Driving changes in cities
A decision-support tool that helps visualize the impacts of future energy plans
In a nutshell
Energy systems planning
and smart urban solutions
FlexSUS gears municipalities towards reaching their sustainability goals and EU’s desire for Positive Energy Districts in developing a decision support platform that represents the local energy systems within the citys urban infrastructures.
The proposed platform integrates regulatory challenges (existing and anticipated ones) into energy planning that is localised at city level and within districts of each partner city. The cities define the sustainability targets and guide the development of the tool to the needs of the administration and their citizens.
Sustainability targets are not restricted only to CO2 reduction but also cover an array of socio-economic, behavioural and cultural elements that make make modern cities so challenging for energy planning applications.
To address these challenges, the platform is open source and open access, designed to facilitate actions for systems integration and support the uptake of RES including city planners at every step of the process.
What is the solution we propose?
Urban planning decision-support tool for sustainable energy systems
We develop a decision-support platform that will construct a flexible and intelligent tool for the comparison and the analysis of transition scenarios for local energy systems, thereby assisting city planners in acquiring knowledge and taking informed decisions.
The platform consists of several AI algorithms and application categories. It will support not only deep learning, such as recurrent neural networks used for long- and short-term prediction of time series but also evolutionary algorithms and swarm intelligence to solve multi-objective optimization problems. It will map existing energy systems by spatial representations, including all decentralized energy resources (generation, consumption, storage) and the associated energy infrastructure (electricity grid, district heating, etc.).
The data management, energy intelligence, and analytics platform are connected to the energy systems modelling activities in the project that test various transition scenarios and relates to SDGs indicators developed in the project to link cities actions with societal and environmental global goals.
The FlexSUS platform will allow users to model their energy system and their multiple interactions through data analysis combined with energy and system planning expert knowledge. The tool allows the users to set quantified objectives, for example in terms of CO2 reduction, to define their local constraints and to compare the technical, economic and social impacts of various pathways for the sustainable transition. In that way, the decision-support platform will be flexible enough to allow users to define the weightings of different decision criteria that are relevant in their cities and will highlight the best practices on how a city or region can address sustainability and energy issues smartly and efficiently.
Collaborating municipalities
Lyngby-Taarbæk
About LYNGBY-TAARBÆk
A modern city of commerce and knowledge
Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality is located in the north part of the Capital Region. The municipality covers the area of 38.78 km2 and is a home for over 56,000 people. It is the place with an exciting and diverse history that includes development from a rural, agriculture-focused village to a modern, innovative suburban community. The city hosts the UNESCO Hermitage Hunting Lodge and the Great Deer Park. In 2011 Lyngby-Taarbæk started the City of Knowledge and Urban Development initiative, which aimed to attract knowledge-based and innovative businesses, transforming the municipality into a university town, and promoting internationalism, networking, and entrepreneurship. Subsequently, right now Lyngby-Taarbæk is one of the leading university towns in Northern Europe.
Action plan for the energy transition
Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality is dedicated to building a sustainable future in many aspects of people’s life including energy, waste, and water management or environmental policy, simultaneously contributing to achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. By regular updates of series of roadmaps and frameworks, Lyngby-Taarbæk strives to make sure that they are in line with climate adaptation plans and national as well as European regulations.
In 2018, Lyngby-Taarbæk decided to make a 4-year plan, which outlines the major initiatives that will have a primary goal of CO2 reduction. In general, the municipality has a goal of reducing the area’s CO2 emissions by 25% by 2025, compared to 2015, corresponding to 3.6 tonnes of CO2 per citizen. What is more, in 2014 Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality submitted its climate adaptation plan that serves as a detailed blueprint of the municipality’s current climate strategy “Green Light”, which lays down guidelines for adaptation to future climate change challenges.
Actions in Lyngby-Taarbæk Kommune
Energy efficiency
Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality will continue and expand previously introduced initiatives in the field of energy efficiency. The experiences have shown that there might be big CO2 reduction potential in the housing associations and municipality’s buildings. Energy screenings on a large number of buildings have shown that there is an average energy saving potential of 18% associated with electricity consumption and 27% associated with heat consumption. Therefore, the municipality plans to provide a 50% subsidy for Better Housing surveys of housing associations. Additionally, the municipality has prepared an inspiration leaflet with 3 examples of successful renovations in housing associations and together with other partners plans to hold targeted information meetings and fairs.
