European Energy
Research Alliance

EERA catalyses European energy research
for a climate-neutral society by 2050

Our work programme 2018 - 2021

 

 

 

About us – Work program

Since its creation eight years ago, the EERA Joint Programme Smart Cities and its participating institutions have contributed significantly to research and innovation in smart cities. The main objective is to develop strong research and innovation for smart planning, design and operation of urban energy systems, firmly integrated with cities’ social, cultural, innovation, economic, regulatory and legal perspectives, to achieve the SET-Plan highly ambitious target of developing 100 Smart Positive Energy Districts in Europe by 2025 (Action 3.2)

100 Positive Energy Districts by 2025 – 5 modules:

  • Module 1 Towards European Positive Energy Cities (Lead: VTT & TNO)
  • Module 2 PED Labs (Lead: LNEG)
  • Module 3 PED Guides & Tools (Lead: Fraunhofer ISE)
  • Module 4 PED Replication & Mainstreaming (Lead: CVUT & ENEA)
  • Module 5 Monitoring and Evaluation (Lead: AIT)

Expert pool:

  • SP1 Energy in cities (Coordinator: VTT)
  • SP2 Urban energy networks (Coordinator: ENEA)
  • SP3 Energy-efficient interactive buildings (Coordinator: LNEG)
  • SP4 Urban city -related supply technologies (Coordinator: NTNU)

 

 

EERA JPSC MAPPING: Positive Energy Districts and Neighbourhoods

The Implementation Plan of the Smart Cities Working Group of the European SET-Plan is lead by JPI Urban Europe. The EERA JPSC is represented in this Implementation Working Group (IWG) and coordinating the mapping of PED Definition, PED Tools, PED Indicators and National Pilot projects among others. Our role is to Define, plan and orchestrate required RDI to move from Positive Energy Districts to Cities and this will be done in close cooperation with other initiatives, like JPI UE, SCIS, UERA, EUA-EPUE, EUREC and others.

The PED Tools & Guidelines mapping now also contains Social tools;

  • Social tools can be categorized in their aim: citizen engagement, governance, spatial planning/integration, learning/upscaling, decision making, financial, social acceptance
  • Typology/framework of social tools can be based on different elements/basic features:
    • Use: Design/communicate/financial/political
    • Target group: local authorities, citizens, asset managers
    • Phase of the PED development: Planning/realization/monitoring

Strategic Research Agenda of the EERA Joint Programme Smart Cities:

Define, plan and orchestrate the research required to create Positive Energy Districts (PEDs), and to scale up towards
Positive Energy Cities (PECs), in a c oncerted effort between 44 European RTOs and universities from 17 countries

What are PEDS? Propose review/validate PED definition(s), KPIs & boundary conditions.

What are PED Labs? Protocols for testing, monitoring and evaluating PED Labs

How do we create, manage & fund them? Develop a toolbox of planning instruments for PEDs, including data and
metrics, planning and design, and investment and business models

How do we monitor them? Create, collect, qualify, compare analyse data from the 100 European PEDs

Why aren’t there more PEDs already? Identify document barriers, challenges & opportunities in existing PED
projects. What are the main causal mechanisms that either enable or inhibit successful diffusion of PED innovation,
systems, or policies, & how can PED innovations be scaled up both within the EU and beyond

How do we scale up towards Positive Energy Cities? How to take into account the diversity of cities in terms of size,
geography, demographics, climate, infrastructure, economic context etc ? What is required in terms of urban design &
planning, investment & risk models, citizen empowerment, collaborative governance, impact assessment,… ?