yet highly focused approach, Denmark has propelled itself to a leadership position in the development, implementation and commercialization of renewable energy. In the past 25 years, the Danish economy has grown by some 70% while energy consumption has remained virtually unchanged. As of 2010, renewable energy accounted for almost 28% of Denmark’s electricity supply.
The government’s goal is to attain full independence from fossil fuels by 2050. Given this experience, Danish cleantech exports extend beyond the wind turbines for which it is famous to other technologies and know-how as well. Its achievements in integrated energy generation and distribution systems are recognized worldwide.
Components of this system will soon start talking to each other and to consumers once “smart grid” technology is developed to optimize energy use by minimizing systemic waste.
Setting up a Smart Grid
Denmark is one of the few countries in which “smart grid” is not a slogan but a reality. The evolution of Denmark’s current state-of-the-art smart grid system came in the wake of its own experience of balancing centralized with highly dispersed power generation.
In the 1980s there was only the national grid, with some 20 central power stations serving large population centres. With the advent of renewable wind power, small-scale power installations sprouted up throughout the country creating a freckled power generation network.
The dispersion was contained and rationalized in the 1990s, when large offshore wind power installations were constructed. The government made access to the grid mandatory for all power-generating entities and took responsibility for the development of comprehensive distribution networks.
As a result, excess energy generated in one location, even in one individual industrial plant, could be sold back to the grid and used in another location.
Bornholm and the Balance of Power
The quest for the smart grid continues, with advanced communications technology at its core. The Danish vacation island of Bornholm is in the process of becoming centre stage for the demonstration of next-generation smart grid solutions.
Its 40,000 residents are being recruited to test technology platforms for bi-directional power distribution. 20% of the island's electricity currently derives from wind power, even though the turbines installed could generate 40% of the island’s needs.
Capricious nature is what holds Bornholm back from reaching this potential. While numerous turbines are needed to harness power in summer breezes, some are disconnected when gale winds blow to prevent grid overload.
Electric Vehicles gaining Speed
Launched in 2009, EDISON ("Electric vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated market using Sustainable energy and Open Networks", in case you were wondering) (http://www.edison-net.dk), tests the potential impact of the transition to electric vehicles on the grid and on vehicle owners.
EDISON’s results could have a profound effect on the pace of electric vehicle penetration in Denmark as well as on the future of the DONG-Better Place chain of charging stations.
The V2G (vehicle-to-grid) technology being developed and tested enables the vehicles to communicate with the grid, so as to strike a balance between the supply and demand for power from the grid. The need to recharge a massive number of electric vehicles simultaneously could literally stress the system out.
Amongst others, EDISON tests the technology that will regulate the charging of electric batteries so that they will take only as much power as needed.
On the flip side, the project examines the possibility and economic feasibility of using the batteries of parked electric cars to store excess-energy in stormy weather and feed it back to the grid during when the wind dies down. This would create a win-win for power companies and consumers, who will accumulate credits when discharging power back to the grid.
V2G technology is viewed by many as key to the future of low-carbon transportation. Edison’s partners include Dong Energy, IBM, Siemens, Dansk Energi, Ostkraft, Eurisco and the Danish government.
Bornholm shows the World
The € 25 million Eco Grid EU project (www.eu-ecogrid.net) is another initiative slated for the Bornholm living lab. Like Edison, this project seeks to achieve a 50% renewable consumption rate on the island’s existing infrastructure. Spearheaded by Danish government company Energinet (www.energynet.dk), the project’s 15 corporate partners hail from countries throughout Europe.
The Bornholm demonstration will serve as a prototype system for the rest of the continent. The project focuses on developing a dialogue between the grid and the consumers (or at least their home appliances).
2600 Bornholm residents, equipped with appliances loaded with gateways and “smart” controllers, will participate in a test of a smart residential power system, which varies energy prices in real time (five-minute intervals) in response to grid demand.
Consumers will be able to pre-program their appliances to respond to this demand-dictated pricing. The project will test not only the technology platforms developed to operate the system, but consumer acceptance of it as well.
Scaling Up Smart Solutions
Last November, Denmark conducted its largest smart grid experiment to date along its western coastal region of Holsted. In a region stretching 50 km, the entire distribution system - 13 power stations, 4 combined heat and power (CHP) plants, 47 wind turbines and 28,000 electricity meters - was unplugged from the existing control system and hooked into an automated virtual power station called SCADA.
This new technology promises a comprehensive systemic solution by enabling the diverse infrastructure components to talk to each other, rendering the entire power system more flexible and resource-efficient. A similar test of this system is scheduled for the spring of 2011, following adjustments stemming from the results of the first test.
The impending realignment of Israel’s energy sector with the conversion to gas and the anticipated inauguration of solar power stations in the south, provides an opportunity for optimizing power distribution and consumption in Israel. Shared Danish and Israeli competencies in CIT, as well as shared ventures, lay the foundation for beneficial strategic partnering in the development and implementation of smart grid systems.
