Sweden faces several challenges when more intermittent renewable power is integrated into the energy system. One of the challenges is to have enough electrical power available in periods with low production from intermittent sources. A solution to the problem could be to reduce the electricity peak demand and at the same time produce more electricity during peak hours. One way of doing this is to convert electricity based heating in buildings to district heating (DH) based on combined heat and power (CHP).
The study analyzes how much a medium sized Swedish municipality can contribute to lower the electricity peak demand. This is done by quantifying the potential to reduce the peak demand for six different scenarios of the future heat market volume and heat market shares regarding electricity based heating and DH in 2050.
The main finding is that electricity consumption will be reduced by 35-70 % during the peak hour (and 20-40 % on a yearly basis) for all the six scenarios studied compared with the current situation. If the aim is to lower the electricity peak demand in the future, the choice of heating system is more important than reducing the heat demand itself. For the scenario with a large share of DH, it is possible to cover the electricity peak demand in the municipality by using CHP.