Regulatory sandbox to integrate a digitalized construction industry into the grid

The approach advocated by REGULA to reach the impact goals is to study in a large collaborative project system transformation along five dimensions (digitalization, regulations, sociotechnical, business models, sustainability) across five operational levels (materials, machines and vehicles, operators and work managers, distributed energy resources on site, grid services and energy markets) through pilots in a cyber-physical regulatory sandbox.

The physical testbed for the pilots is the large urban construction project Årstafältet where during the period of 2021-2035, 8100 apartments, 40 000 sqm office space, 3 pre- and elementary schools, and parks with lakes will be developed. During the period of 2027-2029 two new tunnelbana (metro) stations producing 1.7 million cubic meters of blasted bedrock will also be developed to integrate Åstafältet in Stockholm and its public transport system.

Improve ESG reporting, timely billing and effective accounting, track-and-trace of materials and assets, improved project management via operations planning, tracking, and incident management.

Majority of transports on rail via reloading at the local train terminal.

Shared digitized and electrified machine park as a service between procured construction service providers working on different construction stages or nearby sites. Increase equipment utilization that leads to faster amortization of-, reduced investment risks in- and more cost-competitive business cases for heavy equipment with rapidly evolving technology (batteries, chargers, PV). Increase market adoption of electric construction equipment to meet SDGs and required sales shares of OEMs.

Mobile modular solar cells with battery storage to power the large-scale electrified groundwork operations. Approximately 20 electric trucks and 20 heavy construction machines with 500 KWh batteries will be needed to manage the estimated 240 000 transports of 5 Mton construction masses.

Modular unified battery packs charged on racks power all equipment. Improve assets utilization / operations flexibility by decoupling machine functionality form its energy needs. Reduce charging / refueling times to below 10 minutes. Repurpose batteries on charging racks as local energy buffer for island-operations or for new grid services with extended flexibility and availability. Move energy or energy storage between sites.

Demand responsive control. Resilient system with renewable sources. Smart control via digital twin for real-time monitoring, analysis and planning of energy needs and flexibilities.

Become a smart prosumer - buy energy from the Distribution Network Operator (DNO) when it is cheap and sell energy to them when it is expensive. Reduce cost of operations through new revenue streams.

Participate in energy communities and sell you excess energy to other microgrids ”peer-to-peer”. Optionally, share or coordinate energy production and consumption plans with peers. Increase market for services. Increase utilization and value of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) through smart planning and coordination.

Energy trading between a Virtual Power Plant (i.e., multiple coordinated and aggregated microgrids) and the Transmission System Operator (TSO aka SvK in Sweden) or the wholesale energy market. Improved economies of scale quality of offered grid services. Increased revenue streams.