Tolna County Development Agency is partner of the SET-UP INTERREG EUROPE project. The third Hungarian LETS stakeholder meeting took place in Kölesd, Hungary on 21th of February 2018.
SET-UP project
The SET-UP project was represented by Zsolt Pálmai. He talked about the main goals of the SET-UP project, which is to improve energy performance of the 6 partner regions thanks to enhanced policies on smart grids. On a medium to long term, better energy demand management achieved thanks to SET-UP will lead to reduced energy consumption and greater energy security, with connected socio-environmental and economic benefits.
SET-UP uses interregional exchange to build on regional competencies on smart grids, supported by selected regional policy instruments (ERDF ROP, Axis on energy / low carbon).
Smart grids are energy networks that automatically monitor energy flows and adjust to changes in energy supply and demand accordingly. With smart grids, the potential for energy monitoring, energy saving and integration of energy from renewable sources is huge. Potential benefits are clear, and various European initiatives have been launched to take advantage of them.
However, integrated regional low-carbon strategies are needed to identify suitable actions for a specific territory, to channel public and private investments and to increase the awareness of and mobilise public and private stakeholders (from the business sector, to local citizens). Strategic integration of ICT-based low-carbon innovations should also be accelerated.
The presentation of SET-UP and its Hungarian examples has contributed to taking into account the project issues and its Hungarian dilemmas into the integrated energy action plan of the South Eastern region of Europe as part of the ETIP SNET initiative.
The ETIP SNET platform
The ETIP SNET was represented by Róbert Bán, Managing Director of Tolna County Development Agency. In his presentation, he introduced the European Technology & Innovation Platforms (ETIPs), which have been created by the European Commission in the framework of the new Integrated Roadmap Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) by bringing together a multitude of stakeholders and experts from the energy sector.
The ETIP Smart Networks for Energy Transition (SNET) role is to guide Research, Development & Innovation (RD&I) to support Europe’s energy transition, more specifically, its mission is to:
- Set-out a vision for RD&I for Smart Networks for Energy Transition and engage stakeholders in this vision.
- Prepare and update the Strategic Research and Innovation Roadmap.
- Report on the implementation of RD&I activities at European, national/regional and industrial levels.
- Provide input to the SET Plan action 4 which addresses the technical challenges raised by the transformation of the energy system.
- Identify innovation barriers, notably related to regulation and financing.
- Develop enhanced knowledge-sharing mechanisms that help bring RD&I results to deployment.
- Prepare consolidated stakeholder views on Research and Innovation to European Energy Policy initiatives.
A new focus on innovation / implementation and on sector coupling. Main objective is to address the innovation challenges in energy system and market evolution necessary for achieving climate protection and renewables integration with affordability and security of supply … beyond smart electricity grids (whole energy system).
About the BOOSTEE-CE project
As Balázs Kiss, the project manager of Tolna County Development Agency introduced the project, Central Europe has a high potential for deploying local and regional energy systems based on renewable energy generation and energy conservation but it is important to trigger bottom up initiatives improving energy efficiency approaches. Attention is being paid to the improvement of energy efficiency (EE) of existing buildings as they are accountable for large electric power consumption with an annual growth rate of around 4 percent. It is one of the major challenges for public authorities to reduce energy in existing public buildings without significant construction works.
Therefore, public authorities need to be equipped with simple but useful tools and methodologies for proper energy management. The project aims to improve the governance of EE in existing public buildings and ultimately reduce energy consumption in different central European areas, especially those less advanced in low carbon approach. For this purpose the OnePlace platform to transfer the knowledge to other regions of Europe will be developed. With the development and implementation of the 3D energy management system and pilot actions, the project will show an innovative approach towards energy auditing of buildings.
The upcoming events
SET-UP partners are getting ready for their next project meeting, that will be held in Vilnius and Kaunas (LT) on 10th and 11th April 2018. The meeting will be hosted by Kaunas Regional Energy Agency. At this stage of the project, project partners and their stakeholders are working on the definition of regional action plans that will guide them in the improvement of their energy policies. The interregional exchange activities organised during the meeting will enable them to focus on topics that are relevant to their policy improvement process, such as data management, energy storage and demand response.
Beside this, Tolna County Development Agency is organizing an event, called „POWER for ALL” in spring 2018.
The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and Hungary.
More information about the project: http://www.interregeurope.eu/set-up/
