When the wind freshens, our electric appliances must wake up. When the wind drops and produces less power, our electric appliances must go to sleep. But of course in an intelligent and controlled manner so that we can still watch TV, turn on the coffee machine and use the hairdryer. The freezer, however, can easily be switched out a few hours without the pork roast thaws out.
iPower platform has been granted a support of 60 million DKK over the next 5 years from SPIR - Strategic Platform for Innovation and Research. SPIR is an initiative of the Danish Council for Strategic Research and the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation. The initiative will make it more attractive for businesses to participate in research and development activities together with universities, technological service institutes and other companies and innovation stakeholders.
32 collaborators
A total of 32 partners in the iPower platform provide a wide range of companies and research institutions, which collectively represent all the necessary skills to develop a smart grid. 10 of these are universities (5 of them international), 16 are companies (8 large and 14 SMEs). Among the companies are DONG Energy, Danfoss, Grundfos, IBM, Vestas, Aalborg University, a number of institutes at DTU, Risø DTU, Danish Technological Institute and Kolding School of Design.
Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy at the Technical University of Denmark (Risø DTU) is the coordinator and overall responsible for that the iPower platform achieves the desired results.
Brings all major players together
"I am delighted that iPower is selected, since iPower is a necessary step to make Denmark independent of fossil fuels, and I'm glad that the SPIR project has managed to gather all essential capabilities and resources in Denmark, which together can handle the job, "says Anders Troi, head of the iPower platform and head of the Intelligent Energy Systems Programme at Risø DTU.
iPower aims at developing an intelligent and flexible energy system that can handle a fluctuating power generation from sustainable sources. iPower will help to rearrange electricity production so that it no longer is the consumer who decides how much electricity to be produced. In future, consumers adjust their consumption to the amount of electricity that at any time is available from sustainable, fluctuating energy sources.
Electricity consumption follows the variation in wind electricity
Such increased flexibility in power consumption will make it possible to adjust the electricity consumption according to the present wind generation. This will also save a lot of investments in the grid. iPower will develop intelligent control of decentralized power consumption and production tools to manage millions of flexible electric appliances at the consumers, and methods of operation of the grid with flexible power generation. Methods will be developed to investigate the power customers need and free will to move to flexible electric appliances.
Business plans will be developed to the players who will develop and implement the intelligent energy system.
Great business potential
"There is great potential for Danish companies to develop and produce intelligent decentralized power consumption and production units and control and verification tools. This potential will be activated through the iPower platform, "says Anders Troi.
iPower draws on experience from extensive Danish and international research and development projects, in which partners in the iPower platform are among the main players. The iPower partner group has both volume and broadness to develop and demonstrate solutions that cover all critical aspects of intelligent energy systems with demand response.