Arendalsuka: Time to Talk Energy and Politics

For 5 days in mid-August, the city of Arendal on the southern coast of Norway will host thousands of visitors from across the county. Inspired by Sweden’s democracy festival Almedalsveckan, Arendalsuka is the largest political gathering in Norway.

Ever since the summer of 2012 (with the exception of last summer), Arendalsuka has inspired civic engagement through debates with political and business leaders. In 2019, visitors could join in more than 1200 events.

This year, Volue will contribute to a debate that is at the core of our mission: the green energy transition. This debate is important to us because the transformation of industries requires not only advanced technology but political will and new regulations.

At the Volue-organized event, we will discuss the hot topic of distributed energy resources and flexibility.

Among the panellists are Terje Aasland, Business Policy, Arbeiderpartiet, Lars Andreas Lunde, Business Policy & Ministry of Trade and Industry Secretary, Høyre, Gunnar G. Løvås, Konserndirektør System og marked, Statnett, Svein Kvernstuen, CEO, Beyonder, Morten Henriksen, EVP, Arendals Fossekompani, and Kjetil Storset, Distributed Energy Resources Lead, Volue.

Trond Straume, Chief Executive Officer of Volue, will hold the opening speech and Ingeborg Gjærum, Chief Strategy Officer of Volue, will moderate the panel discussion.

We’ll talk about the decentralisation of power production, consumers turning into prosumers, the new consumption patterns because of electrification (especially through electric vehicles), and energy trading times moving from days to hours to seconds.

Balancing the increased volatility of energy production, consumption and trading require new levels of process automation, incremental use of data, and innovative, smart software systems. It also requires new regulations.

We believe that Norway can lead the way in terms of both technology and politics.

Arendal: a Volue home base

Arendalsuka is important to us also because a great deal of the green technology we create today is developed in Arendal.

It all started with Arendals Fossekompani, the majority shareholder in Volue, more than a century ago.

Historically, the focus of Volue’s founding companies was on hydropower, the most complex power source when it comes to energy optimisation. From hydropower, our solutions expanded to thermal, solar, wind and batteries.

Out of Arendal, the team at Volue Insight develops software that translates weather into energy and presents scenarios to help customers manage trading risks. The tools provide best in class real-time data and forecasts, as well as market analysis for the next 15 minutes, 30 years, and beyond.

At the same time, through cutting edge technology, machine learning, and algorithms Market Services optimize your assets and reduce risk in the financial and physical power market.

Also in Arendal, we build some of our network information systems for the power grid, real-time grid operation support, and mobile solutions.

Our Industrial IoT division develops advanced and reliable sensors, instrumentation and communication solutions that provide valuable data to customers ranging from renewable energy to traffic and offshore.

See you in Arendal!