IDEAS gathered eight public and private organisations from the domains of ICT, Energy, Territories and Construction and Buildings. Their aim was to develop and validate the technologies and business models required for the cost effective and incremental implementation of Energy Positive Neighbourhoods (EPNs). These included:
- A neighbourhood energy management tool to optimise energy production and consumption;
- User interfaces to engage communities and individuals in the operation of EPNs;
- A decision support urban planning tool to optimise the planning of neighbourhood energy infrastructures;
- Business models to underpin EPNs that engage end users, public authorities and utility companies.
The tools and business models developed in the project were piloted at the Bordeaux University campus in France and the Omenatarha residential neighbourhood in Finland.
At the outset of the project there was no accepted definition of an EPN. Therefore the very first steps taken involved defining an EPN and a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure ‘energy positivity’, which were refined throughout the project’s lifetime. The definition of an EPN was finalised as follows: EPNs are areas in which annual energy demand is lower than annual energy supply from local renewable energy sources. Their energy infrastructures are connected to and contribute to the efficient operation and security of the wider energy networks. The aim is to support the integration of distributed renewable energy generation into wider energy networks and provide a functional healthy user friendly environment with as low energy demand and little environmental impact as possible.
The research conducted in the IDEAS project was broken down into three distinct periods: In the 1st Period, along with the work to define and measure EPNs, the specifications for the IDEAS Energy Management Solution and business models were developed; The IDEAS pilot tools and interfaces were developed during the 2nd Period; In the 3rd Period the tools were piloted at the demo sites and the most promising EU markets for EPNs to underpin the future exploitation of the projects innovations were identified.
The IDEAS project contributed to:
- The opening of a market for ICT-based district/community energy management systems.
- The IDEAS Total Solution for an EPN can reduce energy costs by up to 58%.
- IDEAS Energy Management System enables up to a 30% increase in the revenue generation from distributed renewable electricity and heat production and a 10 % increase in the efficiency of distributed renewable plant.
- Establishment of a collaboration framework between the ICT sector, the buildings and construction sector and the energy sector.
- The results of the IDEAS project were presented at 31 conferences and 7 dissemination workshops with related RTD projects with a total audience of over 8565 people. In addition the IDEAS consortium published 10 peer reviewed conference papers & 5 professional journal articles.
- Since October 2013 over 8000 users accessed the IDEAS website and there have been some 4728 views of the webinar that presented the findings of the project in less than a month.
- As a result of the wide dissemination of the projects outcomes the operational concept of an EPN (the EPN definition, KPIs and energy positivity label) is informing discussions in other European projects involving stakeholders from the ICT, energy, buildings and construction sectors. (e.g. Design4Energy, CityKeys and DRBOB).
- Quantifiable and significant reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions achieved through ICT.
- The IDEAS Total Solution for an EPN is able to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 58%.