INESC TEC project promotes renewable energies and reduces CO2 emissions

INESC TEC project promotes renewable energies and reduces CO2 emissions

INESC TEC’s Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES)* is participating in a project where the goal is to develop a tool that makes it possible to promote sustainable, reliable and profitable strategies in cities and industrial complexes.

30th May 2014

CitInES makes cities and industrial complexes more sustainable

Project CitInES (Design of a decision support tool for sustainable, reliable and cost-effective energy strategies in cities and industrial complexes), concluded in May, has already been tested in the Italian cities of Cesena and Bologna and in the Turkish refinery of Tupras, and the results show that the work developed has made it possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve energy efficiency and increase the integration of renewable energies.

A more sustainable future

The European Energy System is undergoing a considerable transformation, and at a time when cities concentrate 50% of the population and 80% of CO2 emissions, the goals of the European 20-20-20 strategy can only be achieved with a massive integration of renewable energies and by managing demand properly. Here, local authorities play a key role. There are now various cities in Europe committed to designing and implementing a Sustainable Energy Action Plan, or SEAP, in order to reduce CO2 emissions and energy consumption, and increase renewable energies.

With the 20-20-20 strategy as background, in 2011 INESC TEC’s Centre for Power and Energy System (CPES) started working on this project where the goal was to optimise energy planning and management in cities and industrial complexes. Inserted in the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union and a total of 10 partners, CitInES developed two main applications: one for cities, tested in the Italian cities of Cesena and Bologna, and another for industrial complexes, tested in the Tupras refinery, in Izmit, Turkey.

Ensuring a sustainable energy future for Europe, providing tools that take into consideration the interactions between different energy vectors at different scales, was the main goal of this European project.

Raising awareness for energy efficiency

In the case of cities, the developed tool makes it possible to evaluate the impact of different strategic alternatives to be considered in the SEAP, as well as monitor the measures planned and their adaptation, so as to optimise final results. According to Nuno Fidalgo, researcher at CPES and project manager at INESC TEC, the application is innovative because “it takes into consideration the interaction between the different energy sectors (electricity, gas and heat), transportations, human resources available and energy needs,” and for each option the tool “evaluates the impact in technical (the variables of each system), economic (costs) and environmental (emissions) terms, as well as the robustness of the solution (sensitivity relatively to the variation of fuel prices),” explains the researcher, adding that “the integrated energy systems that take into consideration several vectors are also a priority for the European Commission’s H2020 programme.”

In the application developed for large industrial complexes, the main goals were optimising energy resources, although “the application scope was quite different given the features of each specific case,” reveals the researcher who is also professor at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). “This model, which used the Tupras refinery as test case, makes it possible to determine the optimum strategy to manage generation, taking into consideration the daily energy purchase and sales operations in the electricity market,” he adds.

In a real application case, tests will be conducted regularly and the main results will be published on an open access webpage, allowing citizens to follow-up on the project and to confirm the benefits of implementing a SEAP. “This will raise people’s awareness of energy efficiency matters,” the researcher adds.

For a “greener” planet

The CitInES is aligned with the 20-20-20 strategic goals since it has the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy management efficiency and the integration of renewable energies. And the results could not have been more positive: “the application developed made it possible to considerably simplify the management of the SEAP. The estimated impact in Cesena, for example, is a reduction of about 45 thousand tonnes of CO2 emissions until 2020, simply by correcting the strategy and by suggesting complementary measures for the SEAP, and by efficiently monitoring those measures,” Nuno Fidalgo explains.

In terms of industry, and in the particular case of the Tupras refinery, in Turkey, the rules adopted in the operations have led to energy savings of over 6% without additional investments. “As far as carbon dioxide is concerned, and according to the data on CO2 emitted by Turkish refineries, the impact was 30 thousand tonnes of CO2 avoided per year,” he adds.

The main benefits include a better assessment of strategic options, an easier interaction between services and dialogue between the different stakeholders, an increasing participation and support from citizens, better monitoring through relevant indicators, as well as the identification of new sustainable development alternatives.

And for the future?

In CitInES, INESC TEC was in charge of the entire modelling component of the power system, as well as for the integration with other systems and for evaluating the impact of smart grids. INESC TEC also played an active role in the implementation of a methodology for a simplified and reliable representation of modelled systems. According to the researcher, “because these processes are highly complex, managing all the information would be impossible without this simplification.” The INESC TEC team, composed of Nuno Fidalgo, Mário Couto (former researcher at CPES nominated for the Limelight section following this project), Tiago Armando, Luís Seca, Manuel Matos (coordinator at CPES), was also in charge of the task “Dissemination actions and scientific networking.”

The application developed is currently being implemented in several French and Danish cities, and according to the INESC TEC researcher, “several energy agencies in Portugal have already expressed their interest in project CitInES and in the tools developed.” Now that the project is officially concluded, “the CitInES will be committed to disseminating the project and to promoting the dialogue with potential interested parties,” the researcher reveals.

According to Nuno Fidalgo, given the versatility of the tools developed, “they can be applied in other contexts, namely to extend energy policy monitoring from local to regional or even national level, to plan energy strategies at national level and to coordinate measures between regions.” As far as industry is concerned, “various large facilities can benefit from the application developed, namely the chemical, paper and metal industries, among others,” he concluded.

The INESC TEC researchers mentioned in this article are associated with the following partner institutions: INESC Porto and FEUP.

*Former Power Systems Unit (USE)