Author: ISOCARP Institute

Trondheim selected as one of the EU Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030!

Posted on May 9, 2022 by - News

Trondheim is among the cities that the EU Cities Mission has selected for its major programme “100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030”. This underscores Trondheim’s ambitions and activities towards becoming climate neutral by 2030 as an EU Mission City.

The EU Mission has selected 100 cities within the EU and 12 cities outside the EU. Overall 3 cities in Norway were chosen, namely Trondheim, Oslo, and Stavanger.

“Our urban areas are home to 75% of EU citizens. Globally, urban areas consume over 65% of the world’s energy, accounting for more than 70% of CO2 emissions. It is therefore important that cities act as experimentation and innovation ecosystems to help all others in their transition to become climate-neutral by 2050.”

The idea is that the 100 + 12 cities selected will lead the way and accelerate emission reduction by 2030 so that all European cities can become climate neutral by 2050.

Congratulations to Trondheim municipality, its Environmental Unit, the project +CityxChange, to Mayor Rita Ottervik, and the Trondheim team.

Now the job starts for all of us together.

 

Click here to find the Cities Mission Factsheet and the EU press release

 
 
 
 
 

D5.13: +Trondheim eMaaS Demonstration

Posted on May 3, 2022 by -

The deliverable D5.13: +Trondheim eMaaS Demonstration was submitted by Avis Budget Group (ABG), Trondheim Kommune (TK),  AtB, and FourC AS (4C) with contributions from NTNU, TK, ABB, TE, 4C, and Volue/POW in April 2022. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable is at the end for download:

“This report describes and details:

● The implementation of the +CityxChange demo project Seamless eMobility including an eMaaS scheme with V2G integration in Trondheim
● The different actors involved, their roles and responsibilities, vehicles deployed, and mobility options integrated
● The wide array of agreements needed for implementing a scheme like this, the full mobility solution deployed
● Scaling and replication on a short and longer time scale
● Important experiences and learning points

The EV sharing scheme with EVs utilising V2G charging part of the Seamless eMobility demonstrator is a core and innovative part of the whole +CityxChange project in Trondheim. It connects in addition the mobility co-project with all energy projects (PEB, Local Flexibility Market, Deployment of the Energy Trading Platform). Discharging of the EVs will contribute with energy, capacity, and flexibility to the local markets and PEBs at Sluppen and Brattøra, and the EVs may perform opportunistic charging – when electricity prices are low, and for instance when locally produced electricity is available at favourable prices. The EV batteries will in addition function as local power banks, with both energy (kWh) and
capacity (kW) available for the local buildings and energy consumers (e.g. heat pumps and HVAC systems). Especially for the EV sharing company this may boost the business case, contribute to establishing new business models, and increase the cash flow. When such schemes are scaled up and hubs will include a large number of EVs (as little as 5-10 EVs per
hub with 40-80 kWh battery packages are sufficient), value for the local energy ecosystems and markets will increase largely, of course depending on national frame conditions and legislation on sharing of electricity between individual actors.

Based on the Seamless eMobility system developed by +CityxChange partner FourC1, the backend as well as the frontend was further developed as part of the +CityxChange co-project (Task 5.8) Seamless eMobility to include el-scooters (3 providers), Trondheim City Bike, 2 more car sharing actors in addition to ABG, all public transportation in Trøndelag County including ferries and trains – also including national and international train connections, Airport Shuttle Bus, Avis Budget Group rental cars, and taxi (one company). The FourC backend is a functioning MaaS platform as of today, although not a full-scale platform since booking and payment is not included yet. There is a clear goal on developing the platform and extending the functionalities into a full-scale platform.

In order to have a commercially viable frontend and an app with high potential for attracting a large number of users that contribute to move mobility from personal car use to shared, green, and public transportation, a specific brand – Mobee2 – including a brand strategy was developed. The Mobee app displays the mobility modes listed above in realtime around your present location. There are no booking and payment options available in the Mobee app at present; users still need to enter the different providers’ atmospheres in order to book and pay. The Mobee brand is owned and managed by TK. The fact that the municipality and not one of the private partners and actors own the app and brand, has already proven to be a successfactor for the Seamless Mobility scheme. It is a goal to develop the Mobee app further during the project and beyond, including work to include booking and payment integration.

