POCITYF is one of the European Union’s “flagships”. Together with Hvidovre Municipality, EGC is going to demonstrate Danish Smart City solutions in Avedøre Stationsby by Copenhagen.
The new Smart City project is led by CERTH, a research institute from Tessaloniki, Greece. There are two “lighthouse cities” in the project, Evora in Portugal and Alkmaar in the Netherlands, and six “fellow cities”, where Hvidovre is the one in Denmark.
POCITYF Energy Transition Strategy
POCITYF strategy is built around four multidisciplinary and complementary Energy Transition Tracks (ETT), aiming to increase the integration of both commercialized and innovative energy systems, towards rendering current city blocks self-sustainable and more environmental friendly for their citizens. The term Transition Track is used to group interdisciplinary and complementary Integrated Solutions (IS) in terms of the need they address under a common umbrella. The primary objective is to advance the energy performance levels of urban districts significantly further compared to current status, to allow the realization of a wide deployment of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) in EU by 2050. The ambition is to make Europe the leading continent in the realization of a self-sustainable, environmental-friendly and citizen-centred living environment in urban districts.
ETT#1: Innovative Solutions for Positive Energy (CH) Buildings and Districts: Solutions included in ETT#1 will be demonstrated and replicated in all participating cities. These are focused on: a)achieving significant energy savings on both i) building and ii) district level reducing energy bills for citizens (energy efficiency first); b) enabling a high share of locally produced/consumed renewable energy on building and district level. Innovative solutions to be demonstrated and replicated include both positive energy building (level) retrofits with the inclusion of elementsas those of a) circular insulation materials, b) solar roofs and facades, c) PV canopy, d) PV skylight, e) PV thermal panels, f) thermo-acoustic heat pumps, g) hybrid wind/solar generation systems and positive energy district level retrofits including h) DHC (biomass, waste and geothermal), i) DC lighting with charging points and smart lamp posts, j) P2P energy trading platforms, k) smart distribution management systems, l) smart energy farms and m) ATES heat/cold storage. The fitting of these two levels of retrofits, on the principles of circular economy is as well considered with the utilization of available waste streams (heat/building materials after demolishing), reverse collection of waste, waste management tools, and Pay-As-You-Throw system.
ETT#2: P2P Energy Management and Storage Solutions for Grid Flexibility: Solutions included in ETT#2 focus on: a) maximizing self-consumption, b) reducing grid stress and avoid load and generation curtailment and c) increasing the financial value through flexibility services to the grid. Innovative solutions to be demonstrated and replicated include the individual elements of a) low temperature waste heat and geothermal sources, b) innovative short and long-term seasonal in some cases storage solutions (i.e. hydrogen fuel cells, V2Gs coupled with stationary batteries, PCM), c) DC to work in parallel with AC grids, d) smart ICT to interconnect EMS on a home/building/district level, e) DSM platforms for optimization of energy flows, f) thermal grid controllers, g) market-oriented building flexibility services and h) LV and MV–connected storage systems.
ETT#3: e-Mobility Integration into the Smart Grid & City Planning: Solutions included in ETT#3 focus on individual elements as those of a) reducing the impact of electro-mobility on the energy system, b) increasing the penetration of e- vehicles utilizing RES on one hand, but with the additional benefit they can offer when utilized to support grid flexibility, while reducing curtailment, c) promoting decarbonisation of mobility sector (with the adoption of EVs) and d) reducing citizen’s mobility costs (no use of liquid fossil fuels and better traffic management). Innovative solutions to be demonstrated and replicated include: a) deployment of (V2G ready) using the batteries of e-cars; b) exploitation of e-cars in local car sharing systems; c) all previous substantiated on district-wide spreading of smart (V2G) charging stations powered mainly by RES, d) DC public lamp posts as charging points, e) bidirectional smart inverters, f) optimal charging algorithms and g) EV charging management platforms.
ETT#4: Citizen-Driven Innovation in Co-creating Smart City Solutions: Solutions included in ETT#4 focus primarily on improving citizens’quality of life and increasing city efficiency by:
a) incentivise citizens for co-creating, co-delivering and co-capturing value by the smart city solutions demonstrated,
b) create an open innovation ecosystem between different experimentation set-ups;
c) Innovative solutions to be demonstrated and replicated include P2P energy transactions, gamification of bidding and trading in decentralised systems, infotainment apps, local campaigns, crowd-funding, energy ambassadors creating local energy communities with the use of platforms.