Campus Umeå is located in the part of Umeå called the University City. In this part of Umeå there are many societal actors who work actively with different types of large energy projects. In 2016, it was announced that Umeå will be one of the three Lighthouse cities that will be able to participate in the Horizon 2020 framework programme. In total, the EU is investing SEK 180 million to make the three cities more climate-smart. The projects have included energy-efficient buildings, sustainable transport and smart control via IT.
"For us, it was a matter of course to be involved in this project together with our customer and the other actors in the University City. The project has been an important piece of the puzzle in our energy work for the entire campus," says Jakob Odeblad, group manager at the Energy and Technology department at Akademiska Hus and who has been the project manager.
In addition to Umeå University and Akademiska Hus, the local partnership has consisted of Umeå Municipality, Umeå Energi, Upab, Region Västerbotten and RISE. Together, these actors have developed ten projects that will contribute to lower energy consumption and reduced climate impact in Umeå.
The university's project created good collaboration with Akademiska Hus
Project U9 was actually run by Umeå University, but came to be one of the most important projects to increase collaboration between Akademiska Hus and Umeå University. For Akademiska Hus, the project focused a lot on energy reduction. By reducing power peaks, both cost reductions and reduced CO2 emissions are achieved at times when the power demand is greatest in society.
"During the project, we realised that Umeå University had thought much more broadly and placed great emphasis on not only following up but also being able to predict when peaks in need occurred. Even more exciting was that they also focused on how often the premises were used, which was an eye-opener for us at Akademiska Hus. This came to be reflected very clearly in our own work with digitalisation, which focuses on the sustainable use of premises," says Peter Karlsson, Business Developer at Akademiska Hus.
Three projects with a common goal: to reduce energy consumption
Akademiska Hus has been involved in many of the Ruggedised projects, but has had a special responsibility for three of them:
SMART SOLUTION U2B: Peak load variation management and peak power Control
The project has aimed to build a smart power control system on campus with the help of sensors. The smart control saves power - both so-called "peak load" and "fossil load", which provides a more economical operation and carbon dioxide savings.
SMART SOLUTION U4b: Intelligent building control and end user involvement
In the U4b project, smart control of ventilation and lighting was installed in an older lab building with a lab, reading room and office. The solutions included smart control based on presence and air quality, which was part of a major redevelopment project run by Akademiska Hus, and which was partly financed by RUGGEDISED. The project included installations in 145 office rooms and 2 labs and resulted in a reduced annual energy consumption of approximately 315,000 kWh of heat (22% reduction) which corresponds to approximately 20 tons of CO2 eq/year.
SMART SOLUTION U6: EV-charging infrastructure hub
Battery storage, solar cells and electric car chargers have been installed in a so-called EnergyHub - a bidirectional three-phase inverter - on campus with the aim of exploring a scalable model to several buildings. EnergyHub controls the energy flows between solar cells, battery storage and the property's AC grid. The goal of the project was to find an optimal distribution between the building's electricity use, battery storage and solar cells, as well as reduce energy use and CO2 emissions in Umeå by involving students, staff and people who spend time on the university campus.
Jakob Odeblad
Chef Verksamhetsutveckling T&S