Data centres as heating: K51 and BKW Energy in a network

A visionary approach

Benoît Stroelin, co-founder and CEO of K51, summarises the company's objective as follows: “We deliver fossil-free heat directly to customers’ homes and use computing power as an innovative ‘fuel’. Our goal is to significantly reduce energy waste in high-performance computing (HPC) and thereby make a relevant contribution to decarbonisation.” This approach has the potential to fundamentally change the way energy and computing power are used.

K51's solution

K51 has developed a unique solution to use this waste heat efficiently. The company's servers and data centres are strategically located in places where the waste heat can be put to good use. These include greenhouses, for example. By using the waste heat, effectively as a by-product of computing power, vegetable growers can reduce the use of oil and gas in conventional heating systems and improve their carbon footprint. Heat storage systems also make it possible to decouple computing power from heat output. This in turn leads to exciting opportunities in electricity procurement as well as flexibility that can be used to stabilise the electricity grids.

Collaboration with BKW Energy

The collaboration between K51 and BKW Energy began with the commissioning of the first regular data centre. This is an integrated energy solution that combines a customised power supply contract with participation in the balancing energy market.

Based on BKW Energy's daily spot price forecast, K51 controls its systems so that they perform their computing tasks during the low-cost hours. The data is sent from BKW Energy to K51's systems and then back to BKW Energy as a consumption forecast digitally and automatically. The forecasts are so precise that balancing energy costs can be reduced to a minimum. As part of forward transactions, contractually agreed heat output can also be hedged at an early stage.

At the same time, K51's data centres are connected to the balancing energy market via BKW Energy. The virtual data centre transmits the currently available capacity for grid stabilisation to BKW Energy. BKW Energy markets this on the balancing energy market through pooling. If required, the switching signal to switch off or switch on is transmitted directly to the virtual data centre, and the individual data centres are switched on or off. In this way, K51 makes a valuable contribution to grid stability and generates attractive additional revenue.

How K51 and BKW Energy complement each other

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What exactly is the balancing energy market?

Transmission system operators such as Swissgrid in Switzerland are responsible for grid stability, but do not have their own facilities to ensure this. The balancing energy market enables them to reserve the flexibility of controllable facilities for a fee and activate it when needed.

Jill Huber, Business Developer at BKW Energy, explains: “With our product Energy Powerflex, a balancing energy pool, we bundle small-scale and variably available installations into a virtual power plant. This enables our customers with flexible installations to benefit from the attractive revenues on the balancing energy market, as they often do not have the required minimum capacity.

Bundling makes it possible to utilise the rapidly growing potential for flexibility on the consumption side. This can be achieved, for example, through batteries, heat pumps or, in this specific case, data centres.”

How exactly does optimisation on the spot market work?

The spot market prices for a given day are only ever known at around 11:00 on the previous day. At the same time, in order to be able to procure energy on the spot market, a consumption forecast for the following day is already needed. Because this timing does not work, the control is based on a forecast of spot prices one day in advance. This is the only way for the consumption forecast to get back to BKW Energy early enough.

Depending on the specifications, the customer’s system can decide when the best hours are for production. Depending on how the system is designed, thresholds are also possible to ensure that a target price is not exceeded.

As consumers become increasingly flexible, there will be much greater potential in the future. Controllable consumers not only benefit from low prices; they also help with grid stability by enabling loads to be shifted to hours when there is an oversupply of electricity.

Thomas Egli, Head of Business Enabling at BKW Energy, adds: “In terms of system control and flexibility, K51 meets exactly the requirements needed for such a model. We are working closely together to realise additional potential, for example in balancing energy.”

A win-win situation for all involved

The innovative solution from K51, combined with the expertise and flexibility of BKW Energy, impressively demonstrates that sustainability and economic viability can indeed be compatible. As demand increases, further data centres are to be built and integrated. Work is also ongoing to make the system even smarter.

There are other use cases that could make sense for this kind of collaboration, for example in the areas of site networks, charging stations or other heating systems. What is important here is that the loads offer a certain degree of flexibility or that price signals can also be passed on to customers. Imagine that charging an electric car costs nothing for a short time, while the owner of the charging station simultaneously earns money through negative energy prices.

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