The Seamless eMobility scheme in Trondheim consists of two main solutions: A MaaS solution including a large variety and number of mobility modes, and an EV sharing solution with V2G integration that also serves as an integral part of a local energy and flexibility market. The prevailing development of Mobee and full scale MaaS products are far beyond the original scope and project aims.

Trondheim municipality has recently made 15 shared fleet vehicles available to the public, located in the city centre. The vehicles are integrated and offered over the Mobee app as well. Additional mobility providers and their mobility services and modes will be included in Mobee during the project. These are examples of the continuous scaling and replication that is occuring as part of the Seamless eMobility project, which will extend throughout the course of the project.

A substantial number of actors and companies need to be involved in deploying and operating an EV sharing scheme as set up in Trondheim. Actors in the scheme in Trondheim and their roles, responsibilities, contributions, and the necessary agreements and contracts needed for such a scheme, are described in detail. Involving the local, municipally owned joint stock parking company Trondheim Parking AS and PaaS (Parking as a Service) proved to be important in order to cover all crucial functions and to have a viable scheme, also in commercial terms. Engagement from and involvement of the property owners where the EV sharing hubs were established, was also a successfactor for the project.

At present 7 shared EVs are put into operation – two at Brattøra and 5 at Sluppen, with the remaining 13 expected as part of the local scale-up. Two V2G EV chargers are in operation, one at each of Brattøra and Sluppen, the remaining are smart 1-way chargers. The reduced rollout of EVs is due to the pandemic and uncertain market opportunities. TK and ABG will work continuously to increase the number of shared EVs during the remaining part of the project (until end of 2023). Originally there was a defined geographic zone of which the demonstration project vehicles were to be situated (+CityxChange demonstration district of Knowledge Axis). Due to lack of accessibility to EV chargers, few low cost parking spaces and an immature market in the defined zone, the area was expanded to include the city of Trondheim and the stretch from the city centre up to the TrondheimVærnes Airport.

TK has – together with partners – already started scaling and replication of the mobility project and measures in Trondheim, and will strongly increase these activities in the near future and on a longer time scale. This includes scaling on a local and regional scale with TK at the wheel. Scaling and replication at a national and international scale is an ambition, but then led and driven by commercial partners and actors.”

+CityxChange at High-level Conference on Citizen Engagement in EU Missions

Posted on March 17, 2022 by - News

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Helena Fitzgerald of University of Limerick and CommunityxChange Work Package Lead is attending the High-level Conference on Citizen Engagement in EU Missions taking place on 21 March 2022 in Paris. She will share the CommunityxChange approach to citizen engagement developed through +CityxChange and implemented with +CityxChange lighthouse cities Limerick (Ireland) and Trondheim (Norway); and the municipalities of Alba Iulia (Romania); Pisek (Czech Republic); Võru (Estonia); Smolyan (Bulgaria): and Sestao (Spain).

Early results of CommunityxChange implementation indicate that the integrated operation of the six CommunityxChange frameworks can create a platform for continuing collaboration with the potential to support citizen engagement in co-design, co-implementation and co-assessment of #EUMissions.

CommunityxChange informs the operation of the Citizen Innovation Lab initiated through the +CityxChange project in Limerick. The Citizen Innovation Lab is a member of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) who have a stand at the event.

Here is a brief introduction to the CommunityxChange frameworks which can be downloaded from the +CityxChange knowledge base.

– D3.1: Framework for Bold City Vision, Guidelines, and Incentive Schemes (SDG City Transition Framework) describes a process to create a city vision and to identify goals which place the clean energy transition within the cities’ overarching planning and management processes, all located within a broader UN SDG sustainable development frame. This deliverable, authored by Trondheim Kommune with input from Limerick City and County Council, has been selected for the EU H2020 Innovation Radar Platform. It is structured as six processes including, Standardisation, Policy Development, Innovation Partnerships, Organisational Development, Citizen Engagement and Project Development, to connect the global goals of the SDGs to local policy development placing emphasis on citizen engagement, citizen driven open innovation and business development. 

