Lively collaboration and sound technical delivery hallmarks of latest CITyFiED project meeting

The consortium came together in Istanbul, Turkey late June 2016 to catch up on the latest developments, identify collective challenges and pinpoint future actions. 

Held at nearly the half waypoint of this five-year project and warmly hosted by Istanbul Technical University (ITU), this meeting was a valuable opportunity to assess progress; particularly after a number of deliverables submitted to the European Commission and a technical assessment of year two was recently completed with positive feedback. The demonstration sites are now well advance in their preparation and even in some cases delivery of works set to achieve considerable impacts. Discussions therefore focused on fine-tuning the horizontal actions of monitoring and analysing results across countries, common IT infrastructure, business models, exploitation and cooperation with CITyFIED’s extensive network of cities.

Thematically, the meeting was an opportunity to map and discuss the business models applied at the demonstration sites. Javier Martin of Veolia led the discussions examining energy prices, financing tools and ownership models. Visualisations of the “financing universe” in each was a useful basis to debate sustainable and credible options for projects without European or national funding streams.

Exploitation of products, services, knowledge and intellectual property was another key theme. Working to ensure outputs of the CITyFiED experiences are accessible and generate value was Aude Pélisson-Schecker of Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum (SEZ). Along with partners in dissemination and communication, replication and the entire consortium, they shared plans for a series of information packs to be made available to the project community of interest and beyond. These will be a vital tool to access high-value information, covering non-technical barriers, business models, energy retrofitting and integrated solutions. Bringing all this together will be the central CITyFiED methodology, designed to help cities take better decisions, faster and with less risk.

Working with the project city cluster and community of interest was a final highlight issue of the meeting. Replication lead partner IVL, supported by technical experts and local contact organisations within the project have been applying the CITyFIED energy model and analysis to the city cluster. These cities have the highest replication potential and identified districts for analysis are hoped to drive collaboration and implementation. A number of webinars have already been organized to help facilitate the analysis of chosen districts and will be expanded in the future to allow cities to share their experiences and progress with a broader audience.

CITyFIED is proving to be rich in hands-on experience and full of potential to add to the energy efficiency and smart cities movement in Europe. This project meeting marked another productive step forward for all involved. Keep tuned as the possibilities to interact and learn start to multiply.