NATIONAL SCALE IMPACT OF THE STOCKHOLM ROYAL SEAPORT PROJECT : Demand Response and Load-shift for Swedish Apartment Customers

Sammanfattning: The Swedish electrical power system faces many challenges. Stricter environmental and economic demands require a more efficient use of both the transmission and distribution grids as well as the production capabilities. Since the Swedish national demand of electricity is fluctuating, the system has always been dimensioned to meet the periods of high demand, resulting in a low utilization of the system. To meet these challenges, the concept of a “Smart Grid” has been phrased. One of the most important goals of a Smart Grid is to enable end-consumers to participate more actively in the energy market. One way to do this is through “load-shifting” where consumption (or loads) are moved from hours of high demand (peak hours) to hours of low demand (off-peak hours). Load-shifting is a part of a set of intentional consumption modifications denoted “Demand Response” (DR) and is deemed to be one of the most important tools of the Smart Grid. In Sweden, a Smart Grid project called the Stockholm Royal Seaport (SRS) project is currently taking place. The project have phrased a hypotheses regarding load-shifting called the “Active customer” scenario, in which a customer load-shifts 5-15 % of his electricity consumption. To facilitate this scenario, the SRS project uses an end-consumer price model for electricity, called the SRS price model, as well as technological and market solutions not yet available on a national scale.   This study investigates what impact the results from the SRS pilot project might have if implemented for private apartment end-consumers on a Swedish national scale. The study is divided into three parts. The first part investigates the challenges of a national scale implementation of private apartment end-consumer DR and the SRS price model. The second part investigates what the impact would be if the entire Swedish private apartment end-consumer sector where to act in accordance with the Active customer scenario. The third part consists of a sensitivity analysis. Four challenges for a national private apartment end-consumer load-shift implementation have been elicited. They are; the lack of easily moveable loads in a foreseeable future, the heterogeneous cost of distribution, the suggested price models low peak to off-peak price ratio and the comparatively small cost of electricity of the private apartment end-consumers. The SRS price model is deemed to give a clear economic incentive for load-shift of private apartment end-consumer without electric heating. However, the incentive might be considered too weak with yearly savings of 48-165 SEK for a 15 % load-shift, depending on apartment consumption. This corresponds to yearly savings of 124 to 429 million SEK for the entire customer segment. These challenges are deemed to be of a non-technical character, but rather of a marketing and communication nature. The impact of a fully implemented national private apartment end-consumer load-shift in accordance with the Active customer scenario and the SRS price model is deemed to be beneficial from an overall power system point of view. However, the impact on the private apartment end-consumer national demand is small in comparison with other plausible system developments, such as energy demand reductions due to more efficient lighting solutions. The sensitivity analysis of private apartment end-consumer cost savings when acting in accordance with the Active customer scenario indicates that the percentage savings may increase in the future when considering more volatile prices for electric energy or the implementation of a time differentiated energy tax.