The SERENE energy project is a cross-border collaboration between universities, companies and authorities in Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland. The project is set to develop intelligent energy management systems so that locally produced power from sustainable energy sources like solar and wind can be combined with green power from the supply network when the price is low.

In Denmark, researchers from AAU Energy participate together with residents of the villages of Hylke and Låsby in Skanderborg Municipality. Here, a cooperative housing association and a housing association at four different demonstration sites with 18 new and 11 existing apartments will get electric heat pumps fitted with large, salt-based heat stores installed.

At the same time, chargers are set up for electric cars with batteries that can be charged if there is a surplus of electricity production at a time when no electric car needs charging.

Broad European learning

Villages in both the Netherlands and Poland also participate in the SERENE project. This means that the project involves a number of very different energy needs. The Danish and Dutch villages consist of private households where the residents have a daily energy requirement in the morning, afternoon and evening.

The situation is different in the Polish villages in the project. Here, the focus is energy consumption in municipal buildings, such as a school, a kindergarten, a sports hall and a water treatment plant. The latter will have a number of solar panels set up to cover the energy needs. However, the challenge for all villages in the project is the same: to develop systems that can manage energy consumption as efficiently and cheaply as possible.

Old or new

One of the things that the researchers investigate in Denmark is the difference between new and old buildings when it comes to energy management and savings when making the transition to sustainable energy.

Some of the properties that have heat pumps installed in the Danish villages are of older date, and it will be interesting to see how the savings compare to those in the new buildings, says Birgitte Bak-Jensen.

Sustainable without district heating

With new knowledge about energy management and optimal consumption of green and cheap energy, help is on the way for areas where it is too costly to roll out the district heating network. It will typically be in remote villages, where residents have to replace their gas and oil boilers with electric heat pumps to keep up with the green transition.

The intelligent control systems that are being developed in the SERENE project aims at ensuring that the transition takes place in the smartest possible way with regard to both energy and economy.