Bachelor and Master Theses

Project background

Municipalities are increasingly exploring decentralized energy solutions to improve energy resilience, reduce operational costs, and support the transition towards sustainable and circular energy systems. One promising approach is the development of Resilient Municipal Energy Hubs, where Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS), renewable energy sources, and digital energy management solutions are integrated to support municipal operations and critical public services.

In Eskilstuna Municipality, such energy hubs could support different municipal applications, particularly municipal buildings and electric vehicles used in elderly healthcare services. Municipal buildings, including elderly care facilities, schools, and other public infrastructure, require reliable electricity to maintain essential operations. At the same time, electric vehicles used for elderly healthcare services introduce additional charging demands and opportunities for coordinated energy management. Integrating these applications through local energy hubs could improve energy flexibility, optimize energy use, reduce electricity costs, and strengthen resilience during grid disturbances.

Both new and second-life batteries could play important roles in these energy hubs. In particular, second-life batteries repurposed from electric vehicles offer opportunities to extend battery lifetimes while supporting stationary energy storage applications. However, implementing such solutions requires collaboration among multiple actors, including municipalities, battery manufacturers, battery assessment and repurposing providers, energy service providers, digital platform providers, grid operators, and energy market actors.

Despite these opportunities, there is limited understanding of how municipal energy hub ecosystems should be configured, which business models are economically and operationally viable, and what risks need to be addressed. Questions concerning asset ownership, stakeholder responsibilities, energy service agreements, investment and operational costs, battery performance, safety, and regulatory requirements are particularly important. Therefore, mapping the ecosystem, identifying potential business model configurations, and assessing associated risks are essential steps towards developing viable and resilient municipal energy hubs.

Purpose of the thesis work

The purpose of this thesis is to map and analyse the ecosystem of resilient municipal energy hubs and explore suitable business model configurations and associated risks, focusing on the integration of battery energy storage solutions for municipal buildings and electric vehicles used in elderly healthcare services in Eskilstuna Municipality.

Research Questions

RQ1. How can the ecosystem and business model configurations for resilient municipal energy hubs be structured to support municipal buildings and electric vehicles used in elderly healthcare services?

RQ2. What are the key risks and enabling conditions influencing the implementation of these business model configurations?

Research setting and research group 

The thesis will be conducted within the research project, SmartCharg (Smart and Circular Battery Charging Solutions), together with Eskilstuna Municipality and with other actors in the project. This thesis will be part of the research group DigiCircle (Digital and Circular Industrial Services). You can read more about the project and the group on MDU webpage.

Education in one of these areas (Industrial engineering and management, product development, innovation management, business management, product and process development, energy engineering and management) and familiar with circular economy and business models.

Eskilstuna Municipality