Smart en City

SmartEnCity - Towards Smart Zero CO2 Cities across Europe

Project aims

  • Implementation of holistic approach in the integrated energy planning of the cities, in the following directions: integrated infrastructure, building renovation, sustainable mobility and ICT; horizontal measures to involve relevant stakeholders (citizens, consumers, producers, industries, utilities);
  • Implementation of complexes of investment measures in the three lighthouse cities;
  • Multiplication of measures in the two follower cities. After analyzing of measures implemented in lighthouse cities, the follower cities decide which ones are suitable for local conditions and include them in their urban development plans.

Project partners:

35 partners, three lighthouse cities – Vitoria Gasteiz (Basque, Spain), Sonderborg (Denmark) and Tartu (Estonia), and two follower cities Asenovgrad (Bulgaria) and Lecce (Italy);

Sofia Energy Centre is a project partner to assist Asenovgrad during project activities

European Union
The project is funded by Horizon 2020 programme of the European union with Grant Agreement No 691883

For more information: SmartEnCity.eu

In-bee

Assessing the intangibles: the socio-economic benefits of energy efficiency, IN-BEE, 2015-2017

European Union

Project Concept:

Improving energy efficiency can deliver a range of benefits to the economy and society. However, energy efficiency programmes are often evaluated only on the basis of achieved energy savings. As a result, the full value of energy efficiency improvements in both national and global economies may be significantly underestimated.

Nevertheless, the recognition of the importance of intangible benefits derived from energy efficiency projects is increasing within the international policy community. At the same time, the role of sub-national actors is being more widely understood: policy, programme and project innovation does not emerge only from national governments. There is an increasing interest in how local authorities, social enterprises, community groups and other ‘middle actors’ can design and implement energy efficiency initiatives.

Given this new understanding of the variety of actors and networks which can deliver energy efficiency, and the important of intangible benefits, new frameworks and tools are needed to record, analyse and communicate the depth and breadth of this activity and its potential for delivering social and economic benefits.

Goals and objectives:

The main goal of the project is to address the topic of energy efficiency and to consider all intangible benefits of improving energy efficiency by adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, combining methods and datasets from cutting edge research in law and economics, humanities and consumer behaviour, regulation and environmental sciences, as well as engineering.

The overall outcome is a set of policy recommendations for the EU and public/private institutions in charge of promoting energy efficiency, competitiveness and environmental and social sustainability.

Specific project objectives will be:

  • exploring the full range of benefits delivered by energy efficiency improvements,
  • taking into account different government levels,
  • assessing a variety of case studies across Europe in order offer evidence-based advice for the design of successful energy efficiency policies and projects,
  • developing a set of tools which allow the energy efficiency players to formulate long-term strategies based on the motorization of past actions in EU countries,
  • involving directly a vast number of stakeholders and sharing best practices,
  • supporting policy makers by bridging the gap with researchers

Participating countries and project partners:

  • UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DEL PIEMONTE ORIENTALE “AMEDEO AVOGADRO” (UPO), Italy
  • Novareckon (NR), Italy
  • Deloitte Advisory, S.L. (DEL), Spain
  • Institute of power engineering (IEN), Poland
  • University of Graz (UNI GRAZ), Austria, Institute of Systems Sciences, Innovation & Sustainability Research
  • Sofia Energy Centre Ltd. (SEC), Bulgaria
  • THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (UOXF), United Kingdom
  • VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Finland
Green Proca

Green Public Procurement in Action, Green ProcA project

ProcA is supported through the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) program.

It runs from March 2014 until August 2016.

European Union

Project Concept:

The main objective of ProcA is the promotion of green public procurement (GPP) among public authorities. The project primarily focusses on signatories of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) addressing GPP in their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP). Furthermore, local authorities that are on the brink of becoming CoM signatory or have other voluntary targets for enhancing energy efficiency or reducing CO2 emissions may also qualify for receiving support in ProcA.

The main elements of ProcA to promote GPP are:

  • GPP information points in the seven participating countries, providing assistance and instructions on how to start and maintain GPP;
  • More than 100 institutional free-of-cost GPP trainings or networking events for procurers;
  • At least 42 GPP lighthouse projects in municipalities or other public sector offices;
  • Elaboration of a GPP best practice database;
  • Organization of national GPP awards;
  • Organization of European GPP award.

ProcA will collaborate with national and international network partners of the public sector, for example the Covenant of Mayors Office, communal/city networks or associations, and also e-procurement platforms.

Participating countries and project partners:

  • Berliner Energieagentur GmbH (BEA) – coordinator, Germany
  • Climate Alliance (CA), Germany
  • HAB-749 Mérnöki Tanácsadó Kft., Hungary
  • CONSIP S.p.A., Italy
  • Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA)
  • Bałtycka Agencja Poszanowania Energii SA (BAPE), Poland
  • Energy Center Bratislava (ECB), Slovakia
  • Sofia Energy Centre Ltd. (SEC), Bulgaria
  • Association of Rhodope Municipalities (ARM), Bulgaria
Buy Smart

Buy Smart+ Green Procurement in Europe

Buy Smart+ is supported through the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) program.

It runs from March 2012 until September 2014.

Intelligent Energy Europe

Project Concept:

The main objectives of Buy Smart+ are to consolidate and mainstream green procurement in 7 member states and to transfer the know-how to 8 member states where green procurement is still at an early stage. The main focus will be on energy related technologies.

Buy Smart+ will establish green procurement helpdesks in all 15 countries, delivering in national language consultation, training, good practice, and well-tested tools. The latter include technical guidelines on several product groups (criteria from the GPP toolkit, adapted to each member state), life cycle cost calculation tools, and training material. A wider uptake of green procurement will be achieved through directly consulting and training purchasers. Through assisting pilot projects, a critical mass of successful green procurement cases will be achieved and subsequently communicated broadly.

The major steps are:

  • Green procurement helpdesks providing assistance, know-how and tools in national language;
  • Dedicated training offers in collaboration with national networks for the private and public sector;
  • Twinning approach for effective transfer of know-how to newer member states;
  • Assistance to green procurement pilot projects; addressing of innovative technologies in experienced countries;
  • Monitoring of the green procurement experiences; policy recommendations for the NEEAPs updates in June 2014.

Participating countries and project partners:

  • Berliner Energieagentur GmbH (BEA), Germany
  • Beratungs- und Servicegesellschaft Umwelt mbH (B&SU), Germany
  • Climate Alliance (CA), Germany
  • Cyprus Energy Agency(CEA), Cyprus
  • CONSIP S.p.A., Italy
  • Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA)
  • Energikontor Sydost, Sweden
  • EKODOMA, Latvia
  • Energiaklub, Hungary
  • Energy Research and Modernising Institute, Romania
  • Kaunas Regional Energy Agency, Lithuania
  • North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency, Croatia
  • O.Ö. Energiesparverband, Upper Austria
  • Regional Energy Agency of Central Macedonia, Greece
  • Rhônalpénergie-Environnement, France
  • Seven, Czcheh Republic
  • Sofia Energy Centre Ltd. (SEC), Bulgaria
  • ZRMK, Slovenia