The project is called GreenCom and is a joint project carried out by seven parties including an Italian research institute, an Irish university, and a German institute of technology. The project has been granted a total of EUR 3.5 million, of which EnergiMidt has received EUR 430,000, or DKK 3.2 million.

Along with the island of Fur and Skive municipality, EnergiMidt is involved in the Innovation Fur development project which aims to develop the energy-friendly, sustainable, and digital welfare society of the future – and in the funding application, the island of Fur in the sound of Limfjorden was included as a possible site for testing the power grid of the future, also known as a Smart Grid.

– To put it briefly, the issue is that our existing power grid is being challenged because more and more sustainable energy is added to it. That gives us two options: We can expand the power grid, which is expensive. Or we may develop an intelligent power grid where we use power when the wind blows, as it were, relates Erling Klemmesen, business manager of EnergiMidt.

GreenCom is a project that aims to enable intelligent energy management so that electrical appliances in private homes may use power when there is power in the grid but are also capable of storing energy locally for later use. This also points the way towards a possible future for the power market:

– The philosophy behind this set-up is that as a consumer, you may either be rewarded or punished for your consumption. If you use power when there's plenty of power in the grid, you are rewarded with lower rates. Conversely, you must pay higher rates for power when there isn't a lot of available power, says Erling Klemmesen.

EnergiMidt will develop business models for a commercial Smart Grid based on customer behaviour and activity patterns. In many ways, the Smart Grid may be viewed as a paradigm shift in the way that we perceive and use electricity. In the future, electricity will be an increasingly flexible product with varying rates that depend on the amount of electricity available in the grid.

Innovation sets the agenda

Innovation Fur project manager Gitte Wad Thybo does not hide the fact that an EU project with Fur as a possible test site has great value:

– The project funds really underline the importance of us having an international innovation project like Innovation Fur here in Denmark, which brings together various areas from both energy and digitalization. And the fact that we actually have a concrete test site is one of the things that have earned us praise. Of all the projects that received EU funds, we were the only one to include a test site, she relates.

Innovation Fur has been running for a year and so far has had considerable success with free energy consultancy for private homes on Fur where more than 30 percent of all homes have received energy checks from EnergiMidt energy consultants.