User-friendly Platform and Reduced Energy Costs: Outcomes of the Flex4Scale Project

A successful European energy transition depends on a strong and stable grid and advanced flexibility solutions to support a decarbonised and secure electricity system. Thanks to funding from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator programme, we conducted the Flex4Scale project to scale up our existing platform while integrating a series of low-powered flexible resources into the electricity system. 

Through this scale-up project, we future-proofed our platform by developing modular and intelligent software, reducing maintenance load and accelerating entry to market. By swiftly adapting to the evolving needs of European energy markets, we can open our flexibility services to new resources, customers, countries and energy markets. 

Testing out the new Sympower platform with active customers

Before going live with this new platform, we verified the success of the scale-up with three customers. Our engineering and product teams worked hard behind the scenes to improve the platform, enabling our three selected customers to go live with the new features already in place. 

As a result, all three tested the newly developed platform without facing any issues typically associated with the development phase. We also provided them with the free installation of the hardware needed to connect to the Sympower platform, a cost covered by the Flex4Scale project.

Two Finnish customers, both greenhouses, were existing clients of Sympower. The first greenhouse, Kotipellon Puutarha, is a family business specialising in handcrafted cresses, herbs, and edible flowers. The other, Härkälän Puutarha, focuses on producing high-quality vegetables while prioritising sustainability and natural production methods.

The greenhouses’ lights were used to balance the grid on the frequency holding reserve FCR-D Up, which are Nordic balancing services and the first to be activated to fix disturbances in the grid’s frequency. Companies participating in this market must reduce their electricity consumption for a few minutes to support grid frequency regulation and bring it back in balance to 50 Hz. 

As part of the Flex4Scale project, they also decided to enter the FCR-D Down market. As a reserve market, FCR-D down is also the first to be activated to fix disturbances but requires customers to increase their energy consumption. Because the FCR-D programmes act as a first defensive layer to prevent blackouts, the energy assets connected to them must be able to be reduced significantly within five seconds. 

Constellation Cold Logistics Sweden AB, formerly Göteborgs Fryshus AB and a Swedish cool storage facility for pellet spaces in the food industry, was the third company to participate in the Flex4Scale project test. Henrik Hellgren, Constellation Cold Logistics Sweden AB’ VD, sat down with us to share their experience in joining balancing markets with Sympower.

Transparent and user-friendly: Constellation Cold Logistics Sweden AB reviews Sympower’s platform

The company consumes around four thousand megawatt hours of electricity annually, primarily utilising compressors for its cooling process. Because these compressors can temporarily use more or less electricity without disturbing the core cooling process, they make ideal assets for balancing markets.

Constellation Cold Logistics Sweden AB has been participating in demand response with Sympower since 2022. They are active on the FCR-D Up market programme and provide just under 1MW of flexibility.  

Despite initial uncertainty about participating in balancing services, the collaboration with Sympower has since proven to be very positive. As of autumn 2023, Constellation Cold Logistics Sweden AB’ compressors have been activated three times; the company was able to monitor those interactions via SMS and Sympower’s platform.

The collaboration with Sympower is a good experience, and I can definitely recommend them to others. They addressed all the questions that we asked, and the meetings were very insightful. The platform is also very user-friendly, so it’s really easy for us to access information regarding our activations

Henrik Hellgren, Constellation Cold Logistics Sweden AB’s VD/General Manager

In addition to the effortless activations, Constellation Cold Logistics Sweden AB have been able to use demand response to reduce their energy costs. As the collaboration between Constellation Cold Logistics Sweden AB and Sympower continues, the company is looking forward to increasing its participation in demand response as a new way of generating revenue and additionally contributing to a more sustainable and resilient energy future.

The Flex4Scale project has been decisive in scaling up our platform. As the project comes to an end, the continuous support of the European Innovation Council is setting us up for success as we continue to improve our platform and expand throughout Europe.