Recently appointed as the Renewable Energy Business Unit Manager at Omexom Göteborg, Kristoffer Ekman is committed to projects involving battery-based energy storage, a booming sector in Sweden.
The aim of the Bredhälla BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) project in southeastern Sweden is to create a battery storage installation with a capacity of 43 MW. Located close to the E.ON substation and two wind farms currently under construction, this project is intended to provide auxiliary services to Svenska Kraftnät, the Swedish public electricity transmission network operator.
Another 250 kilometres to the south, just across the Øresund Strait from Denmark, the Swiss energy production and distribution company Axpo, which has been operating in Sweden since 2005, is also building a battery storage facility. This 20 MW installation based on lithium-ion technology will be connected to the network by the local energy firm Landskrona Energi.
“My duties are as technical as they are commercial and managerial, all with an entrepreneurial spirit”
By storing electricity when there is a surplus and selling it when there is a shortage, these projects should help to stabilise the Swedish power supply network and improve the country’s electricity supply security. Kristoffer Ekman, Renewable Energy Business Unit Manager at Omexom Göteborg, is closely associated with both these major projects.
“It’s exciting and hugely rewarding to work on projects like these that will have a direct impact on Sweden’s energy transition,” he says. There is no lack of challenges: “On these projects, we have to adapt to equipment from different suppliers, and also adhere to extremely tight installation deadlines, while ensuring that the installation is safe.”
Numerous projects in Sweden
Appointed to his post in January 2023, Kristoffer Ekman had renewable energy experience from two previous projects recently delivered to Recap Energy, a Swedish company specialising in clean energy solutions. Two BESS energy storage facilities of 2.3 MW and 1.2 MW respectively in Töreboda and Mariestad, east of Stockholm, help local energy company VänerEnergi manage peaks in demand.
“Those first two projects I managed taught me a lot in terms of the technology,” says Kristoffer Ekman. “It was a great experience, but the most noteworthy project was undoubtedly the one in Landskrona, partly due to its scale and the fierce negotiations we had with the customer, but also for the cohesion it created within my team.”
For this 47-year-old engineer, his current assignments are more compatible than ever with his personal tastes and values. After a decade working in various roles with the ABB group, from Product Manager to Production Line Manager, and then a management role in the R&D division, he wanted a new challenge.
He explains that “At ABB, I was able to develop my technical skills and also my ability to manage human relations and projects (how to develop a product and be competitive while keeping costs under control, etc.). I learned that project management involves a lot of compromise, a far cry from what you might expect from a pure engineer’s point of view. But after 10 years, I wanted to try something new.”
Entrepreneurial spirit and energy transition
In 2016, he was headhunted to join Infratek, a specialist in electrical supply networks, public lighting and rail transport systems. “I was looking for a post with more of an entrepreneurial aspect,” he explains. “It seemed I’d barely arrived before I was in charge of a team with 25 employees. Then, after Infratek was acquired by VINCI Energies, I was able to expand my area of responsibility into a core strategy area that is particularly close to my heart: energy transition and environmental protection.”
While his team currently numbers three people, Kristoffer Ekman fully intends to develop increasingly sustainable new products over the coming years, and thereby expand his business unit in terms of both activity and size. “I really appreciate the diverse nature of my duties, which are as technical as they are commercial and managerial, all with an entrepreneurial spirit that involves finding new projects and new customers. It requires a fair bit of creativity.”
Creativity was certainly needed for Kristoffer Ekman’s most recent project. As he explains, “It involves a comprehensive solution that we wanted to offer with Actemium to companies in the real estate and other sectors, where solar energy and BESS can be combined to make better use of the solar energy produced.”
01/18/2024
