From 20-22 March 2018, Manchester welcomed over 300 delegates from 12 countries to three days of showcasing Manchester’s smart city activities. On day 1, the URBACT III project SmartImpact, led by Manchester City Council, shared their outcomes with keynotes and workshops. Resources can be found at their project website. On day 2, participants saw CityVerveand Triangulum ‘in action’, with demonstrations of various applications developed in relation to the themes of energy, environment, health and social care and culture. Day 3, hosted by Future Everything, brought together academics, innovators and thinkers to consider issues raised by a data driven society.

(Picture: Every Thing is Connected)

Triangulum offered the chance to test an electric cargo bike and discuss with Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester the advantages of electric vehicles in an Estate Fleet.  Both the cargo bicycles and the vehicles have telematics systems installed, which then feed journey data directly via an API into the Manchester Triangulum data platform Manchester-I.

(Picture: Triangulum Manchester)

Visitors also toured Manchester Metropolitan University’s Birley Campus Energy Centre for an introduction to a wide variety of the Triangulum energy interventions such as solar PV panels, electrical Energy Storage capacity, an innovative Demand Side Response platform and a Siemens Microgrid controller. Visitors also learned how these combine with the existing Combined Heat and Power plant and private heat and power network of the campus. Overall, it was a very successful event with lots of new ideas and exchanges!

In February, Manchester partners Clicks and Links, Manchester Metropolitan University (ManMet) and Manchester City Council (MCC) welcomed participants to the first Triangulum ‘Innovation Challenge’.
Over the course of half a day, proposals for energy saving measures were prepared, which could be taken across the ManMet Birley campus and beyond.

The challenge also involved reviewing Clicks and Links’ ‘Beat the Peak’ Application; created for ManMet to allow them to promote and monitor energy savings the students are making. This ‘softer’ activity will complement the Triangulum Central Controller trials also taking place at ManMet, where Demand Side Response and local distribution charges (DuoS) scenarios are being tested.

The participants delivered a series of well received pitches to judges from the partner organisations, and the best ideas won prizes donated by Corridor Manchester.

(Picture: Triangulum Manchester)

(Picture: Every Thing is Connected)

Every Thing is Connected in our Lighthouse City Manchester: three days of events revolving around the theme of Smart Cities, from 20^th – 22nd March, 2018.

At this exciting “conference-as-lab” event, Triangulum as well as other local and international Smart City projects will explore how the Internet of Things is connected in a Smart City landscape. They will gather to demonstrate, discuss, network and, of course, inspire!

Day 1 is a day of presentations and workshops focusing on the findings of the SmartImpact project led by the Manchester City Council.

SmartImpact is a European Commission funded network of 10 European cities. The focus of the project is promoting smart, sustainable urban development, creating liveable cities. The event is a great chance to learn about the real world challenges and opportunities of becoming a Smart City.

Day 2: Experience a Smart City!

The projects will explore Manchester as a Smart City with hands-on workshops, field visits, demonstrations, and deep dives across the Oxford Road Corridor area. Best practices and use cases developed within CityVerve and Triangulum will be showcased. The day’s themes will cover health, transport, energy, culture and public realm.

Day 3 is a day of conference and art events created by FutureEverything, featuring discussions, presentations and workshops.

As computing dissolves into the everyday, we find ourselves surrounded by millions of connected, intelligent objects. Scattered throughout the city, a bin, lamppost or coffee cup can be a computing device, a sensor or actuator. Invisible agents monitor and influence our lives, largely unexamined and unchecked.
Registration is by invitation only.

Brussels, BE: On 26 January 2018 representatives of 40 cities sat around the table at the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) with industry representatives and experts to ensure that the €263.84 million invested by the Commission through the Horizon 2020 Smart Cities and Communities programme generates returns.

(Picture: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum)

The funding provided by the H2020 programme is generating savings by stimulating common solutions to shared challenges, allowing cities to collaborate on design, and even engage in cross-border joint procurement. When cities create scale through demand aggregation they have the power to shape and influence the market.