– D3.2: Delivery of the Citizen Participation Playbook describes how municipalities can engage with communities to enable the transformation towards PEBs, PEDs and positive energy cities. It acts as a roadmap for meaningful engagement and contains best practice guidance on citizen engagement; a catalogue of physical and online engagement tools; and four participatory processes including Co-design of Urban Interventions, Collaborative Legislation, Participatory Budgeting, and Citizen Proposals. 

– D3.3: Framework for Innovation Playgrounds is a spatial and socio-economic framework where physical and virtual places and innovation activities are assembled into a coherent whole described as an Innovation Playground, where Journeys comprising Observation, Sensemaking, Co-Creation, and Prototyping, enable collaboration and empower citizens to innovate to address challenges that matter to them.

– D3.4: Framework for DPEB Learning and Education – includes a set of principles and a dynamic portfolio of activities which integrates youth learning programmes at different age levels with active ageing society programmes.

– D3.5: Framework for a Positive Energy Champion Network is a campaign to initiate a network of people who can help translate the ideas, plans and innovations associated with PEBS and PEDs into local knowledge and actions. The Champions are viewed as co-innovators who explore, ideate, design and diffuse the changes in behaviour needed to enable the transformation towards living, working and doing business in a positive energy city. This campaign includes four campaign formats – Be the Change; Build Capacity for Change; Prototype the Change and Amplify the Change, and a step-by-step guide to implement a campaign. 

– D3.6: Framework for DPEB Innovation Labs is a framework for the implementation of dedicated centres for digital innovation within a city, located physically and conceptually within the +CityxChange Innovation Playground and where its operation can become manifest. A DPEB Innovation Lab comprises a programme of engagement activities and events, and a network of virtual and physical locations connected to a citizen observatory system where citizens can make observations on local environments using mobile digital devices. The DPEB Innovation Lab enables new collaborations between government, academia, business, and civil society to meet the innovation agenda of a city which can be defined through its Bold City Vision process. The DPEB Innovation Lab is a point of intersection of the CommunityxChange frameworks and describes a physical space for innovation and co-creation, connected to a digital space promoting sustainable digitalisation and lowering the threshold to participation.

The CommunityxChange frameworks were developed by +CityxChange partners including University of Limerick (CommunityxChange Lead); Colaborativa.eu, Space Engagers, Officinae Verdi and ISOCARP, collaborating closely with +CityxChange lighthouse cities Limerick (Ireland) and Trondheim (Norway); and with the municipalities of Alba Iulia (Romania); Pisek (Czech Republic); Võru (Estonia); Smolyan (Bulgaria): and Sestao (Spain). The Norwegian University of Science and Technology are the overall co-ordinator of the +CityxChange project.

Energy Citizenship in Positive Energy Districts – Towards a Transdisciplinary Approach to Impact Assessment

Posted on March 3, 2022 by -

Abstract

It is commonly assumed by the projects demonstrating concepts for positive energy districts in cities across Europe that citizens want and need to be involved in the development of these concepts as an essential condition for positive energy districts to be deployed successfully and to achieve the expected societal goals. Six different research and innovation projects are investigating the different forms of energy citizenship in positive energy districts and their impacts. They aim to apply a transdisciplinary approach to collaborative research and to impact assessment. The interim results are described, and preliminary conclusions on impact are drawn. The projects each used different approaches to engaging citizens, while differentiating between different groups. Progress is monitored but only fragmentary evidence on the impact has been gathered. Transdisciplinary approaches are being developed but are still immature.

Year: 2022

Authors: Mark van Wees, Beatriz Pineda Revilla, Helena Fitzgerald, Dirk Ahlers, Natalia Romero, Beril Alpagut, Joke Kort, Cyril Tjahja, Gabi Kaiser, Viktoria Blessing, Lia Patricio, Sander Smit

Publisher: MDPI

Deployment of the Volue Energy Trading Platform

Posted on February 17, 2022 by - News

Excited to share the news on the deployment of the Volue energy trading platform specially designed for local markets!

Trondheim ICT company and +CityxChange partner Volue have developed and now deployed an innovative trading solution for energy, capacity, and system services. The +CxC project’s approach and solutions for establishing local Positive Energy Blocks (PEBs) are more than just obtaining a balance between local energy consumption and production.

