SEC-BENCH EU event 25/03/2010

SEC-BENCH joined forces with another EU co-financed project, PATH-TO-RES in an event that was organised within the framework of the EU Sustainable Energy Week, 22-25 March 2009.
When:         Thursday, March 25th, from 9:00 till 13:00
Where:       Borschette Building, Room 1B, Rue Froissart 36, Brussels
 
Objective:
The two projects in combination are very well placed to highlight the importance of merging strategy with implementation.  Our operational thinking is fact-based with a bottom-up approach in developing Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs).  Implementation starts with the obvious first step, namely the monitoring and benchmarking of municipal buildings.
 
Their objectives are:
 
  • PATH-TO-RES is about developing a 7-step assessment tool which can evaluate and define pathways to renewable and efficient energy systems in Europe. The evaluations are based on real data from local and regional energy systems, compiled by studying and assessing a number of case studies in European countries. The project establishes a detailed description of the present system, analysing the possibilities and technical and institutional barriers of the energy transformation process and the bridging towards a more sustainable, renewable and efficient energy system.
  • SEC-BENCH demonstrates the feasibility of benchmarking energy performance of municipal buildings and technical installations.  This exercise is central in making cities energy efficient and sustainable or in other words conforming to the concept of “Intelligent Energy”. The bottom-up comparison of individual buildings will be on several levels; i.e. between municipalities, cities, regions, member states and probably also on a European level. Setting local targets and monitoring their achievements through web-based benchmarking will be a bottom-up approach to what could develop into a European initiative for improved statistics of local energy planning and benchmarking.
    • Target Groups
    National and EU policy makers, local politicians (politicians, associations of municipalities, educational institutions of political parties), energy agencies, energy advisors at local level, commercial developers (developers, suppliers of products and services, financial institutions, utilities and consumers/citizens) as crucial actors in the development of Sustainable Energy Communities.
     
     
     

     
     
    Programme
    • Presentation of the PATH-to-RES 7-step approach by way of concrete Case Studies from cities, and its  potential to assist also other local authorities in the development of SEAPs from a strategic and long-term perspective.
    • Presentation of the SEC-BENCH indicators proposed and the web-based benchmarking tool and its potential to assist local authorities to plan and monitor  progress on a more operational level
    • Demonstration of the link between benchmarking and the development of Sustainable Energy Plans by presenting the impact of SEC-BENCH at local level.
    • Dynamic discussion at the end with questions and answers and a debate among all participants.     

    During the event a questionnaire was distributed among the particpants as a way to encourage dialogue and the exchange of information and experiences.

     
     

     
     

     

    PRESENTATIONS

    SESSION I
    Medium and long-term strategy development
    SESSION II
    Practical implementation and monitoring of progress
    Discussion, H J Mydske and Filip Johnsson
     
    The discussions and conclusions
    At the end of each session, participants were invited to offer comments and ask questions. A general observation was the fact that local energy planning requires firm leadership during the process, both in the short and long term. A major effort is therefore needed to build up internal know-how in order to establish strong ownership of the planning process. Flexible methodologies such as the 7-step approach will be useful in this context.
    Although the benchmarking tool was positively received, some concerns were raised regarding the data requirements. However, the general view was that it is indeed necessary to collect and analyse bottom-up building data in order to know the status of their energy performance. Several municipalities expressed interest to join the benchmarking scheme. One of the remarks made was on the need to keep focus on energy auditing. Energy audits are in fact excellent sources of data for benchmarking.