40 cities making a joint purchase of 1000 electric busses have a lot more power to dictate prices and standards than each city individually seeking to purchase 25 units. Reducing 40 transactions to a single one also means spending only a fraction of the man-hours that would otherwise be needed.

Cities are using these economies of scale to make concrete improvements to residents’ lives. The city of Munich is piloting a ‘virtual power plant’, so that residents can store solar energy generated on their rooftops and use a mobile app to sell it back to the grid during peak demand. This technology is now being put in the hands of EU citizens in many European cities. Funding from the Commission helps cities share these technologies so that they can learn from each other and replicate successful solutions throughout Europe.

In Burgas, ‘smart lamp posts’ use LED bulbs and a reactive dimming system to save over 50% of the energy used for street lighting. This means using less energy, creating less pollution and allowing more money to be spent elsewhere. Sensors installed in the lamp posts also give the city information about noise levels and congestion patterns which can inform further urban developments. This is another idea that is spreading like wildfire across Europe, with the Commission expecting to see 10 million of these lamp posts built by 2025.

Other measures discussed in Friday’s meeting were bike and car sharing, and smart parking; building retrofit; zero emission zones; sustainable logistics; and electric vehicles. The scale of these projects means that cities are becoming more attractive to global investors, as cooperation promises enormous returns and greatly reduced risk.

Through H2020 Smart Cities and Communities, European funds are ensuring that cities cooperate and collaborate to implement solutions more efficiently, more rapidly and more widely. Through 12 projects, 86 cities are working together across national borders to an unprecedented degree, with 36 ‘lighthouse’ cities piloting innovative technologies, and 40 ‘follower’ cities engaging in intensive peer learning activities in order to replicate the solutions being implemented. “Knowledge transfer,” insisted INEA’s Alan Haigh, “will be achieved through the presentation of concrete results.” According to Mr Haigh, “A huge amount of data is now available,” and the remaining challenge is, “how to make it accessible and useful.”

Friday’s meeting was the opportunity for these 40 follower cities to exchange about the hurdles they have encountered so far, so that they can learn from each other to achieve more effective collaboration, leading to larger returns on the programme’s investments.

Building smart cities creates wealth and combats waste through establishing economies of scale, creating greater efficiency within cities, and improving the health of citizens. The WHO estimates that the health impacts of air pollution cost the EU over 1 trillion euro in 2010 alone. If cities can join forces to implement smart solutions, engage in joint procurement, and cut energy costs to create a greener Europe, the Commission’s ½ billion investment will surely be money well spent.

These projects are already producing positive results, and the Commission is fully supportive to build further momentum along this trajectory. Jens Bartholmes, policy officer at the European Commission, invited cities to come forward and share their smart city related plans and needs. The Commission tasked the support team of the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities Marketplace to help with this data collection and based on this overview of real needs will fine-tune its support to European cities.

Triangulum’s seventh newsletter is online – updating you on the latest project activities. Read the newsletter here.

(Picture: Every Thing is Connected)

Every Thing is Connected – three days of events to share the findings from local and international Smart City projects, among them Triangulum, through hands-on demonstrations, discussions, networking and art installations.

Based at the Bright Building, Manchester Science Park’s brand new state-of-the-art workplace, we will question, experiment and demonstrate how every thing, and everyone, can be connected in an urban landscape.

What’s on:

Smart Impact, Tuesday 20th March 2018
A chance to learn from leading cities about the real world challenges and opportunities of becoming a smart city.

Smart City Live, Wednesday 21st March 2018
Activities, experiments and exhibitions showcasing best practice across CityVerve and Triangulum. Followed by the launch of Future Sessions.

Future Sessions: Trust in invisible agents, Thursday 22nd March 2018
Bringing the creative and unusual centre stage with workshops, presentations and art installations. Includes the exclusive premiere of SUPERGESTURES, the next CityVerve art commission.

