EnergyLab Nordhavn: a living urban laboratory

5. October 2016

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Challenge

Transforming an active industrial port into a modern, vibrant residential neighbourhood and business district, while developing and demonstrating smart solutions for the future sustainable and cost-efficient, integrated energy system.

EnergyLab Nordhavn is located in Copenhagen’s waterfront city district Nordhavn (north harbour). The EnergyLab was formed in 2015 as a triple helix, bringing together academia, industry, utilities, and local government to pursue solutions for the design and operation of a cost-efficient and integrated energy system for the future. The project build on Copenhagen’s power grid and district heating network, but also ventured far into the built environment and private dwellings to co-model and co-simulate these in order to unlock their flexibility potential.

Solution

From 2015 until 2019, the project “EnergyLab Nordhavn – New Urban Energy Infrastructures” developed and demonstrated future energy solutions. The project used Nordhavn as a full-scale smart city energy lab to demonstrate how electricity, heating, energy-efficient solutions, and electric transport can be incorporated into an intelligent, flexible and optimised energy system.

Result

12 partners in Denmark’s largest and most ambitious smart energy project worked together to develop new methods and solutions for designing and operating tomorrow’s flexible and integrated energy system—solutions that will accelerate an effective green transition. A lot of smart city solutions have been implemented in the area such as intelligent waste handling, low temperature district heating, public transportation, and super cycle highways. Over the coming years, Nordhavn will continue to be built as a sustainable city district with tens of thousands of new residents and jobs.

Project partners:
DTU, City of Copenhagen, CPH City & Port Development, HOFOR, Radius, ABB, COWI, Danfoss, Nerve Smart Systems, METRO THERM, Glen Dimplex, and the PowerLabDK facilities.
The project was supported by EUDP and headed by the Center for Electric Power and Energy (CEE) at DTU Electrical Engineering.