Vattenfall Verkko Oy and There Corporation Oy are co-operating in jointly developing a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) that continues until end of March 2012. The goal of the project is to develop new energy efficiency services for households and to offer opportunities for the electricity market to develop new services. The aim of the project is also to create household services that meet the energy efficiency goals of the European Union concerning more efficient household energy usage.
 
In the pilot project Vattenfall Verkko and There Corporation are testing a new kind of easy-to-install energy management system in co-operation with real households; the Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS). The project is part of a large development project between the Finnish electricity network and the electricity market, Smart Grids and Energy Markets, SGEM.
 
The parties of the project are the test households, Vattenfall Verkko Oy and There Corporation. The energy management system developed by There has been installed in five households that are customers of Vattenfall Verkko.The system reports in real time about the energy usage of electrical devices used in the household and enables the consumer to use the devices more energy efficiently.
 
The household consumers can control their own energy consumption and make it more efficient by getting real time data of their overall electricity usage, about the consumption of selected individual devices and  the indoor and outdoor temperatures. Some of the pilot customers are using automatic controls that help to optimize the energy usage of the consumer.
 
The consumption data from the Vattenfall Verkko AMR customers has been connected to the HEMS system provided by There Corporation. Components of the system are the AMR devices, local electricity metering plugs for individual appliances, temperature meters and the ThereGate™ unit that controls the system.
 
The customer can use the service with his computer, tablet or mobile phone through the web browser. The service can be used where ever the user is, at home, at work or while travelling.
 
The major goal of the project is to get more information about how the new services can be offered to customers. It is expected to increase the understanding of the demand-response potential and will give new information about the willingness of customers to engage in the demand-response in everyday use and in different market environments. It is also expected that the results of the project will give information about the possible roles of different players in the electricity market of the future.
 
Vattenfall Verkko and There Corporation share the opinion that the demand of energy efficiency services offered to households is growing continuously. Until now, the challenge in offering services to customers has been the lack of affordable technology and hourly priced electricity agreements offered to private customers. When electricity providers open up the market for hourly based pricing agreements, the true benefits can only be exploited by automatically controlling the household electricity equipment according to the altering prices.This HEMS pilot project tests how this kind of smart controls can be effectively carried out in real consumer premises.
 
Vattenfall Verkko Oy has been a pioneer in using new smart technologies in electricity network services. The company is the first of the major network companies in Europe that has offered an energy report service based on information measured by the hour to all its customers. The service is based on the consumption information of every single customer of Vattenfall Verkko, generated by the fully installed AMR meters. The information service has more than  20 000 users by now and it is particularly popular during the coldest months of the year. The company also takes advantage of the new AMR system in trouble situations by checking whether the customer effectively has electricity supply at the moment.
 
There Corporation is a pioneer in offering smart home energy measurement solutions (HEMS) to consumers in Europe. There has developed the HEMS technology since 2009 by continuing the development work started at Nokia in 2007.  
 
The long term goal of the project parties of this HEMS pilot project is to promote the development of a functioning, efficient and transparent electricity market.
 
More information:
Ville Sihvola, Asiakasjohtaja, Vattenfall Verkko Oy
Kaj Rönnlund, CEO, There Corporation Oy
 
Vattenfall Verkko Oy is the distribution service company delivering networks services to more than 395 000 customers from the southern parts of Finland up to North Ostrobothnia. The company´s distribution area covers around hundred municipalities. Vattenfall Verkko serves customers by providing a reliable access to the electricity networks and enabling the market place. The company maintains and improves reliable and intelligent electricity networks that meet the demand of our customers today and in the future. More information: www.vattenfall.fi
 
There Corporation Oy.was established in 2009 as a spin-off from Nokia. There Corporation develops internet-based solutions for energy management with realtime information and management capabilities that include energy optimization through algorithms. There cooperates with energy companies and service providers mainly in the Nordic area.
More information: www.therecorporation.com or kaj.ronnlund (at) therecorporation.com or mobile +358 50 570 1746