Flexibility by Design - Interview with Flexpartner.Energy's CEO Bjørn Grønning
- A.G.
- Mar 3
- 3 min read
In today’s world, ‘green industry’ has become not only a widely used term, but also a widely-spread objective for many companies. In order to contribute to that goal, Flexpartner.Energy introduced the concept of Flexible Local Energy Communities (more information here). In this interview Bjørn Grønning, the CEO of Flexpartner.Energy, talks about his approach to the topic, and explains the concept of ‘Flexibility by Design’.
What is Flexibility by Design?
Flexibility by design is a comprehensive mindset. The idea is how can we, and this type of energy community, make the grid better by working together.
By implementing flexibility by design approach, flexibility is not something that you suddenly think of. You already have it in your mindset, and can include it in the plan of your location. So, ‘Flexibility by Design’ means just being prepared and better organised for the future in terms of flexibility needs.
What are the elements of Flexibility by Design?
Firstly, you should prepare for balanced power consumption by the companies, on the principle of ‘if one business uses power now, can another use power later’. This allows us to plan the activities in the energy community, predict the production and consumption patterns, and manage the community to use the grid in a better way by postponing or lowering the peaks.
We can also prepare the Flexible Local Energy Community for market based flexibility, contribute to the sustainability reporting from the energy community that can be shared between the companies, and the visualisation information.
Moreover, when the companies in the community are going to purchase production equipment consuming energy, they should think of its flexibility potential, asking themselves questions like: Can it act as a resource that can be used to reduce peaks? Can it be controlled by external software to optimize the grid?
Flexibility by design also considers energy optimisation, and that all the energy-related activities that can be reduced by the companies.
How should it work in practice? For instance, who controls the usage of energy?
In an energy community built for flexibility, the solution we currently have is a central based system that creates forecasts for the community. Based on the predictions from the forecasts, the management system automates the operations to prevent big peaks, and puts a kind of ‘limit’ on the energy community. We call it the ‘FlexLEC management system’, and it is the core of the Flexible Local Energy Community.
There is also a virtual meter monitoring the industry park’s usage in real time. If it is needed, we have resources that can be adjusted on a really frequent and fast basis, like a battery, which can be used in a situation of the peak going over the limit.
If an industry park wants to implement Flexibility by Design, what are the benefits for both individual companies and the community as a whole?
Well, there are many benefits. They can be categorised as ‘business economics’ and ‘socioeconomics’.
On the socioeconomic level, you can say that the electricity grid is a resource we collectively possess. It is not limited, but if used in a better way, it will have a big impact on society. Efficient use of the grid prevents building additional infrastructure used for only a few hours in the year, which is a huge cost. Furthermore, better use of the grid will allow companies to use more power, allowing them to make the switch to renewable energy, positively impacting the green transition.
When it comes to the business economics, we are working on a different business model for the companies, specifically looking into the grid tariffs. We are in discussions with grid companies to see if it is possible to adjust the tariff due to the benefits a Flexible Local Energy Community delivers to the grid. Moreover, the companies can increase their power usage when they need it the most through cooperation with their neighbours. This is the greatest benefit for the individual companies as they are able to produce and sell more.
How we, as Flexpartner.Energy, can help companies and industry parks who are interested in Flexibility by Design and FlexLEC?
For flexibility by design, a good starting point is creating a new mindset for the users, companies and industry parks. We can conduct a small project introducing flexibility by design, and later into the details like analysing the duration curves for your companies.
We can also do the full research and analytic part, as well as technical implementation and operation of FlexLEC, so that it will produce the best results for all companies in the community.
If you have any further questions about Flexibility by Design, FlexLEC project, or flexibility trading, Bjørn Grønning is happy to answer any at bjorn@flexpartner.energy.
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