Hisland Solution is together with a real estate company collaboration to analyze the possibilities of building a virtual power plant that would be the first of its kind in the Gothenburg area. Virtual power plants are a concept where already existing property resources such as ventilation systems, heat pumps and charging posts are connected virtually. Creating virtual power plants is a flexible and sustainable solution for balancing the electricity grid, where existing facilities can be used at the same time as, for example, property owners who have energy resources are offered new revenue streams.

As part of Hisland Solutions movement to Smart Cities, one of their strategic milestones has been to move from having software developers focusing exclusively on the Automotive Sector. The idea with the transfer, among other things, is to use the front edge tech-knowledge from the Automotive sector and use it in other sectors like the energy sector. Early in the transformation process Hisland Solutions got trust from the wind power sector and are today working with several global wind power companies and their projects in different parts of the world (+30 countries) where they’ve had to contribute as a technical expertise through, but not limited to, fabrication support, Quality Assurance and Legal Mapping as well as Technical Due Diligence support.

Having a Smart City focus, they are now able to work with opportunities in developing strategic collaborations with the real estate sector. For Hisland this is an exciting development opportunity within, but not limited to energy savings, new revenue streams and power optimization.

The initial phase of the collaboration consists of identifying, through a gap-analysis, the hidden potential for a virtual power plant like the one they built in Väla Centrum outside Helsingborg. Together with their partners they intend to look at where the new opportunities could be developed creating new value streams, financial acumen like EU funding, but also national innovations funds such as support from Vinnova or the Swedish Energy Agency.

"Considering the winter's newspaper headlines such as Electricity prices reach a new record today - expensive winter awaits, is of course a major challenge for our customers and companies in general, which is of course a concern, financially in particular. But at the same time, the current situation is driving the will to innovate and pushing our customers in Hisland Solutions direction  for smarter and more sustainable solutions, which is something we are passionate about supporting our customer with.”; says Jörgen BJÖRK, CEO of Hisland Solutions.

What is a Virtual Power Plant?

A virtual power plant consists of several interconnected energy resources that can supply or extract power from the electricity system, similar to a physical power plant. As a result, a virtual power plant can contribute to balancing (frequency regulation) of the electricity grid, something that is becoming increasingly important in a growing proportion of renewable energy sources in Sweden's energy production. The Swedish market for frequency regulation of electricity, which has previously been reserved for electricity producers, was also opened to electricity consumers in May 2019. In this specific project, the energy resources are spread over more than +300,000 m2 of commercial space with exciting energy resources.

"From a Hisland Solutions perspective, we are very happy to break new ground in Sweden together with our customer," says Jörgen Björk, CEO at Hisland Solutions. He continues, “As we perceive it right now, there is an interesting hidden potential in the current conditions as well as the Return On Investment together with our opportunity to identify new revenue streams with the customer. We have exercised our business model and are able to see that it works perfectly for this type of problem-solving innovative solutions. Especially those that requires external experts and partnerships for the benefit of our customer. In short it means that we gather companies in the forefront of technology as well as innovation where we align us with the customers' needs and together find the best solution and way forward. We truly believe that 2022 will be an interesting year beside everything else going on in the world right now.”

What is the potential?

Hisland Solution believes that investments around virtual power plants will be a smart, energy-saving, and long-term sustainable solution where existing facilities can be used more energy-smart. Expansion of the grid will be a challenge for many years to come. This opens the opportunity for property owners who have energy resources to develop and find new income and value streams. Without having started the project (planned to be initiated in H1-2022), Hisland Solutions' business analysts already see glimpses of the hidden potential, from a purely technical perspective but also new more innovative revenue streams that energy resources can have such as EV charging stations, smartness in lighting, handling heating / cooling and much more through IoT solutions that could be integrated into an ecosystem (infrastructure) that enables and provides conditions for a value-creating virtual power plant solution.

“Personally, I am really impressed by our customer who is serious in taking thorough steps towards identifying the possibilities of the exciting world we are passionate about expanding and are convinced is necessary in all business - innovation and long-term sustainable solutions. It is the smartest survival strategy for the future”; says Kenneth Larsson, Sales and Marketing Manager for Hisland. He concludes by clarifying: “The commission of trust our customer is showing us is something we work hard for and completely in line with our passion, direction and knowledge but also business model. It will be a very exciting phase where we, together with our expert partners, are given the scope to identify the hidden potential that exists in the technology connected to virtual power plants and present sustainable solutions to an already motivated customer. Ultimately, our common goal is to create conditions for a larger share of renewable energy in the power system, which in the long term leads to a reduction in emissions in our atmosphere. After all, we only have one globe!”

About Hisland Solutions

Hisland is a consulting company offering project management of front edge technology and development of software for function and system solutions that intends to develop data-driven and sustainable solutions in real estate, energy sector and urban development under the collective name Smart City.

Read more about Hisland Solutions at: Hisland Solutions