25 Nov 2020

Strong Interest for Swedish Smart Grid Solutions in Hong Kong

This week, Smart City Sweden and Business Sweden organised a digital meeting with CLP Hong Kong to explore opportunities for Swedish companies in the Smart Grid sector.

Founded in 1901, CLP today has a generation capacity of over 24000 MW with more than 5.1 million customer accounts and presence in many key markets across Asia-Pacific. Austin R. Bryan, Senior Director Innovation at CLP, presented the company’s vision to create the “Utility of the Future” with focus on digitalisation and reduction of carbon emissions. CLP has published a roadmap known as the Climate Vision 2050, wherein specific targets, such as 30% renewables by 2030, drive the company’s pathway to a sustainable energy transition.

Keen to Engage with Swedish Start-Ups

CLP is highly interested in Swedish technologies that could help them to achieve their climate goals and also to digitalise customer journey. Swedish start-ups that pitched their solutions to CLP included:

• Elonroad, which is developing a high-tech electric road concept for auto charging of all types of electric vehicles when parked as well as when driving.
• Bright Energy, which provides a platform for energy service optimization through the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence.
• Exeri, that presented a smart grid surveillance system that can pinpoint intermittent faults and could shorten the time for power outages to half.

The Swedish Consulate, the Swedish Energy Agency and Vattenfall also joined the meeting. Per Augustsson, Consulate General of Sweden in Hong Kong, talked about Sweden’s leading position in achieving the sustainable development goals. Peter Bennewitz from the Swedish Energy Agency presented Sweden’s policy targets, such as 100% renewable electricity by 2040, and an overview of research & development activities in Sweden. Yvonne Ruwaida from Vattenfall presented the results of the CoordiNet project, which is studying the power flexibility markets and congestion management capacity.

Overview of Foreign Investments in Hong Kong

Representatives from Invest HK and Hong Kong Science and Technology Park (HKSTP) also joined the meeting to brief the Swedish companies about the business environment in Hong Kong, and how these organizations facilitate connections. Charles Ng, Associate Director-General at Invest HK, mentioned that climate and energy are in focus right now. HKSTP is the biggest innovation and technology multidisciplinary collaboration hub in Hong Kong with a vision to be the capital of Smart Solutions.

Are You Interested to Pitch Your Solution to the Asia-Pacific Region?

This week’s meeting was a sneak peek for CLP into the Swedish Smart Grids focus area. An Innovation Day will be held at the beginning of 2021 where Swedish start-up companies will be able to pitch their technologies and solutions to CLP. Business Sweden in Hong Kong has identified the following sectors to be opportunistic for Swedish companies: smart grids, renewable energy, digitalised services, and district cooling. 

Are you interested to attend the upcoming Innovation Pitch Day with CLP? Contact Lidia at Smart City Sweden.

Text: Smart City Sweden