In the Trondheim kommune demonstration project, this is in fact more a matter of optimizing available and viable local renewable energy sources in order to scale local PEBs to the district level, with a roadmap for 2050 of obtaining balance between green, local renewable production and optimized utilization of green energy sources – and energy consumption. As such, a viable energy trading platform is highly important in order to obtain PEBs.

 Interested in this tool and its application⁉️ You can find more information on our knowledge-base where you can access the public deliverable on Energy Trading Market Demonstration 

Võru Bold City Vision was approved

Posted on February 9, 2022 by - Cities

Sustainable City of Võru: Vision 2050 

On the 19th January 2022 meeting of the Võru City Council the vision document “Sustainable Võru 2050”, or the Bold City Vision as per CityxChange, was adopted. Vision 2050 is designed with co-funding from Horizon 2020 programme and principles and methodology created in the +CityxChange project. The vision describes how Võru as a municipality and centre of a larger region can assists achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and help to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In this context one possible long-term development scenario was developed that aims for a reasonable balance between the natural environment and urban activities and developing a cohesive community. The vision is compliant with the existing Development Plan of the City of Võru for 2017-2035 and takes into account the economic, social, cultural and natural environment.

More information on the approval of Võru’s Bold City Vision can be found here

D5.5: Energy Trading Market Demonstration

Posted on January 31, 2022 by -

The deliverable D5.5: Energy Trading Market Demonstration was submitted by Volue (formerly Powel/POW) and Trønderenergi (TE) with contributions from NTNU, TK, ABB, SV, 4C, MPOWER, and IOTA in January 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

“This delivery D5.5 in the +CityxChange project describes and details the planning for and deployment of the software solution serving the local energy market which will be demonstrated in Trondheim. The software for market access and trade is developed by Volue (former Powel) and specially customised and innovated to serve the +CityxChange project through the T2.5 task Development of a platform for local trade of energy and flexibility, a work described in the preparatory report D2.7 Local DPEB trading market demonstration tool1. However, for the purpose of setting up a live local energy market, the following building blocks are integrated and included in the solution deployed:

● ABB OPTIMAX® for asset operation.
● Volue Algotrader for market participation.
● Volue Digital Marketplace for market operation.
● IOTA for secure third party data verification to ensure consistency between executed trades and the following settlement.
● TE Operator software for forecasting, flexibility optimization and settlement.


The project’s approach and solutions for establishing local Positive Energy Blocks (PEBs) are more than just obtaining balance between local energy consumption and production. In the
Trondheim demonstration project this is in fact more a matter of optimising available and viable local renewable energy sources in order to scale local PEBs to district level, with a
roadmap for 2050 of obtaining balance between green, local renewable production and optimised utilisation of green energy sources – and energy consumption.

In the demonstration area where the local energy market solution is deployed, a substantial part of the energy available locally is not utilised, and substantial shares of this energy are
available within short time windows only and will be available as a traded product on the local energy market. A scalable and efficient PEB is thus – as Trondheim sees it – dependent
on systems and solutions being able to utilise this flexibility in order to obtain balance between local production/utilisation of renewables and local energy consumption.

The solution is deployed and digitally integrated to become the local energy market system as planned. In addition it is focused on the process of onboarding customers/assets. This
includes training, asset identification and registration – and last, but not least: Agreements between customers and the market operator.

For LHC Trondheim a well functioning local energy and flexibility market developed, owned and operated by energy company Trønderenergi (TE), based on the Volue Energy Trading
Platform (ETP), full integration of all market participants through a Distributed Energy Resource Management System/DERMS (ABB Optimax ®), and secure verification of all
trades through IOTA Tangle, makes up a crucial and integral part of the scalable PEB solution to be deployed.

The Volue ETP, local market solution, and full impact of the market side of the solution is based on open P2P trade of energy resources and products. This is not (yet) allowed today
according to national legislation2 and central parts of the prevailing concession regulations. Further work on the regulatory aspects is described in a separate report D5.9: Playbook of
regulatory recommendations for enabling new energy systems.3 +CityxChange has therefore applied to national regulatory body RME4 for temporary dispensations from national legislation in order to demonstrate the solutions in Trondheim.“

D9.15: Report on attendance at events held by other SCC-01 co-ordinators 6

Posted on January 19, 2022 by -

The deliverable D9.15: Report on attendance at events held by other SCC-01 co-ordinators 6 was submitted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), with contributions from LCCC, TK, MAI, MP, SB, SMO, VORU, and R2M in December 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

“+CityxChange actively pursues synergies with other relevant EU platforms and projects, facilitating collaboration and exchanging good practices.

