Open Innovation Call for lower forward temperature in district heating

This call is dealing with a much wanted and necessary energy saving element, namely the lowering of the forward temperature in district heating that can mean massive cost and climate savings for the society as well as for the district heating companies and the end consumers, being private or corporate. The call will culminate on 1 March at an Open Innovation Day in Lund, Sweden, where the finalists get the opportunity to present their ideas to an expert jury.

Background
In SCA, and beyond, we aim to optimise the district heating forward temperature, i.e. reducing the temperature based on load forecast and feedback from the grid. A lower forward temperature results in economic gains and increased energy efficiency. However, as the temperature decreases, customers with malfunctioning substations or substations with dimensioning problems might not get a high enough temperature for their household.

The paradox is that “all” the technical solutions to lower the temperature assuring a high enough temperature for most of the end users do exist today, but not how to deal with critical costumers. Thereto, the district heating companies do not own the substations, preventing necessary actions to be performed. One possibility would be to provide the remedial actions for free. However, this might send out the signal that costumers with poorly maintained substations are “rewarded” with a free service, therefore probably not a viable solution. With this said, how should the district heating companies reach out to the costumers, creating incentives to reduce the risk of malfunctioning substations?

The Call
The competition is an Open Innovation Process open for everyone who wants to share their ideas on how to prepare for lower forward temperature in the district heating systems in accordance with the conditions of the call.

All proposals must be presented via the submission form on the call website by 11 February 2019, 12:00 noon CET.

See the Open Innovation Call here: https://www.climate-kic.org/lower-forward-temperature-in-district-heating

Contact: Senior Project Manager Jakob Stolt, jakob.stolt@climate-kic.org, phone (+45) 28109892