Sweden’s Largest Initiative with Advanced Digitalisation – Electrified Flexible Industry

Hanna Persson, Project Manager at Chalmers Industriteknik: 
— Technology is important—but the real shift is about behaviour and system change. When manufacturing industries, energy managers, and grid owners start making decisions together, based on the same real-time data, the entire way we use power transforms. That’s how we build a more flexible and resilient energy system- in practice, not just in theory.

Thérèse Rosén Löfstedt, Head of Unit Mobility, Lindholmen Science Park
— At Lindholmen Science Park, we are pleased to contribute our expertise in digitalization, learning, and collaboration to support this important project. The industry’s digitalization journey and the increased potential for flexibility resources are of great importance to Sweden’s competitiveness and resilience.

Swedish industry is electrifying at record speed to increase competitiveness and become fossil free, but the power grids are not being expanded at the same pace. To prevent development from stalling, solutions are needed that allow industry to use power smarter, shift loads, share resources, and relieve pressure on the grid - here and now.

Learning in Real-World Environments

Electrified Flexible Industry brings together players from the entire value chain—industry, energy companies, grid owners, academia, and innovation environments—and connects production, energy use, and power grids into a single integrated system. All development and learning take place directly in real factories, industrial clusters, and energy facilities, where the project engages with the everyday complexity of industrial operations.

Across eight industrial demonstrations, different solutions will include features like:

• advanced measurement and data sharing
• AI-based forecasting
• automated flexibility control
• energy sharing between companies
• local storage and smart control
• new business models and new roles between industry and the power grid

The industrial demonstrations are carried out in collaboration with industrial partners in several parts of Sweden, with a strong focus on Västra Götaland County, Värmland County, Halland County, and Jönköping County.

Experiences are continuously documented and shared in joint forums together with project partners, stakeholders, and new potential participating companies, as well as through a dedicated learning track. This enables working methods to be rapidly scaled nationally.

National Digital Twin

A key component is the establishment of a national digital twin, enabling technical, market-based, and regulatory solutions to be simulated and validated before being implemented in real-world environments.

Flexibility, Resilience, and Innovation for the Energy System

The goal is to create a more flexible, robust, and efficient energy system for industry, enabling faster electrification with less strain on the power grid.

In practice, this means transforming industry into an active resource in the energy system—not merely a consumer—thus enabling a genuine system shift. The project aims to:

• increase industrial competitiveness through advanced digitalisation
• reduce peak loads and free up grid capacity
• enable energy sharing and smart control
• improve energy efficiency in industrial processes
• develop new business models and ways of working
• build a national digital twin to test technology and regulations before implementation
• create scalable solutions that work across all of Sweden

In Värmland, demonstrations include Gruvön (Grums), Åmotfors, Årjäng, Hagfors, Arvika, and Rottneros, as well as Ellevio’s distribution grid and energy and production facilities linked to wind power and energy storage. In Västra Götaland, demonstrations take place in Vårgårda, Trollhättan, Göteborg, and Sotenäs. Efforts in other regions are carried out in Halmstad and in Småland—Hillerstorp, Värnamo, and Jönköping.

Follower network within Klimatledande Processindustri

Members of Klimatledande Processindustri had the opportunity to contribute to the initiative during a workshop in August 2025, where their specific needs were identified. Throughout the course of the project, a follower network will also be established, allowing participants to share in the results and provide input regarding a potential continuation beyond 2029.