In tomorrow’s (multi-)energy system, energy will be supplied as a service rather than as a product. When today’s consumers opt for a gas boiler or pellet boiler, or a heat pump, they will make themselves dependent on the stock of gas, pellets or electricity in the years to come. In the future, energy demand (heating, cooling, electricity, etc.) will be disconnected from the energy source used (gas, solar energy, etc.). Consumers will be supplied with energy as a service based on their needs in terms of comfort, costs, and so forth. The provider of the ‘energy service’ then decides how this energy is generated, depending on its cost-effectiveness for that location at that time.
In order to enable these services to be developed within an energy system in which electricity, heat and cold are traded, an enormous amount of information from a wide range of data sources must be combined into a communal platform – the ‘brain’, so to speak, of the smart multi-energy system. Data from local sources (such as smart thermostats and energy meters) are combined with data from forecasts (e.g. weather forecasts for wind and solar farms) and from energy markets where gas, power and other energy forms are traded. The technological and economic aspects of this platform were investigated in SmarThor, and the EnergyVille researchers built an ICT platform that enabled them to monitor, optimise and control the energy consumption in their own laboratories and buildings. Further simulations also showed that a multi-energy market model can reduce the costs of energy generation and distribution for society - a consequence of more effective coordination with production of renewable energy.
