Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SMARTER TOGETHER (Smart and Inclusive Solutions for a Better Life in Urban Districts)

Teaser

Sustainable development builds on people in integrated, inclusive societies that develop in partnership and foster dialogue among all parties – being ‘smarter together’. It equally builds on modern technologies and constant innovation as key ingredient at the service of...

Summary

Sustainable development builds on people in integrated, inclusive societies that develop in partnership and foster dialogue among all parties – being ‘smarter together’. It equally builds on modern technologies and constant innovation as key ingredient at the service of people, societal development and economic transformation. SMARTER TOGETHER shares this fundamental values and philosophy and brings together the European Lighthouse cities Lyon, Munich and Vienna as well as the Follower cities Santiago de Compostela, Sofia and Venice. With Kyiv and Yokohama also two observer cities are on board and bring in the perspective of cities from East Europe and Asia.
SMARTER TOGETHER’s overarching vision is to find the right balance between smart technologies on the one hand and organisational and governance dimensions on the other in order to deliver smart and inclusive solutions and to improve citizen’s quality of life.

“The idea of smart cities is intriguing – but a lot of that smartness will emerge as a side effect of the changing everyday behaviors of citizens. … When citizens turn smart, so will the cities they inhabit” (Ericsson ConsumerLab : 10 hot consumer trends 2015).

SMARTER TOGETHER will deliver 5 clusters of co-created and replicable integrated smart solutions: (1) Living labs for citizen engagement, (2) Holistic refurbishment for low energy districts addressing public as well as private housing, (3) District heating and renewable energies for low energy districts, (4) Smart Data management platform and smart services for integrated infrastructures and (5) E-mobility solutions for sustainable mobility.
The demonstrations in the three Lighthouse cities are stimulated by local Urban Living Labs and are embedded in substantial collective cross-cities peer-to-peer learning, and intensive replication and dissemination efforts to maximize the project’s impacts.

The proposed solutions are expected to result in:
â–ª > 151 800 m2 of refurbished housing estate, mostly social housing, with an energy and CO2 reduction of > 50%;
â–ª 14,6 MW of newly installed renewable capacity in the districts;
▪ 10 to 15 new e-mobility solutions – for passengers as well as freight,
â–ª An overall CO2 reduction of > 60 %
â–ª 130 million EUR investments in the Lighthouse areas
â–ª Creating 1,400 new jobs only from the investments in the buildings sector.

All deployed with support of integrated ICT solutions and in dialogue with the tenants and residents.

Work performed

The first 42 months of SMARTER TOGETHER have been dedicated to the following activities:

â–ª Setting up the transversal tools and activities to provide the framework, knowledge base, management tools and peer-to-peer exchange process (WP1-2-10).
Main achievements are : i) the Project Wiki gathering all best practices and thematic recommendations on key topics for smart cities (WP1); ii) the design of Knowledge Carrier and thematic Project books (WP2) gathering and visually displaying the knowledge produced on the smart city solutions implemented ; iii) ; viii) the tools and procedures for overall project management and the collaboration between the LightHouse City Projects.(WP10).

â–ª Preparing and rolling out the implementation activities scheduled in demonstration workpackages (WP3-4-5). The focus has been made on creating the proper conditions to secure all the operations foreseen in each WP. The consortium has been able to engage the implementation of most of demonstration activities foreseen in each thematic task (citizen engagement, low-energy district, integrated infrastructure and services, sustainable mobility, monitoring and evaluation, preparation of replication phase).
Main achievements are : i) the reaching of over 30000 citizens with 22 co-creation activities, ii) the commitment of about 91% of the expected stock of m² to refurbishment projects and delivery of 8 refurbished buildings, iii) the connection of over +150% of the promised m² to the district heating systems and the implementation of smart energy infrastructure leading towards +20% of targeted supplementary RES installed capacity, iv) the commissioning of Interoperable, non-vendor lock-in ICT platforms in all three LHC (successful public-private partner cooperation in Lyon and Munich, open-source FIWARE-based platform in Vienna) and the signature of data-sharing agreements with providers; v) the deployment of 112% of the e-vehicles and nearly 135% of promised charging stations generating consequent reduction of CO2 emission.

▪ Preparing the monitoring and evaluation, engaging the replication process, disseminating and communicating the results of the project (WP6-7-8-9). Particularly, the monitoring infrastructure is up and working in LHC, collecting live data and integrating it in data platforms. The Follower cities have developped their Integrated Replication Strategies and are ready to roll out over 160 M€ of investments in smart city solutions and infrastructure.
Main achievements: i) the common set of KPI for monitoring and process evaluation & Data Management Plan (WP6), ii) Replication Strategies in all Follower cities (WP7); iii) Replication Frameworks in Lighthouse cities, business models guidelines, standardization of two co-created solutions and participation in the Club of cities (WP8); iv) communication tools and activities and intense dissemination of results (WP9); v) development of an Exploitation plan.

Final results

So far, we are on line with our key objectives.

LARGE SCALE DEMONSTRATION: Refurbishment works are well advanced with 91% of the expected stock of m² to be refurbished already secured, including a diverse building portfolio in terms of ownership, use and age. New buildings are still expected to join the portfolio.

USER-CENTRIC INNOVATION: The full association of all stakeholders has been achieved thanks to the three Urban Living Labs. Co-creation activities with the population have been extremely productive, delivering promising results in terms of best practices and insights on citizen participation, co-creation, user-centric business model, etc. The citizen engagement and user-centric approach will be a corner stone of our replication strategy.

LOW ENERGY DISTRICT APPROACH: Implementation of PV systems in the three lighthouse cities is now reaching 600% of the RES capacity targeted with 92 MW to be produced.

NEXT GENERATION DISTRICT HEATING: The three cities have the objectives to use their district heating systems as providers of renewable energy sources (wood, geothermal, solar thermal). Smart energy infrastructures have been implemented (district heating and electric grid) in Lyon, a new geothermal based heating plant is connected to the local district heating system in Munich, an alternative data center is ongoing in Vienna.

CITIZEN-ORIENTED DATA PLATFORMS: Our approach to develop 3 dataplatform led by the cities as the trustworthy partner will likely give rise to a multi-stakholder governance approach (players will be more willing to handover data if they trust the intermediary) and to new services based on the combinations of data not available so far and targeting citizens, cities department (energy efficiency, monitoring etc.).

E-MOBILITY INTEGRATION: The deployment of mobility services is almost finalized in the three cities, reaching 112% of the e-vehicles and over 135% of the charging stations targeted.

Website & more info

More info: http://smarter-together.eu/.