Work packages

Objectives of the Work Packages (WP):

WP 1 Project communication, cross border knowledge management

To get the project well started in relation to contractual and project and quality management issues.
To establish a detailed plan for the development of the major innovative solutions – creating the link between hosts (building companies and energy companies) and product suppliers.
Sharing of knowledge on city/community development processes and approaches.
Sharing of experiences and knowledge from previous projects.

WP 2 Developing of innovative building solutions

The main objective of this WP is to develop a strategic approach to ensure that the demonstrated refurbishments will meet technical as well as energy, resource and quality targets. The work developed in this work package will allow for a comprehensible and strategic approach at each demonstration site. The principal aims are:

Prepare, elaborate and transfer best practices from start of project and further on when monitoring results and experiences are available from WP7.
Provide specific analysis on solutions for solar energy, heat-driven appliances and kitchen, wastewater heat recovery, building storage, energy management and retrofit materials for smart living.
Ensure result driven, effective and coordinated implementation between the two communities and partners in general and disseminate and share experiences between actors in the building chain.

WP 3 Proposing and developing integrated smart city heating/cooling system solutions

Analyse and innovate solutions for heat recovery, short-term storage and waste heat in buildings and from industry activities.
Enable low-temperature district heating by developing efficient consumer DH solutions, and by effective use of smart metering data for optimised operation of district heating networks.
District cooling: propose improvements to enhance existing systems and identify synergies with heat supply.
Development and detailing of innovative concepts for district heating and cooling energy supply to be implemented in future energy plans.
Enabling districts or cities to use the experiences from the READY project to optimise building energy retrofit, energy supply based on renewable energy and embedded energy in construction as an integrated system.

WP 4 Proposing and developing integrated smart city electric grid system and mobility solutions

Develop innovative solutions for demonstration in medium- and low-voltage electricity distribution grid, including integrated PV power and heat generation, integrating transport and electricity systems, use of batteries for electricity storage, integrating district heating and electricity systems, and intelligent control (by Power Hub) of energy consumption and production – all in order to increase utilisation of renewable energy resources more efficiently and reduce fuel consumption.
Investigate possibilities for reduction of local transport and develop models for mobility management in the smart city demonstration districts.
Propose new smart interfaces between the heating, cooling and electricity supply – proof of concept of new technologies – in order to facilitate large amounts of renewable energy.

WP 5 Demonstration of smart district in Aarhus with resource efficient retrofit of buildings and energy systems

The approach of the smart city design will be:

Apply the trias energetic principle
1. Reduce the demand for energy
2. Use sustainable energy
3. Use fossil fuel if necessary and do so as cleanly and efficiently as possible.
In theory: find the point at which marginal costs for increasing energy efficiency in buildings are higher than for investing in renewable energy system.
In practice: jointly reduce final energy and primary energy demand, e.g. through reduction of energy waste streams and inefficiency.
Reduce exergy losses.
Adapt the degree of centralisation of energy supply infrastructure to energy demand density.
Manage peak demand and time variable generation from renewable energy sources through demand side management and energy storage.
Use architectural integration as a way of communication.

On neighbourhood scale an integrated approach will:

Ensure good link between building and city scale
Use high variety in energy mix, and
Ensure collection of resources for polygeneration and cascade use of resources on district and city level.

Other elements from the Whole City Approach are a systematic and holistic sustainability approach on planning and implementation of district retrofit/transformation; social and health aspects, surrounding areas, public transportation, waste reduction, rainwater and climate adaptation, economic perspectives, environmental protection, biodiversity, noise, etc.

The demonstration objectives are in short:

To demonstrate integrated design process and transform the green demonstration districts to show best practice solutions in practice being ambassadors for the future development in the whole city area.
Demonstrate retrofitting of buildings towards near zero energy standard in Aarhus (5.1).
Demonstrate low-temperature DH systems: efficient consumer DH installations, enabling low-temperature supply; smart metering and smart system operation; obtain benefits, such as reduction of heat losses in the distribution net and better DH capacity utilization (5.3).
Demonstrate innovative decentralised renewable energy supply solutions and interaction with the overall heat and power systems incorporating large-scale integration of a RES, especially wind energy (5.4+5.7).
Demonstrate balancing of demand and supply in electricity, heating and mobility solutions in an integrated way using ICT.
Demonstrate mobility solutions (5.6).

WP 6 Demonstration of smart district in Växjö with resource efficient retrofit of zero energy buildings and energy systems

The main objectives for this work package is to achieve considerably lower energy consumption and to further develop and enhance DHC systems and local electricity grid in order to increase overall energy efficiency in the city. Behavioural campaigns will be carried out to further increase energy efficiency. The specific objectives are:

Demonstration of totally 376 refurbished low-energy apartments and the city hall in Växjö. These buildings will show high energy efficiency and low CO₂ emission technology, leading to high energy savings and cost cut for tenants. The chosen districts are connected to the district heating networks.
Demonstration of 60 apartments (out of 376) with very high energy performance. Innovative demonstration of prototype solutions – PVT solar technology, waste water heat recovery, heat driven appliances, smart kitchen solutions and smart TV solutions for easy access to relevant information and controls for tenants.
Demonstration of innovative low-carbon technology for the DHC-systems and local electricity grid as in tasks 6.3-5.
Demonstrate pilot installations of EV charging stations.

WP 7 Monitoring and evaluation of project results

To implement monitoring activities both at operational and at strategic level. This includes:

Operational level: The monitoring of energy consumption, distribution and production as well as the related CO2 emissions of the demonstration sites. This includes:
- the evaluation of the current situation (energy production, consumption and the related CO2 emissions) of the demonstration sites, and
- the development of methodologies for data collection and for evaluation.
Strategic level: Analyses of the energy strategies of Aarhus and Växjö and assessing the impact and the transferability of the demonstration sides on the urban energy system. Development and recommendations for implementing corrective actions in terms of funding schemes, local policy making and other sets of energy measures.

WP 8 Business models, replication of developed solutions, training and dissemination

Aggregate findings from the innovation process of the project with industry partners and local stakeholders in a collaborative and inclusive way and disseminate to project partners.
Ensure that the knowledge gained and the tools developed in the course of the project are shared with external stakeholders on local, regional and international levels to facilitate replication.
Develop robust green business cases for the solutions developed and secure their replication potential.
Raise awareness, disseminate and promote the project’s activities and exploit the actual results delivered through the project.
Achieve high visibility of the project work and outcomes on local, regional and international levels and by that support the market uptake and deployment.

WP 9 Project Management and reporting

To initiate the project and ensure start-up in a good atmosphere, in order that personal relations are developed and that formal and informal communication channels are set up.
To manage the community project and ensure the quality of the project throughout the whole project.
To manage community project resources and deliverables according to budget and time schedules.
To find solutions to cope with possible encountered problems.