Chalmers Power Station is a research facility that attracts researchers and industry from all over the world, who together want to be able to contribute to a sustainable future. Here, work is underway to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and materials in the energy sector and to create a process where nothing is wasted. Akademiska Hus is responsible for the operation in very close collaboration with the researchers and their activities, and in 2018 the facility was supplemented with a multi-fuel boiler that has broadened the opportunities to research and develop new technologies and thus drive the transition to fossil-free energy.
Right now, the plant is running at full speed. The cold weather makes it possible to use the new boiler efficiently, and while the research is in full swing, the power plant supplies heating, cooling and electricity to the Chalmers campus. The maximum output of the entire plant is about 13 MW. On a cold winter's day, about 8–9 MW is needed for the Chalmers campus. When the plant's two boilers are running, a surplus of about 4 MW is therefore generated. That surplus will be delivered as district heating to Gothenburg's district heating network for a number of days in December. In this way, the power plant contributes both to helping Sweden's energy system with electricity and heat in the short term and to the long-term transition to a fossil-free society.
Control of heating and ventilation systems reduces energy consumption
In addition to the power plant producing electricity and heat, energy and power consumption on the campus area is also reduced through the control systems installed in the EU-funded development projects Flexigrid and Fossil-free Energy Districts (FED). The systems make it possible, among other things, to control heating and ventilation systems at peak hours and to override solar cell systems to produce more or less reactive power.
Read more about Flexigrid here.