This series of reports describes the participation and lessons learned by +CityxChange partners in events organised by other SCC projects, the Board of Coordinators and SCALE Secretariat, the Smart Cities Marketplace (SCM), SET-Plan Action 3.2 and the Driving Urban Transitions Partnership, the EERA Joint Programme Smart Cities, and other European networks during the sixth six-month period of the project M31-M36.

This report is Deliverable 9.15 of the +CityxChange Task 9.2 on Extra-Project Cooperation through other SCC01 projects and EU platforms, in Work Package 9 “Inter-Project Collaboration and Clustering”. Some general content is repeated from the previous D9.13, especially on longer-running collaborations and background information. This report complements Deliverable D9.14 “Report on Intra-Project Collaboration Including Study
Visits and Peer to Peer Workshops 6”.“

D9.14: Report on Intra-Project Collaboration Including Study Visits and Peer-to-Peer Workshops 6

Posted on January 19, 2022 by -

The deliverable D9.14: Report on Intra-Project Collaboration Including Study Visits and Peer-to-Peer Workshops 6 was submitted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), with contributions from LCCC, TK, MAI, MP, SB, SMO, and VORU in December 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

“This report provides an overview of the study visits, peer-to-peer workshops, and other intra-project learning activities performed by the Lighthouse and Follower Cities and the other partners in +CityxChange, between 1 May 2021 and 31 October 2021 (M31-36).

These activities form part of Work Package 9 “Inter-Project Collaboration and Clustering”, Task 9.1 “Intra-Project Lighthouse and Follower City Cooperation”. They are designed to address the needs of the participating cities and solution providers in an effective manner, to better align goals and priorities, to promote cross-cultural communication, understanding, and collaboration between the partners, and to speed up the learning process and iteration of results across the entire value chain.

As support to deliver better study visits and peer-to-peer workshops, the deliverable also describes ex-ante/ex-post evaluation of cross-cutting issues within clean energy, open
innovation, gender, socio-economic science and humanities to increase impact and deliver practical recommendations to partners and beyond.

This report (D9.14) is complemented by D9.15: Report on attendance at events held by other SCC-01 co-ordinators 6. Some general content is repeated from the previous D9.12: Report on Intra-Project Collaboration, including study visits and peer-to-peer workshops 5.“

D10.9: Plan for dissemination and exploitation of +CityxChange project results 4

Posted on January 11, 2022 by -

The deliverable D10.9: Plan for dissemination and exploitation of +CityxChange project results 4 was submitted by ISOCARP Institute (ISOCARP), with contributions from MP, MAI, SB, SMO, TK, VORU, NTNU, R2M, and SE in December 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

“This document is a revised version of D10.8: Plan for dissemination and exploitation of +CityxChange project results 3 and its previous versions D10.1 and D10.6, which provides the framework for dissemination and exploitation activities of the +CityxChange project (connected to Task 10.1: Communication and Dissemination Management ). This document is revised annually and supersedes the previous version. It is composed of:

1. The outline of the communication goals;
2. The context in which the goals have to be implemented;
3. The formulation of a strategy and a detailed plan;
4. The organisation, tasks and roles; and
5. The means or delivery channels.

The deliverable provides the updated overall plan, an overview of the communication activities of the first three years, the achieved outreach through different channels, and a compilation of the preparatory internal and external activities which aim at supporting the further process of communicating and disseminating the project and its progress and outcomes.

The purpose of this particular version is to not only to update the various aspects of project’s CDE dimensions and activities, but also reflect on the overall shift, response and adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic and the particular challenges it brought concerning physical interaction and collaboration. In doing so, the updates in the plan reflect on how the CDE adapts to the development of the project results, with its focus on replication and deployment with the recent transition to an increasingly online and virtual world of working and communication.“