The MESHARTILITY project aims at the development of solutions and tools facilitating exchange of energy data between energy utilities and local authorities elaborating sustainable energy strategies and plans. These solutions and tools will help cities, who are signatories of the Covenant of Mayors, to develop their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs).
In order to develop a successful Sustainable Energy Action Plan or other local energy-related programme it is necessary to have detailed data on energy production and consumption at the territory of the municipality. Only in this way it is possible to identify which sectors have the largest energy saving potential and to plan effective actions and measures in this field. Reliable energy data will also enable municipalities to monitor the effectiveness of implemented strategies and plans. These data are usually in the possession of energy producers and providers who are often reluctant to provide detailed, disaggregated information on energy production and consumption due to the consumers’ data protection, fear of the competition etc.
Therefore it is necessary to develop solutions and tools facilitating sharing energy data between energy utilities and local authorities, who took up the task of elaborating sustainable energy strategies and plans, in a way that will create a win-win situation.
Project activities:
Following main activities are planned in the framework of the project:
- Analysing situation in the field of energy data sharing between energy utilities and municipalities in 12 countries participating in the project.
- Identification of good practices on data sharing, cooperation between municipalities and utilities, SEAP development based on reliable data.
- Exploring ways and propose solutions to improve cooperation between municipalities, their supporting structures (e.g. Covenant Coordinators and Supporters) and utilities for more effective energy planning;
- Creating and implementing a systematic cooperation scheme between municipalities and utilities;
- Development of the Sustainable Energy Action Plans based on real energy data in selected municipalities.
- Development of investment plans and exploiting existing funds and financial channels for SEAP implementation in all project areas;
- Dissemination of the project results across Europe.
Project results:
It is expected that the project will bring following results:
- Analysis of EU and 12 national legal frameworks on data sharing.
- Survey results on data sharing practices across Europe.
- Support and guidance booklet on dealing with community data at the municipal level.
- 72 municipalities supported in developing their community baseline CO2 emission inventory with reliable data.
- At least 144 actions implemented by the municipalities (2 actions per SEAP).
- Investment plans developed in all project areas.
- Financial channels for SEAP implementation accessed.
- An average of 5 million € investments triggered in each project area by the end of the project (ca. 65 million €).
- Experiences and lessons widely shared to support and motivate others.
Project duration: April 2012 – April 2015 (36 months)
Co-financing: Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme
Partners: The project consortium comprises of 17 partners, including energy agencies, associations of municipalities, utilities and technical experts from 12 European countries. The coordinator is Save Energy Agency of Región de Murcia (ES), while the Association of Municipalities Polish Network „Energie Cités” is responsible for the implementation of the project in Poland.
Beneficiaries: municipalities, energy utilities and associations of utilities from 12 countries involved in the project.
The project is co-financed from the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme. The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EACI nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
