EHPA newsletters are 100% green and sustainable*, Issue 3 | September 2013 exactly as heat pumps are. *Its truly green: printed on 100% recycled paper using 100% renewable energy. Heat pumps set to grab more of the European market We believe huge growth potential remains in the Some countries in Europe European heat pump market, despite the generally (e.g. Germany, Denmark) are editorial stagnant nature of the market over the last few years. already facing immediate Annual heat pump sales are refusing to rise much above needs to increase demand 700,000/year (compare that to 8 million boilers/year side flexibility – the begin- across Europe). Our talk of future growth isn’t because ning of a trend across Euro- we’re optimists. We see new (or relatively new) heat pe. HP are increasingly re- pump concepts driving future growth, opening up cognised as having a part to more parts of the market to heat pumps – in addition play in providing this flexibi- to lots of remaining opportunity for ‘conventional’ lity. The HP industry is alrea- Lindsay Sugden | Delta-ee heat pump products and applications. dy responding, for example, developing control strategies to maximise flexibility; Catalysts triggering heat pump market intelligent integration with energy storage, Home growth – not just more of the same Energy Management Systems, smart meters, PV etc; and control systems which can accept dynamic tariffs. HP concepts are emerging which widen the range of its We believe ‘smart’ will trigger increasing engagement applications, create stronger customer propositions, from energy companies in heat pumps (this will be a and trigger much greater engagement from policy- key focus for our next HP Roundtable in early 2014), makers and energy companies. For example: and ultimately will be one of the most important long Domestic hot water heat pumps – the only sector term drivers for future heat pump market growth. of the HP market which has seen consistent growth recently – and the market shows no signs of stopping The building blocks need to be in place in the next five years. for sustainable market growth Hybrids – the 2nd generation HP/boiler systems are now emerging having learned from the 1st generation There are lots of opportunities for heat pump markets – showing strong potential as a retrofit solution – to grow, in the light of the current developments. including the on-gas market in some countries. But from the research by Delta-ee and the EHPA for Residential-scale gas heat pumps – are already on the “Best Practice Guide”, published in July this year, the market in small numbers (adsorption) and under it is clear that a number of building blocks need development (absorption) – they look like a promising to be in place first before sustainable growth can way onto the gas grid for heat pumps. happen. Policy, quality, marketing, a strong customer We also see smart heat pumps / heat pumps in smart proposition, and on-going market monitoring are grids as a driving force for the sector, so it is an apt essential foundations for any sector of the heat pump focus for this issue of the EHPA newsletter. market to grow. We have already seen in the Guide ‘Smart’ is driven by an issue much wider than just how successful this can be in some cases. We are sure heat pumps – it is an energy system requirement for that the industry is up to the challenge and we will see demand-side flexibility. sustained growth in the coming years. 2 Project Update: Green HP – Smart Grid Integration of 10 Smart Eco System®: Energy management and Heat Pumps intelligent electricity use in the smart home 4 Why energy companies will need smart heat pumps 12 The Sauerland Pyramid’s exceptional energy concept 7 Uplink®: Remote managing and monitoring of your 14 Gas Absorption HP: contribution to the European smart heat pumps at home Education sector’s carbon reduction strategy content 8 Renewables, Heat Pumps and Smart Metering in a 16 European Heat Pump Summit 2013: The future of HP “variable speed Europe” 16 Next Events and Meetings 2 | Issue 3 | September 2013 European Heat Pump NEWS Dr.-Ing. Bernhard Wille-Haussmann Dipl.-Ing. Dipl. Wirt.-Ing. David Fischer Smart Grid Integration Group Energy Management and Grids Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme ISE Phone: +49 (0) 761/4588-5443 [email protected] of Heat Pumps [email protected] Without any question the energy system of System Integration today is undergoing a rapid change in most of Europe. Maybe the most well-known The crucial question for the design of heat pump systems and advanced activity in this context is the and control strategies is under which conditions they will be German so called “Energiewende”. The goal operated in the future energy system. Two boundaries are for 2030 is that 50 % of the gross electricity outlined on the system level. The first one is to integrate HP consumption shall be covered by renewables. An increasing share into home energy systems. The second one is to integrate the of renewable energy, coming along with a more decentralized entire home energy system in a local, regional or national power generation and a rapid development in information energy system. In Figure 1 an exemplary future energy system and communication technology leads to new challenges and is shown. possibilities in the energy sector. Private households can be In the future two trends are expected: integrated in Smart Energy Cities (e.g. via the so called Virtual 1. An increase in decentralized renewable energy will change the Power Plants) or use their flexibility and storage capacities to role of the consumer in the energy system towards producing cover their energy use by “homemade” electricity (e.g. PV). This and consuming energy at different times of the day. offers new possibilities for electric driven heat pump systems 2. An increase in communication technology and smart meters which take advantage of the flexibility offered by cheap thermal will enable new business models that support joint operation storage, to operate in a beneficial way for the owner or the energy and pooling of decentralized generation and consumption. system operator. The high efficiency of well-designed heat pump Here, the operation goal is to support a secure, stable and systems could help to fulfill the goal of energy saving and by use economically efficient supply of energy in the whole system. of renewables to reduce CO2-emissions significantly. Operation of Pooling of numerous hp for balancing can be realized by heat pump units in the energy system of the future will lead to means of different organization and control strategies by the need of new control strategies which are currently developed approaches such as Virtual Power Plants. within the Green Heat Pump Project. The resulting strategies will be tested in the SmartEnergyLab at Fraunhofer ISE. Two main conclusions are drawn from this trend influencing control mechanisms of prospective home energy systems. Green Heat Pump Project First: Different sources of energy supply and generation will be found in domestic energy systems on the house level. On An increase of efficiency in energy use leads to a reduction of CO2 the thermal side solar thermal systems, conventional boilers, emissions. While in general a big share of energy is used in the cogeneration systems and thermal storages are expected. On residential sector. In many European countries it is used especially the electric side local PV plants, battery storage and electric for heating purposes. In Europe 36 % of the residential building vehicles are likely. Hence, integrating and orchestrating the stock are multifamily homes of which approximately 80 % are generation of energy from different renewable sources, the older than 20 years. Consequently, increasing the energy efficiency storage and conventional energy generation into a home of such houses would have a big impact on the EU CO2 reduction energy system is a challenging task for system and control goals. Heat pumps as efficient heat generation systems can be designers. From the operational point of view the system applied to replace low efficiency heating technologies based on needs to be operated with high efficiency and at minimum fossil fuels. Due to the good accessibility air as heat source can be cost. Considering solar thermal energy and electricity a solution for heat pumps in cities. Thus, the Green Heat Pump generated from PV in a private house one option for a smart project aims at developing a new, high efficient air-to-water heat home is to be operated by means of maximizing the use of self- pump for retrofitting multifamily houses. This will be reached by: generated “home-made” energy. Thus, enough free capacity • Improving every single component of a heat pump unit, from storages will be available in times where high production • Improving the heat pump system itself and is expected and enough electricity is stored for times of high • Improving system integration. demand. Moreover, the fact that production and demand often varies on a daily and seasonal base also needs to be considered Hereafter, the challenges of integrating heat pumps into future in the design of control strategies. energy systems will be outlined. The impact of new control Second: The integration of home energy systems into the concepts will be highlighted and the developments within the smart grid will change the operation of homes. As a matter of Green Heat Pump project will be introduced. The Hardware fact, the optimal behavior for a house such as maximizing self- in the Loop tests at Fraunhofer ISE’s SmartEnergyLab will be consumption might not be optimal on a regional or national level. described briefly at the end of this article.