FlexPower: Electrifying Industry with Confidence

FlexPower: a confident name for a comprehensive research project. At the same time, the project originates from uncertainty, says Rita García Perán. Although the industrial sector is becoming increasingly aware of the need to accelerate electrification, companies are facing complex and fluctuating factors throughout the transition process.

What kind of factors are we talking about? Rita: “Imagine you are a ‘decision-maker’ at an industrial company, and you are faced with an electrification project worth millions of euros. There are many variables at play that are beyond your control. For example, how electricity prices will evolve over time. Not to mention CO2 levies, subsidies, and policy and regulatory developments. For those responsible for making a multimillion-euro decision, all of these factors create uncertainty.”

Building Confidence

The FlexPower project aims to help companies navigate their electrification journey with greater confidence. The project addresses three key aspects that are still a major source of uncertainty for many companies today. From an economic perspective, the first consideration is the multimillion-euro investments that Rita already referred to. FlexPower therefore focuses not only on the costs and uncertainties associated with electrification, but also on the substantial long-term benefits it can deliver.

Alongside the economic aspect, the research project explores the technical changes required for electrification and the issue of grid congestion. Companies may feel particularly powerless when it comes to the latter issue, as they do not control the increasingly congested electricity grid themselves. However, industry can adopt smart strategies to manage the effects of grid congestion, allowing companies to meet their energy needs despite constraints on grid capacity.

More Flexibility

Let’s take a more detailed look at the issue of grid congestion. Rita explains: “In some cases, the bottleneck lies not with the factory itself, but with the electricity grid, which is not equipped to accommodate such a high load. Grid operators are currently developing plans for a new and improved electricity grid capable of supporting two to three times current electricity consumption. The next step will be for factories to adapt to this new grid, which needs to be much more flexible.

Why is that flexibility needed? Just consider this: we are becoming increasingly dependent on renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power, yet we cannot rely on these sources to deliver the same level of output at all times. In other words, companies should ideally be able to make greater use of renewable energy sources when wind and solar generation are abundant. However, this requires a much greater degree of demand-side flexibility.

Recognising the Need

Having doubts about new and unfamiliar things is a natural human tendency. This is why FlexPower places a strong emphasis on the people working in industry throughout the project and in the partnerships it establishes. The 'technical uncertainty' is perhaps felt most in the workplace. “People working in factories sometimes feel uncertain about electrification because they are simply unfamiliar with the technology or with electrical alternatives such as industrial high-temperature heat pumps.”

So how does FlexPower aim to help companies become confident investors in electrification? It starts with recognising the need for electrification. “After all, industry is one of the most polluting sectors and therefore has a societal responsibility to address this challenge.” However, according to Rita, even companies that still do not recognise this societal responsibility will eventually feel the economic necessity to electrify. In a geopolitically unstable and ever warming world, continued reliance on conventional, polluting energy sources is becoming increasingly difficult to justify.

Economic Advantage

Let's think back to the decision-maker who has to weigh up a multimillion-euro investment. How can FlexPower help that decision-maker? Rita: “What we are developing is a set of electricity price forecasts, based on energy market scenarios that we have studied. We create simulations showing companies what would happen to their systems and processes from an economic perspective if they invest in a specific electrical solution, such as electric heating. We show them what their total costs will be in 2050. As a result, a company may conclude: 'If we invest now, the investment is likely to pay off by 2050.' ”

Rita emphasises that, from an economic perspective, the project's output should not be seen merely as a calculation tool. "The way we work is by selecting five companies with distinct characteristics. If you are a company that wants to electrify, you don’t have to start from scratch. You can simply look at whichever of our five examples best reflects your own situation. We then present you with an electrification roadmap leading up to 2050. You can then use that roadmap as a blueprint for your own company."

Confidence through Knowledge

When it comes to the technical challenges of electrification, FlexPower aims to give companies confidence that electric alternatives are reliable, safe, and cost-effective over the long term. “We are working on a specific case study involving high-temperature heat pumps. While high-temperature heat pumps are technologically mature, they have not yet achieved commercial maturity, as they are not yet being used in industry. We aim to break this barrier and prove that heat pumps are perfectly suitable solutions for more efficient processes. In one of the case studies we examined, heat demand could be reduced by up to 70%. We make these possibilities visible by taking proven, mature technologies as a starting point and simulating how they would perform in existing industrial processes.”

The ‘Flex’ in FlexPower ultimately brings everything together. It goes beyond simply adapting companies to changes in energy supply and demand. It is also about flexibility in people’s mindset. With that idea in mind, Rita and her colleagues maintain ongoing discussions with industrial companies, grid operators and renewable energy producers. “The most important outcome of this project is knowledge. However, fostering dialogue among all stakeholders in the energy value chain is equally important. We need to recognise that this is a societal challenge that affects us all.”

Environmental Focus

With a project this broad in scope, how do you stay focused? Rita says that she is becoming increasingly adept at seeing how the various issues addressed by the project are interconnected. “Because I understand the connections, I am able to stay focused on what needs to be done. Moreover, we are a research group in which everyone specialises in a particular field. So if you don’t know something, you can ask a colleague. That, too, helps us stay focused, because you simply cannot be an expert in everything. If you tried to do that, you’d go mad.”

According to Rita, addressing a societal challenge should never be about pointing out a single culprit. After all, a polluting industry cannot be separated from the choices and responsibilities of consumers. In her conversations with industry partners, Rita wants to continue fostering a sense of shared responsibility. So, what motivates her? “I have always been very environmentally conscious, ever since I was a child. For me, tackling pollution brings a great deal of personal satisfaction, especially when I speak directly with industry partners. This is when I truly see our work making a difference. I think we can be very proud of that as a research group.”

Photography: Thomas Busschers
Translation: Graeme Cunningham