Project: Baltic Smart Asset Management (BSAM)

Project information

Project manager
William Hogland
Other project members at Linnaeus University
Jelena Lundström
Participating organizations
- Linnaeus University, Sweden (lead partner)
- SweHeat & Cooling (the Swedish Council for District Heating), Sweden
- Öresundskraft, Sweden
- Opec Gdynia, Poland
- Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland
- Lithuanian District Heating Association, Lithuania
- Klaipeda University, Lithuania
Associated partners
- Swedenergy, Sweden
- Energiforsk, Sweden
- Nybro Energi, Sweden
- The Swedish Embassy in Warsaw, Poland
- Roskilde University, Denmark
- ISM University, Lithuania
Financier
Interreg South Baltic (total budget EUR 1 302 500)
Timetable
1 June 2019–5 May 2022
Subject
Environmental technology (Department of biology and environmental science, Faculty of health and life sciences)

More about the project

The Europe 2020 goals and beyond is to increase energy efficiency by 20 %, but also to decrease CO₂ emissions. In addition, the EU, the world's largest importer of energy (400 billion EUR that amounts to approximately 53 % of the entire need), will in the upcoming years face vast reinvestment needs in for modernisation of existing infrastructures, such as district heating (DH) grids.

Many countries are too dependent on coal and Russian gas. The Nordic countries have shown that DH systems are a tool to reduce fossil fuel dependency, moving into circular economy. The main drawback of district heating is the capital need, inefficient operation (losses), expressed in economic terms – low return on capital and a massive replacement need.

In order to solve the challenge described above, to boost district heating efficiency and reduce capital need, one of the most needed processes will be smart asset management (SAM). SAM will create environmental benefits for the Baltic Sea region as well as more affordable heat for the end customers by using existing assets and resources longer and more efficiently (fuel and energy saving).

The purpose of the project is to develop methods, transnational collaboration processes and knowledge for smart asset management. Methods developed for district heating can be spread to the utilities of drinking water and sewage pipes, gas, railways and to power distribution and bridges.

Specific objectives

• To identify barriers and success factors for the development and implementation of SAM, the digitalization of district heating distribution networks.
• To develop nationally adapted methods for condition monitoring of the district heating networks and of for learning.
• To fully utilize modern ICT tools for data driven predictive maintenance of district heating networks.

The project is part of the research in The Environmental Science and Engineering Group (ESEG) research group.