Smart Energy solution for Energy companies operating district heating networks

"The solution supports transition from "bulk" heat production towards renewable energy sources and digital services that engage customers. Demand-Side management provides an intelligent energy system when buildings operate as heat storages. Real-time data with AI based control and digital twin based visualization improve the competitiveness of district heating compared to other heating methods."

3D Digital Modeling of District Heating (Digital Twin)

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Solutions for smarter district heating networks

Key components for efficient management of future district heating network

Distributed Thermal Storage

The management of complex network of distributed thermal storage is required. Fourdeg Smart Energy® is an-AI based system for managing all active thermal storage systems. Buildings connected to the district heating grid with the Fourdeg Smart Heating® solution can significantly increase the capacity because thermal buildings can be used as virtual, passive storage.

Read - Virtual Thermal Storage

Forecasting capable control

Efficient use of thermal storage to balance the network degreases the need to control district heating production units. As a result, the control complexity of the future, smart district heating network increases significantly due to transition from a few fossil power plants to several distributed production units using renewable energy. A predictive AI-based system for controlling networked, distributed production units with multiple energy sources can have a significant impact to the total production cost.

Read - DH network flexibility

Optimizing Production Cost

Fourdeg provides energy companies an opportunity to optimize DH network production costs. Leveraging Demand Side Response (DSR) technology and AI-driven energy management, Fourdeg enhances efficiency, reduces operational costs, and supports sustainable urban heating practices. This approach utilizes buildings as virtual thermal batteries, intelligently managing energy consumption and supply, reducing carbon footprint, and promoting a more sustainable and cost-effective future.

Read - Lower Production Costs

Demand-Side Management.

Fourdeg Smart Energy® is an intelligent energy system that turns buildings into distributed thermal storage systems. These virtual heat storage tanks are controlled in near real-time using an artificial intelligence-based cloud service that takes local weather forecasts into account. The system is highly flexible and can control these distributed thermal storage tanks with almost infinite precision. This can significantly reduce district heating peak consumption and reduce the costly start-up of backup power plants, which are often based on fossil fuels. Energy production costs can be optimized even further by combining this demand-side management with heat production cost optimization and selecting the right heat production source at the right time.

Demand side management enable new business models

Enables new sales, services and business models.

An energy companies can find new added value to an existing business by opening a conversation with a customer. Consumer attitudes towards an endless supply of energy can be influenced in this conversation. The key question of demand elasticity is how to attract consumers to participate into elasticity? While technology exists, the right economic and social incentives are still evolving.

The Fourdeg Smart Energy® solution offers tools, that:

support the transition from bulk heat generation to renewable energy sources and digital services that engage customers.
enable new business models, eg the supply of stable and individual temperature instead of megawatts, additional sales and expansion beyond one's own territory.

Benefits of Smart Energy

Reduced emissions

2/3 of the energy consumption of housing is spent on heating.
In Finland 15% savings on heating energy equals to remove 590.000 cars from traffic.

Demand-side Management

Optimize district heating networks through Demand-side Management.
Utilize buildings as thermal energy storage.
Reduced operating costs with better profitability.
Demand-Side Management on room level accuracy is multiple times more efficient than a centralized solution (Source: Aalto University).

Adaptive and intelligent

Patented algorithms.
Machine learning the individual heat response of each room.
Predictive to the local forecast.
Adaptive to local changes.

Benefits all parties in the value chain

Resident or worker sets an individual and stable temperature.
Property owner saves on energy and maintenance costs.
Property manager monitors and schedules the heating remotely avoiding unnecessary visits in the building.
Maintenance company makes preventative repairs. Alerts and temperature limits prevent damages.
Energy company avoids load peaks and the energy demand is stable.
The service helps in achieving the emission reduction targets and slows down the climate change.

Reliable and secure

Communication security level equals to mobile payment security.
E2E (end-to-end) encryption and verification.
Inbuilt radiator thermostat safety features.

Preventative maintenance

Automated service with a real-time remote access.
Alarms and tracking for preventive maintenance and immediate action.
Reports to improve energy efficiency and renovation planning.
Managing a number of buildings efficiently.