District heating
District heating is expected to account for the significant share of CO2 reduction in the Lyngby-Taarbæk municipality towards 2025 goals. The savings from already planned projects are estimated to account for around 17% CO2 reduction in 2025 in relation to CO2 reduction on emissions in 2015.
Lyngby-Taarbæk in 2011 decided that the primary goal is to offer DH to as many citizens and companies in the municipality area as possible. Therefore, future expansion of the district heating (DH) network is expected in the near future, providing additional DH supply of 140 GWh per year and resulting in the coverage up to 72 % of the total heat demand. Additionally, Lyngby-Taarbæk is exploring the possibility of utilizing more sustainable local energy supply, including geothermal and surplus heat. What is more, consumers not connected to DH grid will be encouraged to change their gas burners to gas/heat pump hybrid solutions.
Challenges
Lyngby-Taarbæk is a commercial centre for North Sealand and the northern gate to Copenhagen. This leads to increasing housing and traffic density in the city centre, and pollution challenges. The city centre is surrounded by areas with a mix of large single-family houses of various age, quality, and historical value. This calls for detailed local planning in terms of energy and environment
Holbæk
About Holbæk
Holbæk municipality is located in Northwest Zealand. By area, it is one of Denmark’s largest municipalities. Over 71,000 inhabitants live in 18 local areas covering 578.33 km2. Holbæk is a rural municipality, characterized by an exceptional nature and is known for providing great opportunitiesto unfold creativity, being a place where performance, music, and visual arts thrive side by side.
Action plan for the energy transition
Holbæk municipality is working extensively to assure fast and effective sustainable transition. The climate change challenges are addressed as a priority and municipality authorities are striving to reduce the municipality’s climate footprint both as a municipal institution and by entering into a binding, long-lasting collaborations with citizens, companies, and other municipalities.
In January 2020, the Municipal Council set a target to reduce CO2 emissions by 70% by 2030 in compare to 1990, which corresponds to approximately halving the current emissions. Such action undertaken by municipality authorities tends to be ahead of any national and international legislation and indicates the commitment of the community. To achieve the mentioned goal, in 2014 Holbæk municipality adopted the Climate Adaptation Plan, setting the blueprint of sustainability improving actions. Additionally, in May 2020 the Holbæk’s Strategic Energy Plan has been approved, which is a form of an overall framework for short-term and long-term actions towards a more green and sustainable transition.
Actions in Holbæk
Green heat
Although heat supply in Holbæk municipality is mostly dominated by natural gas, it is one of few Danish rural cities with a large district heating network, providing a clear edge for change. In the nearest future, Holbæk municipality aims to start replacing existing heat supply units with renewable energy-based technologies. Primarily, the municipality is interested in wood chip boilers, heat pumps, and solar heat. Consumers without access to a district heating network will be encouraged to replace natural gas boilers with individual heat pumps or hybrid (natural gas boiler combined with heat pump) solutions. Moreover, the biogas production potential in the municipality is calculated at around 100 GWh per year and with efforts made in the implementation of heat pumps, may be able to provide flexibility and meet the bulk of heat demand.
Green electricity
Currently, over 30% of Holbæk municipality comes from local renewable energy sources. Most of this energy is generated with more than 60 wind turbines established in the municipality. Besides, solar cells and natural gas cogeneration plants contribute to the electricity balance. Nevertheless, the municipality investigates the possibilities of increasing the share of renewables. The electricity grid in the area is well developed and no special improvements are needed to connect large wind and solar power plants, which provides a great advantage for decision-makers. Holbæk always takes into account the potential disturbance of neighborhoods, landscapes, and nature by modern wind turbines and large photovoltaic field plants and aims to find the most optimal location for such projects.
Sustainable transportation
The transport sector accounts for around 30% of Holbaek municipality greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore well acknowledged that achieving the 70% target requires a radical transformation of the transport sector. Holbaek municipality shares the opinion that electric vehicles are probably the most prominent and long-term solution in passenger transport. Taking that into account, Holbaek will enhance the popularisation of electric vehicles by ensuring, in collaboration with charging technology providers and electricity companies, a proper charging infrastructure around the municipality. Besides, Holbaek municipality plans to focus on cycling, by promoting electric bicycles and developing of path connections, which combined will help reduce motoring