(Picture: Triangulum Stavanger)

Stavanger’s Central Energy Plant, part of the Lighthouse City’s Triangulum activities, recently won the Water Industry Award in Norway for its innovative solution. The award is handed out to projects with a high degree of complexity, solved by using a new and unique approach.

The energy plant transforms the city’s wastewater to energy, reducing the CO2 emission by 80 % – something that has never been done in Norway before. The new energy facility uses a renewable energy source to heat and cool three administrative buildings and the public swimming pool in the city centre.

Local coordinator in Stavanger, Gerd Seehuus, is happy for the acknowledgment and says it’s great that the City of Stavanger can be up front when it comes to developing sustainable and innovative solutions.

The award is handed out at Norway’s most important conference for people working with water and sewage, The Water Days.

Stavanger’s Central Energy Plant, part of the Lighthouse City’s Triangulum activities, recently won the Water Industry Award in Norway for its innovative solution. The award is handed out to projects with a high degree of complexity, solved by using a new and unique approach.

The energy plant transforms the city’s wastewater to energy, reducing the CO2 emission by 80 % – something that has never been done in Norway before. The new energy facility uses a renewable energy source to heat and cool three administrative buildings and the public swimming pool in the city centre.

Local coordinator in Stavanger, Gerd Seehuus, is happy for the acknowledgment and says it’s great that the City of Stavanger can be up front when it comes to developing sustainable and innovative solutions.

The award is handed out at Norway’s most important conference for people working with water and sewage, The Water Days.

Further information on the Central Energy Plant: https://triangulum-project.eu/index.php/2017/08/30/new-energy-facilities-in-stavanger-save-372-tons-of-co2-emissions-per-year/

Further information (in Norwegian):
http://dihva.no/kurs_og_fagtreff/vannbransje_prisen/
https://www.stavanger.kommune.no/nyheter/energisentralen-vant-vannbransjeprisen-2017/

Sabadell’s mayor Maties Serracant invited John Jorritsma, mayor of Eindhoven to speak about experiences and good practices of the Dutch Lighthouse City.

On 14^th November, Mayor Serracant and other representatives of Sabadell welcomed a Dutch delegation together with representatives of Follower City Leipzig and Fraunhofer Institute in order to foster replication activities in Sabadell.

The meeting was focusing on the question: Which innovative solutions are applicable for Sabadell to be replicated?  After an intense exchange on innovative solutions, preconditions and challenges, the visitors were taken around on site-visits to gain an impression about the future soft mobility area in the centre of Sabadell. At the end of the day, Eindhoven’s Mayor Jorritsma was impressed by Sabadell’s enthusiasm about the cooperation and the determination to take over proven technologies and methods of Lighthouse City Eindhoven.  In special, under the Triangulum, there are promising opportunities for replication in both cities in the fields of innovative lighting, start-up acceleration, innovative public tenders, parking sensors and city information interactive panels. The meeting was the opportunity for making an explicit commitment of technical and political cooperation of the city of Eindhoven with the local Triangulum strategy in Sabadell, to be implemented as of 2018.

This activity counted on the economic support of the Barcelona provincial council (Diputació de Barcelona), under the framework of the 2017 Service catalogue of the 2016-2019 Local government network.

The series of Triangulum Follower City Webinars is now completed and availabe for the public. Go and get the information on:

Webinars

Select from the following topics according to your requirements:

• Webinar 1 “Smart City Policies and Governance” (17th March 2017)
• Webinar 2 “ICT Reference Architecture” (28th March 2017)
• Webinar 3 “Smart Business Services and Innovation Management” (18th May 2017)
• Webinar 4 “Innovation Procurement” (30th May 2017)
• Webinar 5 “Citizen Engagement, Developement of Living Labs” (23rd June 2017)
• Webinar 6 “Financing the Smart City” (6th September 2017)
• Webinar 7 “Smart and Electric Mobility” (19th September 2017)