Smart citizen-centered local electricity to heat systems (SMARTCE2H)

The SMARTCE2H project conducts test and demonstration activities on integrating electricity and heat systems in South-West Salling villages in Skive Municipality. These tasks are enabled by working closely with local citizens, authorities and stakeholders of the villages for establishing a community-based transition of the heating supply from natural gas and oil boilers to electric heating, where the municipality aims for achieving a goal of being CO2-neutral in 2029. The project will conduct a comprehensive analysis on how such local electricity to heat energy systems and the local grid at the demonstration sites can be optimized to form a local integrated community energy system for cost-effective operation of the energy systems and boosting of local renewable energy sources. The two main demonstration activities in the project include: i) Demonstration of intelligent operation of heat pumps with salt-hydrate storage in households and ii) Demonstration of a booster heat pump and salt-hydrate storage to enhance the temperature level in the far out end of a district heating network. The project enables to establish strong local low-carbon communities in the future with large user involvement, better energy infrastructures and cheaper energy supply, and paves growth of smart energy technologies and companies in the countryside.

Throughout the project, a solution for controlling individual heat pumps has been demonstrated for a number of residents in Skive municipality. These are controlled via a cloud-based solution that allows real-time measurements on the system, which gives the opportunity to evaluate their operation on an ongoing basis and the possibility of fault detection. On top of this, a control system has been set up for optimization in relation to fluctuations in the electricity price to ensure as cheap operation as possible.

As the second part of the project, a booster heat pump with PCM heat storage has been set up in the district heating network on a residential road in Skive. The system supplies 20 homes in the area. The system has been tested from 2021-2022, and various control methods have been tested for optimization in relation to electricity prices. The results show that it is possible to boost the heat in the system, although final development still needs to take place to ensure 24/7 optimal and reliable operation.

For both demonstration cases, simulation models has been set up and different control methods has been applied to the models, before they were actually implemented at the demonstration sites.

For both systems, the PCM material used has been specially investigated, and the high melting point of the material used has caused challenges in both test cases. It must still be assessed whether it is optimal to use PCM material for such small energy stores.

The work continues in two new EU projects SERENE and SUSTENANCE, to further specify optimal utilization of the PCM material and control of the heat pumps.