Co-Responsibility in District Energy Efficiency & Sustainability - Paris

As part of this action plan, Paris Municipality developed the Co-Responsibility in District Energy Efficiency & Sustainability (CoRDEES) project, focusing on innovative Smart Grids solutions and effective energy governance on the 54-hectare Eco District of Clichy-Batignolles.

Photo by Illnur Kalimullin on Unsplash

Summary

Paris has been one of the first municipalities in the world to adopt a climate action plan, setting goals for greenhouse gas emission reductions beyond those outlined by the European Union. As part of this action plan, Paris Municipality developed the Co-Responsibility in District Energy Efficiency & Sustainability (CoRDEES) project, focusing on innovative Smart Grids solutions and effective energy governance on the 54-hectare Eco District of Clichy-Batignolles.

Goals

Create a new energy ecosystem;

Reach the energy efficiency objectives presented in the Paris Climate Action Plan: 50 kWh per square meter and 90% less CO2 emissions;

Generate an integrated approach in which technical solutions are strongly connected to governance processes and stakeholder participation;

Test out new services to empower stakeholders to self-manage community energy and to achieve energy efficiency goals.

How it works

A new energy governance approach called “The Urban Energy New Deal” was set up to define the energy commitments together with all stakeholders involved. The project developed an instrumentation plan of the buildings. Sensors and meters have been installed by the energy companies for the monitoring of the energy consumption patterns of the residents, at both dwelling and building level.

A multi-user monitoring platform (Community Energy Management Platform - CEMP) was finalised to analyse and consolidate energy data from buildings and public facilities in real-time. Through this platform, each stakeholder has access to the energy data of the neighbourhood. This means that the energy users become coresponsible of energy performance in the neighbourhood. The final User Interface design of the CEMP was finalised in October 2019.

In order to facilitate all these processes, the project has created the role of the “Urban Sustainability Trustee Facilitator”, an actor ensuring the participation and collaboration among the stakeholders in the neighbourhood, providing technical support, advice and energy coaching, as well as coordinating the implementation of services for improving energy use.

Two companies have started to train tenants. One of these companies, launched the “CORDEES Ambassadors” initiative. Six experts organise meetings and door-to-door awareness activities. The ambassadors explain CORDEES initiative to citizens and raise awareness on efficient and sustainable use of energy.

Transformative potential

CoRDEES combines the implementation of technological measures for producing renewable energy and defining efficient energy consumption with the principle of co-responsibility of the actors involved. The data transmitted through a digital platform is accessible to the various stakeholders that are able to co-manage the energy of their neighbourhood. This makes the project an interesting case for increasing the energy systems’ accessibility and co-responsibility by the users while making use of the potential of digital technologies.