Eva Jacques from Glen Dimplex updated us on the work of Glen Dimplex in Osimo and Oud-Heverlee.

What have been the updates in your work since last December?

We’ve been continuing to monitor the SETS (Smart Electric Thermal Storage) appliances which were installed earlier in Osimo towards the end of 2019.  Last month one of our engineers visited Oud Heverlee and, alongside the Belgian project team, identified locations for a number of SETS appliances there – we will install these as soon as is possible under the current circumstances! 

We also have a test SETS heater and cylinder set up in our own R&D lab in Northern Ireland, which CARTIF and ENGIE have access to, and good progress is being made with the initial API integration and testing. 

Last but not least, last month, we attended the BRIDGE annual General Assembly with other Muse Grids project partners, and in cooperation with the enthusiastic team at RINA and EASE, we organised a networking event which was a great success!

What do you think are the most important results on your work since last December?

The BRIDGE event was definitely a highlight – we were delighted to have around 100 attendees and to have received very positive feedback from the European Commission, BRIDGE Coordination team and project representatives alike.  The innovative format (read more here), which provided an opportunity for more informal networking alongside the main General Assembly agenda, had clear added value!

CARTIF establishing their initial connection to our test heater via the API, and successfully ‘talking’ to it was also a noteworthy milestone.

What were the main challenges and how did you overcome them?

Reaching clarity around the approach to control and optimisation, and facilitating the integration and testing is always a challenge in these kinds of projects, but we’ve made significant progress in the last couple of months thanks to strong communication between the partners involved in these tasks.