Thesis The potential for Energy Communities

Company Description

We have been electrifying industries, powering homes and transforming life through innovation and collaboration for more than 100 years. Empowered by our goal, we are determined to enable fossil free living within one generation. To succeed we, as one of Europe's leading energy companies, must be fossil-free ourselves.

But that’s not enough. That’s why we are looking beyond our own industry, to see where we can really make a difference.

Join us in our journey towards a fossil-free life within one generation.

Fossil freedom - that’s our purpose. We are looking for the brightest students to make this happen. Together you will contribute to a fossil free future. You will have a unique position to contribute to our purpose. All we ask from you is to use your Superpowers and share your energy to help us achieve our goal.

Job Description

About the thesis

Summary department information:

The department Power Technology at R&D creates value for the company and performs the cooperate R&D about electric power systems. It helps Vattenfall realize its strategy. We develop cost effective, safe, and sustainable solutions to improve the infrastructure of Vattenfall assets including Hydro, Wind, Nuclear, Markets, Customer and Solutions, Heat, and Distribution.

Thesis subject / assignment:

Today it is discussed how Energy Communities (Energigemenskaper) can be created in limited geographical areas. There are several parishes within the Church of Sweden (Svenska Kyrkan) for which this can be interesting. The more active the parishes are with for instance Photovoltaic (PV) production and possibility of load planning, the higher the potential is for also creating an Energy Community.

The master thesis will apply the concept of Energy Communities to parishes of the Church of Sweden and elaborate on how the business case varies between characters of the parish such as their own power production, load characteristics, energy storage capacity in batteries, as well as number of existing connection points to the DSO network.

• The work will focus on a specific selected case (One or several parishes) considering their total potential Photovoltaic (PV) installation (both positioned on roofs and directly on ground), possible energy storages, and load characteristics.
• Investigate how different types of energy communities would impact the “case”, for instance describe different virtual communities and compare them with communities including underlying meshed network.
• Considering the different aspects; legal framework challenges, the increase of self-consumption and how to make it an economical viable solution. Identify other possible benefits for the parish.
• Investigate differences in grid tariffs and how they influence the earning capacity.
• Define the recommended way forward in more detail, describe the business case, the process steps and work needed to make it possible to take a decision on a first pilot case.
• Investigate a broader scenario where other local actors (e.g. farmers with PV) are also part of a community. How would that impact the solution and how to solve the energy trading between the actors?

The project is supported by the climate goals of the Church of Sweden and with the fossil free purpose of Vattenfall.

The project is part of the research consortium SOLVE performed together with Högskolan Dalarna (in Borlänge), Karlstad University, Mälardalen University, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) and Uppsala University.

The assignment is for 1 student.

Qualifications

We are looking for students to join our journey towards a fossil free future. You are soon to be graduated from your academic studies. You also identify yourself with our principles: active, open, positive, and safety.

• Education – Any of the following master programs or similar: Electric Power Engineering or System, Energy System, or Data Science
• Scope – 30 hp
• Written and spoken English
• Experience with working in MATLAB Simulink
• Experience with C/C# is a merit.
• Experience with calculation of business cases and models

Additional Information

• Start of assignment: mid-January, 2025.
• Location: Solna/Älvkarleby by agreement.
• Application – a combined document with your CV, cover letter, and grades are to be submitted in the application.
• Deadline for application is 2024-12-01.
• Contact person and supervisor at Vattenfall is: Jonas Persson and Monica Löf, Jonas.H.Persson@vattenfall.com and Monica.Lof@vattenfall.com
• Contact person at Svenska kyrkan is: Magdalena Boork, Magdalena.Boork@svenskakyrkan.se

Diversity & inclusion - in everything we do

At Vattenfall we build on the fact that diverse teams can outperform homogeneous teams. But we can only unleash and leverage the power of diversity, if we make everybody feel included. Read more about our important work on diversity & inclusion https://careers.vattenfall.com/about-us/diversity-and-inclusion/