Presenting the partners: Smart Innovation Norway

Norwegian research company Smart Innovation Norway hosts both NCE Smart Energy Markets, Norway’s leading cluster of industries and academic institutions within Smart Grid and Smart Energy Market Research and Innovation, as well as the new Cluster for Applied AI, which leads the way for Norwegian businesses to succeed with profitable and sustainable application of artificial intelligence (AI).

We hold key competences in relevant and applied R&D, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship and process development to cater for new businesses based on research results generated. Emphasis is on techno-economic models and analysis, business intelligence, prosumers and user flexibility, says Joseph Negreira, Section Head International Research at Smart Innovation Norway.

Role and contribution to FLEXGRID

The Norwegian company will disseminate the results of the FLEXGRID project to the two large industry clusters it is managing.

We also manage an Incubator and will use this in different forms of business developments, spinoffs, intra- and entrepreneurship and networking. Since Smart Innovation Norway is also a research organization, we will exploit the flexibility tools for further research and promote increased innovation activities in our business clusters, explains Negreira.

Smart Innovation Norway and the associated Smart Energy cluster have long traditions of creating energy-related spinoffs around new products and technologies. These include software and engineering companies like Scandpower, Hand-El Scandinavia, CognIT, MoreCom, Communicate, Navita/Brady, Miriam, eSmart Systems, Tiny Mesh, and more.

Together with SINTEF and Narvik University College, Smart Innovation Norway was a founding partner of the Norwegian Smart Grid Centre.

Exploitation goals

By the end of the project, Smart Innovation Norway aims to exploit its high-quality community building capabilities towards integrating targeted FLEXGRID intelligence (i.e. advanced mathematical models and algorithms) in existing real-life pilots in Norway, Germany and other EU countries.

In addition, we will exploit results from FLEXGRID’s innovation tools for business and commercial partners that are part of NCE Smart Energy Markets, and the AI-based tool will be exploited through Cluster for Applied AI, notes Negreira.

He also believes that the market analysis and business model design of the FLEXGRID innovation will help startups that are a part of Smart Innovation Norway’s incubator realise new market opportunities.

The next step

After the project’s lifetime, the company hopes to use FLEXGRID’s results to achieve its ultimate goal – to exploit its growing experience in facilitating the participation of mobile, distributed and centralized energy storage assets in novel flexibility markets for dealing with grid operation challenges.

Thus, exploiting FLEXGRID’s modeling and intelligence and already pilot-tested tools and products, the next step for Smart Innovation Norway is to coordinate the real market uptake of these solutions in the EU area and beyond</q>, emphasizesNegreira. For market uptake, Smart Innovation Norway will look for cross-exploitation with the Norwegian partners that are part of the FLEXGRID consortium, NODES and NPC.