Establishing a baseline for developing site-specific solutions
How to refine the local energy Master Plans or SEAPs by developing site-specific solutions? Within the SINFONIA project, a method for elaborating the urban energy Master Plans or SEAPs, has been developed (SINFONIA, 2016). Each city is a unique combination of economic, social, environmental, and institutional conditions, what results in various needs, priorities, and capacities for Smart Energy City development, while the transition to a Smart Energy City is a complex process involving many different stakeholders. The method helps to construct a baseline of local knowledge that can support the definition of site-specific innovative solutions and stimulates the adoption of best practices when elaborating the local energy Master Plans. The development towards a Smart Energy City is a site-specific, continuous transition towards sustainability, self-sufficiency and resilience of energy systems. Accessibility, affordability and adequacy of energy services must be ensured through optimised integration of energy conservation, energy efficiency and local renewable energy sources.
The methodology features a combination of energy technologies with information and communication technologies, which enables integration of multiple domains and enforces collaboration of multiple stakeholders, while ensuring sustainability of its measures. The elaboration of local energy Master Plans brings with it a continuous flow of information among the relevant stakeholders, and between them and the city administration. The setup of such a “information sharing system” can be considered as one of the preconditions for a successful implementation of a Smart Energy City transition. Bolzano and Innsbruck have been chosen as demo cases for testing the proposed method.
The aim of the “Refinement of the local Master Plans” in these pilot cities is twofold. Firstly, as the masterplans of the two cities were established in 2009 respectively 2007, it is essential to gather detailed inventories of current energy consumptions - based on 2014/2015 data - in order to have an up to date baseline upon which to evaluate the improvements of the SINFONIA demonstration measures. Secondly, it is essential also to determine the influence of the demonstration measures on the chosen project goals in the view of the transition to Smart Energy Cities. For this reason, a structure and a list of variables, as well as the sources available to gather the information, are given. To obtain a sound baseline, the following data should be considered in the calculation of the baseline and monitoring of progress:
- Energy consumption data
- Energy production data
- Boundaries and general context data
- System components data
- Framework data
- Data for monitoring
- Meteorological data
- Data about renewable energy potential production
- Data about energy saving potential#
- Additional data on the evolution of framework conditions
Of course, these are the ideal input data in theory for calculating a baseline in urban environment or, as in the demo cities, at district level. However, the process highlights that access to the data is a very complex task. For example, in Bolzano and Innsbruck the experience was that some of the data were simply unavailable and some could not be retrieved due to data protection laws. Therefore, the theoretically perfect baseline is hard to achieve. This does not mean that the results are unreliable, but rather that it is hard to obtain all the data needed in a short time-frame. The method is structured and explained in such a way that Early Adopter Cities and all European cities can understand and replicate it to create baselines which help to promote the transition to smart energy urban environments and are able to stimulate the adoption of site-specific best practices.