Author: ISOCARP Institute

Smolyan Joins ‘Partnership for Adaptation to Climate Change’

Posted on October 29, 2021 by - News

Smolyan is about to sign the contract for project “Partnership for Adaptation to Climate Change” which has been approved by the Environment Protection and Climate Change Programme of the EEA Financial Mechanism. In this project Smolyan has formed a partnership with 3 other Bulgarian municipalities – Asenovgrad, Svilengrad and Krushari, the Pleiades Bulgaria Ltd – a company working as a strategic engineering consultant in various areas where energy efficiency occupies a leading place in the activities and a partner from the donor state – NTNU, the University for Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, with the Faculty for Architecture and Design. 

The project addresses the requirement for continuous training, improvement and increase of the capacity of the local authorities to develop and implement plans and programs for adaptation to climate change and to introduce specific measures, leading to direct reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, as a direct link to EU targets for Climate Neutral Europe and for climate-adapted cities and communities. Sustainable municipal energy planning and management is undoubtedly the most adequate approach that local authorities can take in order to make optimal use of available resources, attract private funding and avoid common mistakes, thus supporting the effective implementation of European policies and engaging local communities in active energy and climate action. The project will provide for the full understanding of the functions and roles of municipalities in relation to energy: the municipality as an energy consumer, as a producer and supplier of energy, as a regulator and investor in the local energy sector, as a motivator. 

Smolyan is the lead partner and has included two demonstration buildings (preselected in Demonstration Areas of the +CityxChange project) for installing additional renewable energy units for production of electricity, located on the roof of the building of the city Sports Hall and combined installation for production of electricity and heat from renewable energy unit (PVt), on the roof of the building of the city Swimming Pool. The produced energy will be used at the place of production (for own needs), which will reduce the energy consumption of the specific building, thus increasing its energy independence. Alongside these installations, a pilot intelligent energy-monitoring system will be introduced. The Smart Center for intelligent energy monitoring and management will combine individual management modules in a complex Web-based environment. 

For the city of Smolyan this project provides for progressing towards its aim to achieve innovation at the building level, leading to the energy transformation with the innovative Positive Energy Districts concept. The knowledge and skills needed for planning and design, implementation and monitoring, as well as the replication and integration of positive energy regions are increasing and the local authorities play a key role in this process. The partnership with NTNU, with its exceptional knowledge and contribution to the initiative and the concept of creating Positive Energy Areas in Europe, will help for spreading the knowledge and good practice among the Bulgarian partners in this project, to get acquainted with the concept of PED and what is needed to achieve this goal. 

The project also brings together two Bulgarian Municipalities that are follower cities in two different Horizon 2020, SCC projects – Smolyan in the +CityxChange project and Asenovgrad in the SmartEnCity project. Smolyan has also become a member of the city-based network established under SmartEnCity project (smartencitynetwork.eu) which comprises of more than 60 cities all around Europe which are conscious about their sustainability and work together towards carbon neutrality in the long run. 

D5.9: Playbook of regulatory recommendations for enabling new energy systems

Posted on October 27, 2021 by -

The deliverable D5.9: Playbook of regulatory recommendations for enabling new energy systems was submitted by Trondheim Kommune (TK) and Powel (POW), with contributions from TE, NTNU, and ISOCARP in October 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

” In the +CityxChange project we have designed, described and demonstrated local markets in principle based on a wide range of lessons learned from the existing European power market, and documented in several +CityxChange deliverables. An important area is mapping of the existing regulatory framework and how this is influencing the power market roles both in a global and local market set-up (Bertelsen, Livik and Myrstad 2019). This report discusses in detail how regulatory issues premise the development of a PEB/PED (Positive Energy Block/District) focused on the Trondheim, Norway case, but with application on the EU level. The dispensation applications for the local demonstrations, which ask for permissions to demonstrate local energy markets in a way that strengthens the incentives to develop and operate PEB/PED, are the outcome of the discussion with the national regulator for Norway. The dialogue and applications are done with a post-energy transition understanding as guidelines. An energy system approach and understanding was addressed in the dialogue. This was a prerequisite to understand the determining factor a renewed regulatory framework represents in the green transition.

To fully cover all local energy system issues and market actions, a methodology was chosen that decomposed the energy system operation in a list of simplified actions. The issues and actions were then analysed and recommendations were given for changes of the regulatory framework. 

Key issues discussed in detail are the fast growth of installed distributed renewable energy resources, energy/capacity storage, and customers’ flexibilities. In addition it is analysed how the existing power market construction with roles and actions could – and should – be transformed to markets tailored to serve all local renewables and flexibilities. Regulatory barriers that may stop and slow down the energy transition are identified. As a result, the +CityxChange project in Trondheim has applied to the regulator for dispensations from existing Norwegian rules regarding market operation and settlement/accounting.

