Flexible and Smart High Efficiency Energy Infrastructures demonstrated in Horsens-Hedensted (DK)

Denmark is committed to covering 50% of its electricity production by wind power in 2020. By 2035, all heat production must be based exclusively on renewable energy sources (RES). Significant investments in RES are required to meet these goals. However, there is a great potential for coordinating and optimizing the existing energy infrastructure by the concept of smart energy systems. This abstract presents the holistic Flexcities concept in which district heating (DH), electricity consumption and thermal energy storage are integrated and jointly optimized. Flexcities relies on four novel concepts: 1) the involvement of industrial consumers; 2) holistic building renovation; 3) smart district heating and; 4) smart energy systems.
Traditionally, the industry only consumes energy. In the Flexcities concept, industries can serve as both consumer and supplier of energy (where the latter is represented by e.g. waste heat from production processes). The Flexcities DH network allows excess heating and cooling to be shared between all connected consumers which has significant potential for improving the energy efficiency of industries and private consumers.