US focus on Danish Smart grid market

After five years as project partner on Energinet.dk’s Cell controller project in Denmark, the US based company Spirae Inc. is now concentrating its efforts on penetrating the Nordic market with the help of Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster (CCC). The first project for the newly established Danish subsidiary - Spirae DK - is a new project together with the city of Kalundborg. Short term two staff members will be hired, but the number of staff is expected to increase to 15-20 employees during the next few years.

Spirae Inc. specialises in developing control systems for distribution of the large scale integration of renewables and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) within electric power systems. After collaborating with CCC via the newly established International Cleantech Network (ICN), Spirae has now decided to establish a subsidiary in Denmark. Initially, a Development Director and a Project Manager will be hired, and another 15-20 employees are expected to be hired over the next few years as new projects come along.

It is due to the collaboration between CCC and the Colorado Clean Energy Cluster that Spirae has decided to focus more on the Danish market.

"We have high expectations that similar cluster collaborations with clusters from around the world will help to attract more companies to Denmark, both because we have the professional and technological skills but also because we are a good test country on a range of new energy efficient technologies", Head of Networks in CCC, Simon Dreyer, states.

Denmark as a Nordic hub
Spirae's unique knowledge of the smart grid area has benefitted Energinet.dk for the past five years, as the Colorado-based company has delivered design, simulation, implementation and installation in the Cell Controller project. And it is the green targets and the great knowledge within the area that makes Denmark an interesting market for Spirae.

"With the continuing adoption of favourable, national energy policies in Denmark and the larger Nordic region, there is a rapid expansion of opportunities for Spirae. We see Denmark as a central hub of the region's activity with an innovation-friendly business environment making it an excellent choice for our European based operations. We look forward to collaborating with utilities and cities in the region to help them meet their energy and climate goals", Spirae President & CEO, Sunil Cherian, says.

Kalundborg to become a 'Smart City'
The first step in Spirae's cooperation with cities and regions will be taken with Kalundborg Municipality in the Region of  Zealand. The city already engage in an extensive energy cooperation - also known as the 'Symbiosis' - between the city's large companies such as DONG Energy, Novozymes, Inbicon, KARA / Noveren, Statoil and others. This cooperation is now to be extended to an overall energy system - making the city a 'Smart City'.

"The Kalundborg Smart City project aims to bring together the unique mix of stakeholders required to meet ambitious energy goals:  city planners, industry experts, researchers, power generators, grid operators and energy distributors. The goal of the Kalundborg Smart City project will be to analyse the relationship between a mixture of energy modalities, including renewable energy, smart grid operations, and energy consumption patterns and determine how they can be optimised to accelerate energy and environmental sustainability. We believe that this type of project is replicable in cities throughout Denmark and the Nordic region and represents a growing global trend towards City- or Municipality-led integrated energy solutions", Sunil Cherian says.

About Spirae
Spirae, Inc., based in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, develops distributed control systems for the large scale integration of renewables and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) within electric power systems. Spirae's field-tested multi-layer technology enables network operators to seamlessly incorporate large amounts of DER such as generation, load management and storage. The resulting "Smart Grid" can leverage embedded DER for optimizing distribution network operations, intermittency management and firming for renewables, higher network capacity utilization, voltage regulation, peak load reduction, smart charging and vehicle-to-grid operations, DER aggregation and market participation, and various location-based ancillary services.

Spirae co-owns and operates the InteGrid Test and Development Laboratory at the Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory at Colorado State University. The company has spearheaded several projects in both Denmark and the US in areas such as renewable and distributed system integration, demonstration projects for novel market integration, cyber security, remote system management, microgrid operations, and simulation studies for large-scale wind integration and dynamic topology management.