AI insights at District Heating Days 2024

Last week, the District Heating Days 2024 "Fjärrvärmedagarna 2024", was organized, a conference that offers a helicopter perspective on the district heating industry's most important and strategic issues. Our energy strategist Niclas Sigholm started the first day with a presentation on challenges and opportunities for district heating and CHP in the new energy landscape and shared his thoughts on it. During the conference, our colleague Mattias Naarttijärvi, who works as a Cloud Engineer & Data Scientist, also gave a presentation on the theme “What is AI and how can district heating companies benefit from it?”.

In addition to the energy and civil engineering industry, we at Sigholm follow AI developments closely and we work continuously to integrate AI into our processes, not least our system developers who work with our digital optimization platform Aurora by Sigholm and Data by Sigholm, which is an aggregator for data maturity and AI application. As AI can be perceived as difficult to navigate and complex for many, Mattias' presentation was an inspiring program item that gave many visitors both educational explanations and new insights.

Below is a short summary of the presentation, AI-generated of course.

What is AI?

AI is a technology that aims to mimic human intelligence and ability to learn, adapt and make decisions. It is the driving force behind innovations that change the way we work, communicate and live.

Difference between machine learning & deep learning

Machine learning is when computers learn from data and create algorithms that can predict, classify or optimize. On the other hand, deep learning is a more advanced branch of machine learning that uses neural networks to mimic the complexity of the human brain.

General terms

Data is raw information that AI uses to learn and make decisions. Algorithms are instructions that AI follows to analyze and process data. Models are the result of AI's learning process, where it creates a representation of patterns and relationships in the data.

How can AI be applied in the energy sector?

We have seen breakthroughs in areas such as renewable energy integration, demand forecasting and predictive maintenance. These technologies have the potential to increase efficiency, reduce costs and promote a sustainable energy future for Sweden.

Conclusion

AI has enormous potential to transform the Swedish energy sector in many ways. But to realize this potential, we need collaboration, innovation and an ability to face the challenges head on. Let's continue to explore and invest in this exciting future together.

Key Take Aways from Mattias' presentation:

• Understand your AI potential by having hackathons, add resources, map risks and test your way.
• Ensure data quality and ask yourself: Who is responsible for what data? Who and how do you correct data? How can you cope with a 100x increase in data volume?
• Ensure availability by having the right data to the right person/system at the right time and in the right format.

Do you want to know more about AI and how it can be applied in the district heating industry or in your organization? Take part of Mattias' entire presentation via the link below and get in touch if you are also interested in a customized lecture on the theme (in Swedish).
Fjärrvärmedagarna 2024 - Vad är AI och hur kan fjärrvärmebolag dra nytta av det - Mattias Naarttijärvi Sigholm.pdf