The process to overcome regulation obstacles is managed stepwise and ends with the realisation of the PEB/PED. The process has been supported by a joint understanding of what will be the situation in a post-energy transition phase (ref. figure 0.1). Using this strategic approach, regulatory barriers have been defined both for the demonstrations and more generally for local energy systems. The barriers are identified as critical both when it comes to investments in renewables and flexibility and to how their value shall be justified in operational phases in a PED/PEB, including local market set-up.”

Energy Urbanity and Active Citizen Participation

Posted on October 25, 2021 by -

Abstract

This paper poses the question: ‘can energy innovation initiatives in Innovation Playgrounds foster a new ‘energy urbanity’ through active citizen participation in the energy transition?’ The concept of ‘Innovation Playgrounds’ and an accompanying Framework are described and linked to implementation evidence of the EU H2020 positive energy research and innovation project +CityxChange, related to emergent active citizen participation in two cities: Limerick, Ireland and Trondheim, Norway. The purpose of the study is to demonstrate that spatially clustered energy innovation initiatives in urban areas involving active citizen participation contribute to a new ‘energy urbanity’ for the energy transition. The research methods are based on a comparative case study approach and close observation of two case sites, with a focus on the ‘Innovation Playground’ area of each city. The article’s three main conclusions are: that a Framework approach to active citizen participation in energy innovation initiatives in urban areas facilitates new models of active citizen and community participation around energy innovation; emergent active citizen participation in energy innovation initiatives in urban areas suggests a new type of engagement that is information-rich, blended, action-led, citizen-focused, and spatial; and that a new paradigm of ‘energy urbanity’ for the energy transition can be proposed.

Year: 2021

Authors: Alan Mee, Madeleine Lyes and Philip Crowe

Publisher: MDPI – Energies

4th +CityxChange Consortium Meeting

Posted on October 18, 2021 by - News

October 18-27th, 2021

On the 18th of October, the +CityxChange project kicked off its fourth consortium meeting. This time, the consortium meeting will be held over 1.5 weeks with a series of smaller sessions to share project updates and hearing the challenges and key learnings from each city. The meeting brings together all project partners including Lighthouse and Follower Cities.  

The project is heading into its fourth year of the five-year project and focusing on the finalization and replication phase. With over 69 deliverables submitted and a significant number of milestones achieved, the project team is proud of the ongoing dedication and commitment, especially under extra-ordinary conditions over the last year and a half. 

Over the 1.5 weeks, the project partners across Europe were immersed in fruitful sessions online, each one led by Follower and Lighthouse Cities. The results and outcomes shared by the cities included news on deployment, citizen engagement and replication efforts within their respective demonstration areas, Positive Energy Blocks and Districts. Furthermore, some sessions included an interactive storytelling workshop surrounding topics of Youth Engagement, Sustainable Energy Transition, E-Mobility and generally disseminating the activation of various projects in an engaging way.

This moment also became an opportunity for cross-learning and exchange throughout the sessions, where city partners and other project members discussed common challenges faced as well as commended each other for their success. Despite the challenges and barriers posed by the global health pandemic, the project team celebrated the various achievements of the FCs and LHCs and reflected on how to move toward the future in a positive, smart and inclusive way.

+CityxChange Participates in Sustainable Places 2021 in Rome

Posted on September 14, 2021 by - News

The involvement of citizens and energy communities (energy citizenship) is seen as a key pillar in the energy transition. Citizens interact with the technical energy systems; they are both subject and object of social innovation in the energy society and are emerging economic actors in the energy markets. However, how to design and optimize energy policies that enable all citizens to take an active role in accelerating the energy transition, is still unclear. Also, the assessment of the potential impacts of energy citizenship and how to design and optimize energy policies that enable all citizens to take an active role in accelerating the energy transition, are still under defined.

The workshop aims at presenting and discussing the methods, strategies and expected impacts for citizen engagement applied in six different research and innovation projects in the area of Positive Energy districts. The workshop aims at finding a common definition of energy citizenship and explore how important citizen engagement really is for the success of new energy concepts. Also discussed will be the question of how to assess and compare the impact of citizen engagement strategies across projects. The six participating projects are: ATELIER, +CityxChange, ENERGE , MakingCity, mySmartLife and Pocityf. Check the Sustainable Places website for the exact date and time and for registration: https://www.sustainableplaces.eu/

D5.2: +Trondheim DST including training manuals/videos

Posted on September 2, 2021 by -

The deliverable D5.2: +Trondheim DST including training manuals/videos was submitted by Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES), with contributions from TK in August 2021. The executive summary of the deliverable is available below and the full deliverable at the end for download:

” This document represents the work completed as part of Task 5.1 ‘Creating the Integrated Baseline Model for Energy/Mobility/Socio-Economic Trondheim’, and as such the task has applied the Decision Support Tool (DST) developed in WP1 (D1.4: Demonstration of the +CityxChange Integrated Modeling Platform) to the Trondheim demo area in the project.

