Siemens invited Espoo’s SPARCS partners to visit the Sello shopping centre in May 2022. The SPARCS partners got a full tour of the Sello energy and mobility solutions, including the 2 MW battery, 750 kWp of solar panels and e-mobility charging solutions. The tour was led by Jaano Juhmen, Sami Laakso and Jani Muhli from Siemens, and Joona Töyräs from PlugIT Finland.

The Sello shopping centre, situated in the Leppävaara district of Espoo, is one of the largest of its kind in the Nordic countries. The centre serves local residents with over 160 shops and restaurants, the busiest library in Espoo, a concert hall, movie theater and a hotel. Sello is also an integral mobility hub in Espoo, situated on the western railway line, bus terminal, the Kehä 1 ring road and highway, in addition to an upcoming light rail line.

The Sello shopping centre is also one of the demo sites in the SPARCS project and therefore is a test bed for new innovations for smart energy solutions and e-mobility. As a part of the site visit, the project team got an introduction to the Sello Virtual Power Plant (VPP) solution by Siemens.  The Sello VPP contains 2500 solar panels, a stationary energy storage solution, and smart automatic control solutions, all of which is connected to Siemens’ electricity demand response services. In addition, the centre is connected to heating demand side management (DSM) by Fortum. Sami Laakso provided an overview of the stationary energy storage solution, while Jani Muhli provided a tour of the solar panels on the roof of the shopping centre.
During the site visit the team also got an introduction to the Sello e-mobility charging system by Joona Töyräs from PlugIT Finland. The system contains both bus chargers for public transport and eV chargers for customers. The Leppävaara charging system is the most significant ensemble of public transport chargers currently in Finland, consisting of 11 chargers in total.

The SPARCS team learned a lot about the Sello site and the project demonstrations, and the possibility to see colleagues face to face was an anticipated change for everyone. The team was left eagerly waiting for more visiting opportunities in the future!