ABB technology makes new cultural centre energy smart

A new collaboration between Skellefteå Kraft and ABB will show how the future cultural centre in Skellefteå, Sweden can become a permanent proof of technical solutions that are good both economically and for the environment.

In the middle of central Skellefteå, located just below the Arctic Circle in northern Sweden, a new cultural centre is being built, which will contain the latest ABB energy saving solutions.

The new cultural centre, named Sara Cultural Centre, will be completed in the summer of 2021. With its 20 floors, 205 hotel rooms and several auditoriums, it is expected to become the world's tallest wooden building and northern Sweden's new landmark, a dynamic meeting place for culture, entertainment and conferences.

One of the goals is to create an environmentally friendly, sustainable and energy efficient building. Skellefteå Kraft, one of Sweden's largest energy producers, is one of the partners in the project and they initiated a collaboration with ABB, a technology leader in energy efficient and sustainable solutions for smart living.

“Together, Skellefteå Kraft and ABB want to make commercial buildings and factory buildings smart. We start by implementing our solutions in Skellefteå Culture Centre to show how smart we can build properties from an energy saving point of view and also to learn how to make smart buildings standard in Sweden,” says Mats Peterson, Local Marketing and Sales Manager ABB Electrification business in Sweden.

ABB will ensure that new electrification technology is built into the centre and that the ABB Ability^TM Electrical Distribution Control System is used to visualize the energy flow in the building. The purpose is to identify how much energy the building uses and what the energy is used for (e.g. heating, ventilation and lightning) but also identify where energy comes from (e.g. district heating, distribution grid, battery or solar panel). ABB's application for optimizing energy flows, Optimax, will show how the cost of purchased energy for a building can be minimized. Optimax will also be able to use the building to lower power peaks in both the district heating network and in the distribution network and thus contribute to sustainable and smart solutions for the entire city.

“With the energy technology of the future, we ensure a low energy consumption and efficient use of energy for the cultural centre. To reach all the way to a 100 percent renewable energy system, the building’s internal energy system needs to be integrated and optimized against the city's central energy solutions with new smart algorithms. Together with ABB, we can come up with smart solutions that take us further with our common goal to contribute to a sustainable society,” says Fredrik Jonsson, Business Innovation Manager at Skellefteå Kraft.

The joint project of ABB and Skellefteå Kraft will look at all energy aspects of the total solution such as generation, automation, monitoring, control and distribution. The optimization of energy systems in buildings can lead to solutions for capacity shortfalls in the grid and help society to change to renewable and more sustainable energy solutions. The technical and commercial competence that is jointly built up in the project can be used to offer energy-efficient commercial buildings to third parties.

ABB (ABBN: SIX Swiss Ex) is a technology leader that is driving the digital transformation of industries. With a history of innovation spanning more than 130 years, ABB has four customer- focused, globally leading businesses: Electrification, Industrial Automation, Motion, and Robotics & Discrete Automation, supported by the ABB Ability™ digital platform. ABB’s Power Grids business will be divested to Hitachi in 2020. ABB operates in more than 100 countries with about 147,000 employees. www.abb.com