Data was collected relating to the energy performance, demand and supply of 2,818 buildings for the demo district “Knowledge Axis”. These buildings were then simulated in the DST to produce an energy demand baseline for the demo area, and a much more detailed ‘Digital Twin’ model was created for the Sluppen PEB demo area and its buildings in terms of both demand and supply. As well as this, socio economic data for Trondheim was imported into the DST from the latest census results to form a socio economic baseline that will allow future modelling of energy demand/supply changes to be viewed from a socio economic point of view.

In order to demonstrate the functionality of the software, potential energy reduction interventions were applied for the PEB to show how energy demand could be reduced by improving the efficiency of the buildings. Renewable systems (PVs) were also modelled to demonstrate the potential for local supply and energy sharing between buildings to move the PEB towards net zero emissions. Other local generation such as heat pumps is currently under discussion and is therefore not modeled here.

An initial demonstration of the results and training session for relevant people in Trondheim was conducted, and further sessions are planned to ensure Trondheim Kommune can operate and leverage the DST for themselves. The recently developed Online PEB Design Workflow will now act as the main training vehicle to enable this to occur.

Following the training sessions, work is initiated on how to display and make use of the model and DST at screens/interactive screens on the citizen observatories (T5.3) and innovation playgrounds/labs (T5.5), and how TK can make use of the model/DST as a tool and enabler in activities, workshops, and events at the innovation playgrounds. Modelling agreed RES and efficiency interventions and definition of what-if scenarios for use in the shaping of a revised Bold City Vision has not started. Details are discussed in the conclusion. “

Positive Cities and Distribution Grids (PCDG)

Posted on August 31, 2021 by - DBEP Learning and Education Portfolio

The deployment of distributed energy generation technologies, especially solar photovoltaic energy production, has turned regular consumers into active contributors to the local supply of electricity. This development, along with the digitalisation of power distribution grids (smart grids) are setting the scene for a new paradigm: peer-to-peer electricity trading and the emergence of local flexibility markets. Microgrids, small communities or individual buildings can become net positive producers. This has led to the creation of multiple mathematical models and simulation environments to represent the interactions of positive buildings and distribution grids. In this regard, the Positive Cities and Distribution Grids (PCDG) model provides a user-friendly window to analyse the end-user benefits on engaging in peer-to-peer trade, the role of battery storage, allowing to showcase and quantify P2P trade benefits among buildings, and to analyse the overall benefit for the community. NTNU has developed an app that allows the user to analyse one’s district energy trade, as well as investigate the economic benefits of investing in renewable power generation for their own home. To use the app, the users will need some data about the district they live in, specifically the energy demand of each building over a particular time period and the energy price over the respective period. Additionally, the user can specify if any buildings have solar panels or wind turbines installed, as well as the amount of power generated over the particular period. Batteries may also be included in the configuration. The app was launched in November 2020.

Training-Through-Research

Posted on August 31, 2021 by - DBEP Learning and Education Portfolio

This is an ongoing activity that is part of the facility management and civil engineering education programme for bachelor and master level students at NTNU in Trondheim. Every year, a group of approximately 20 students are tasked to find out about citizens’ attitudes towards making investments in sustainable refurbishments, the motivations and rationales behind their thinking. The students are sent into the field to practice quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques through surveys, interviews and observations, and present findings in presentations, playbooks, etc. Students build upon the material and knowledge gained from specific districts in each iteration of the study. The results are communicated to various stakeholder groups,  including facility managers and municipality.

Innovation Camp for Ninth Graders

Posted on August 31, 2021 by - DBEP Learning and Education Portfolio

Trondheim Kommune organised a four-day ideation camp for youth in November 2019, with an introduction to smart city development and smart mobility. The students were challenged to develop their own smart mobility concepts, connecting them to the Sustainable Development Goals, and to develop a business plan for the idea. Mentors were present to support the students for the duration of the camp. A competition was held at the end of the week, with public voting and judges from public and private organisations, and constituted a community event for the area.

Nordic Edge Next Generation

Posted on August 31, 2021 by - DBEP Learning and Education Portfolio

A one-day youth conference was held in November 2019, in the organisation of Trondheim Kommune, together with Nordic Edge, YMCA Global and other actors involved in youth activities in Trondheim and Norway, with the purpose of bringing young people together to discuss topics related to smart cities and sustainable development. Representatives from Limerick City and County Council, as well as from Stavanger, Bodø, Oslo, Accra took part in the event.

The conference included a full day programme, consisting of lectures, a show and tell session, sustainability games and a co-creation workshop. The participants discussed the challenges of behaviour change to support a more sustainable future, co-creating solutions among themselves and in groups where youth and adults were mixed. As a result, the young participants gave their take on what the cities and the government should do to give young people a seat at the table when discussing sustainability. Approximately 80 people were involved.