Swedish supplier Falbygdens Energi is deploying digital solutions to reduce the waiting time for grid connections for industry, renewable energy and electric vehicle charging.

Falbygdens Energi, which supplies electricity in the western Sweden city of Falköping, is partnering with technology provider Plexigrid to deploy and advance flexibility solutions to enable new grid connections more rapidly.

Currently new requests can take a long time to process, due to constraints of other grid owners that are beyond control of Falbygdens Energi. Thus the electricity grid can become a de facto bottleneck for the energy transition itself.

With the use of data from smart electricity meters, which are already available at all customers’ premises, Falbygdens Energi will gain better knowledge of the situation in the electricity grid.

Then working with customers, they can find new opportunities to connect to the grid earlier than they would otherwise be able to.

“Plexigrid’s current solution together with the features we are jointly developing in the project will make a big difference for us both on a strategic and operational level,” comments Falbygdens Energi Electricity Network Manager, John Johansson.

“We will most likely find connection opportunities within existing grid capacity that we would otherwise not have been able to accommodate.”

Plexigrid’s technology is designed to enable users to visualise, simulate and forecast energy flows in electricity networks in a more detailed way.

The system can also be used to develop improved long-term plans to ensure that the grid can cope with the energy transition in the future and help keep costs down for consumers.

Alberto Méndez, CEO of Plexigrid, adds that Sweden is well placed to be a pioneer in making electricity grids more efficient, as there is already a high degree of digitalisation and good access to data.

“This benefits grid companies, industry and consumers by reducing grid costs and speeding up the energy transition.”

The project will run for 18 months and is being supported by the Swedish Energy Agency.