Thesis Work – Demand response of heat loads, solar PV, and energy communities at the Church of Sweden.

About the Thesis Work

At the digital energy solutions department we develop Vattenfall’s digital assets that make tomorrow’s energy systems more efficient, flexible, and secure. From decentralized solutions like, batteries, e-mobility, and demand response to automation, secure IT/OT integration, and communications, our team turns innovation into real-world impact, accelerating the transition to fossil freedom.

The Church of Sweden is one of the country’s largest property owners and has already made significant investments in solar energy. A key challenge now is to identify cost-efficient and sustainable heating solutions for its intermittently used historic churches, while meeting ambitious climate goals and maintaining cultural heritage.

This project aims to investigate: 

• How flexible heat loads and demand response strategies can reduce total heating costs while preserving building integrity.
• How energy communities can facilitate collaboration between churches and PV owners, and enable participation in local electricity markets.
• The role of smart control systems and digital platforms in integrating heating flexibility with local renewable generation and price signals.
• How heating flexibility in heating can strengthen local resilience against energy price volatility, grid congestion, and supply disruptions.
• What business models are most viable for property owners to benefit from flexibility services, including revenue stacking from multiple value streams.
• How energy communities can enhance social acceptance, collective climate action, and local engagement with renewable energy.
• How heritage buildings can act as testbeds for innovative flexibility concepts, helping to bridge current knowledge gaps in literature on integrating historic, low-use buildings into future energy systems.

The project aims to develop a simulation model to explore business cases from different perspectives: the property owner, electricity markets, grid constraints, and local communities. This model will help identify pathways for churches and other heritage buildings to become active players in a flexible, resilient, and climate-neutral energy system.

This assignment is for 1 master student.

Your Profile

We are looking for a student who want to work towards fossil freedom and who are about to graduate from their academic studies. You are also someone who identifies with our principles: Active, Open, Positive, and Safety.

• Education – Master of Science in Energy Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science with focus on energy systems or any similar fields.
• Scope – Master thesis with 30 credits.
• Excellent fluency in written and spoken English is a must. Swedish fluency is seen as an advantage.

• Start date: Beginning of spring semester 2026, exact starting date is by agreement.
• Location: Solna or Älvkarleby offices.
• Application – one file containing both your CV and a copy of your transcripts.
• Application deadline: 2026-10-18, the hiring process is ongoing, therefore please apply as soon as possible,
• Contact person and supervisor at Vattenfall: Monica Löf, monica.lof@vattenfall.com.

Diversity and Inclusion – In Everything We Do

We are convinced that heterogeneous teams can outperform homogeneous ones. But we can only unlock the power of diversity when everyone feels included. Read more about our important work on diversity and inclusion at https://careers.vattenfall.com/se/sv/jobba-med-oss/mangfald-inkludering.

About Vattenfall

At Vattenfall, we are determined to enable fossil freedom. To succeed, we must first become fully fossil-free ourselves as one of Europe’s largest energy companies. But that is not enough. To contribute to a fossil-free society, we need to do more than just focus on sustainable energy production.

We believe that enabling fossil freedom requires us to address the challenge from a broader perspective than merely producing energy sustainably.

Join us on the journey towards fossil freedom.

As Vattenfall is part of Sweden’s critical infrastructure, many of our roles are security-classified. This means that, if this position is security-classified, final candidates may be subject to a special security clearance in accordance with the Security Protection Act.

The project is supported by the environmental goals of the Church of Sweden and with the fossilfree purpose of Vattenfall. 

The project is part of the research consortium SOLVE performed together with Högskolan Dalarna (in Borlänge), Karlstad University, Mälardalen University, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) and Uppsala University. 

To enable the fossil freedom that drives society forward – this is our purpose. We are looking for talented students who want to help us on our journey towards fossil freedom. By writing a thesis at Vattenfall, you will have a unique opportunity to contribute to our purpose.