#Smart grids

Topic within Energy
Xander Bakker, Community Manager at Green Innovation Hub, posted

Doe mee aan de Green Innovation Hub contest!

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In Almere en de provincie Flevoland vinden de grootste gebiedsontwikkelingen van Nederland plaats zoals Hortus, Pampus, Zuidoever. Om echt toekomstgericht te kunnen bouwen en als voorbeeld te dienen voor de rest van Nederland, organiseren zij de Green Innovation Hub contest ’24. In deze competitie worden organisaties uitgedaagd om met digitaal gedreven toepassingen te komen op het gebied van duurzame energie, mobiliteit of slim wonen.

Ben jij een start-up, scale-up of een innovatief kleinbedrijf (MKB), en heb jij een digitaal gedreven toepassing op het gebied van duurzame energie, mobiliteit of slim wonen? Is jouw oplossing klaar om verder te groeien, te versnellen en op te schalen? Een oplossing waarmee jij echt impact kan maken? Doe dan mee met de Green Innovation Hub Contest ’24.

Op 6 maart wordt op basis van de ingezonden video-pitches een selectie gemaakt van de tien bedrijven die worden uitgenodigd voor het Green Innovation Hub Café. Op woensdag 17 april vindt de Contest Day plaats, tevens de officiële opening van de GIH 3.0 op de 9e verdieping. Tijdens dit evenement zullen de 10 deelnemers hun pitch presenteren, met een maximale duur van 4 minuten. Na de pitches krijgt de jury de gelegenheid om vragen te stellen. De winnaar wordt door experts verder geholpen en begeleid.

Check de website link voor meer informatie!

Xander Bakker's picture #Mobility
AMS Institute, Re-inventing the city (urban innovation) at AMS Institute, posted

AMS Scientific Conference: Reinventing the City - Blueprints for messy cities?

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Reinventing the City Conference, April 23-25, 2024, Amsterdam. The ticket sale has started! Purchase your ticket and be part of this amazing event!

Join us for the Reinventing the City conference, where we will explore sustainable urban transformations on a metropolitan scale. Scientists, policymakers, students, and industry partners will come together to share insights, inspire action, and shape the future of our cities.

Purchase your ticket here

About the conference
The AMS Scientific Conference (AMS Conference) explores and discusses how cities can transform themselves to become more livable, resilient and sustainable while offering economic stability. Cities are innovation hubs, where an increasing number of people live, work, recreate, interact, and care. The urban fabric is where major transitions take place, catalyzing advancements in mobility, circularity, renewable energy, climate adaptation, urban food systems and digitization. Precisely for these reasons, our cities set the agenda for improving the livability and sustainability of our world.

Cultivating transformation
To foster improved urban environments, we need scientific and societal insights into our complex urban systems, into how natural and social processes are interconnected and reach tipping points, into the good, the bad and the ugly of our cities. We need amazing discoveries, technical and social innovations to transform the ugly, leave the bad behind and reach for the good. And most of all, we need to make the city together, because WE are the city.

Theme of this year

In this second edition of “Reinventing the City”, the overarching theme will be ‘Blueprints for messy cities? Navigating the interplay of order and complexity'. In three captivating days, we will explore ‘The good, the bad, and the ugly’ (day 1), ‘Amazing discoveries’ (day 2) and ‘We are the city’ (day 3).

Day 1: 'The good, the bad, and the ugly'
The first day of the AMS Conference primarily focuses on the messiness: the various aspects of urban development and innovation. "The good" refers to success stories and positive developments in cities. "The bad" relates to challenges and issues that cities face, and "the ugly" pertains to less attractive aspects of urban development. This theme explores how cities, both in terms of space and users, evolve in both positive and negative ways.
Day 2: 'Amazing discoveries'
The second day of the conference concentrates on pioneering research and innovations, both technical and social, in the field of urban renewal and sustainability. Here, we ask participants to present and discuss new and exciting discoveries that have a positive impact on urban areas. We focus on areas such as mobility, food, circularity, energy, climate resilience, and smart data.
Day 3: 'WE are the city'
This theme emphasizes that the people living and working in cities play an essential role in urban renewal and development. This can involve community engagement, citizen participation, public-private partnerships, and the importance of involving all stakeholders in the city. Only together can we create livable and inclusive cities.

Topics
mobility | circularity | energy transition | climate adaptation | urban food systems | digitization | diversity | inclusion | living labs | transdisciplinary research

Registration Options

  • Full Conference Access: Immerse yourself in the entire event, spanning three captivating days, each dedicated to a distinct theme:
    • Day 1: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
    • Day 2: Amazing Discoveries
    • Day 3: We Are the City
  • Single-Day Access: If your schedule is tight, you can opt for a single-day pass to attend the day that interests you the most.
  • Student Access: To encourage student participation in our conference, we offer exclusive student rates. Universities often provide funding opportunities to support students in attending conferences like ours. We encourage students to explore the available funds and grants at their respective universities. It's a great way to help offset the costs of your participation. Please note that student passes are available to currently enrolled students with valid student IDs.

Conference Fees

  • Full Conference Pass: €650,-
  • Single-Day Pass: €150,-
  • Student Full Conference pass: €200,-
AMS Institute's picture Conference from Apr 23rd to Apr 25th
Noor Veenhoven, Program manager energy & circularity at Amsterdam Smart City, posted

Finding underground infrastructure without digging

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Following the Data Dilemmas event in October, which focused on underground infrastructure, this deep dive session delved further into the question: How can we look under the ground without digging? The session began with an introduction by Alliander, followed by additional insights from Port of Amsterdam, Eurofiber, City of Amsterdam, and Stedin. After exploring the issue, various parties pitched their solutions.

The problem of Alliander

Alliander is anticipating a significant workload in the next 2-10 years, requiring a lot of resources (personnel, materials, and services). We are transitioning away from gas, which means that many gas connections have to be removed. Currently, Alliander is removing around 12,000 connections per year, this is expected to increase to around 100,000 in 2030.

The primary challenge in the removal process is locating the gas line. Due to missing or outdated drawings, ground subsidence, or discrepancies between installation and location, they are often difficult to locate. This leads to time-consuming and costly excavation and often excavation damage.

Alliander employs several search methods to locate the gas lines:

  • Probe: This is a probe that can be entered via the main gas valve, with a transmitter so that you can trace it from the outside.
  • Gas camera:  Attached to the probe to see where the gas connections are.
  • Ground penetrating radar (GPR): Sonar scan of the ground.
  • Chenny: Similar to probe.
  • Frequency on metal tubes: For metal pipes, you can set a frequency on the pipe that can be detected.
  • Ultra-sonic: By putting a sound signal on the pipe you can register the vibrating gas molecules with a microphone.

These techniques are not always sufficient and come with many drawbacks. This is why Alliander is seeking a better way for technicians to know where to dig without opening the ground.

Additional Insights

Additional insights from various stakeholders highlight common challenges related to underground infrastructure. The main problem is that the data of the underground is not the same as the real-time situation. This leads to scanning methods being necessary in the first place.
The data which is documented is also lacking because it doesn’t show things such as ground pollution, and the z-coordinate (depth) is also missing. There is potential for improvement since most parties have better databases of their own assets. This data is unfortunately not shared since it is not required by KLIC (Information and Coordination Center for Underground Infrastructure).

Solution Pitches

1. SpectroAG – Hamed Mehdipoor: Combines GPR, electromagnetic wave emission, robots, and drones to scan large ground areas in high resolution. The data is analyzed by an AI Brain Cloud, providing a 3D representation of asset locations. Challenges may arise in areas with clay ground, since this is always a problem with GPR.

2. Inframent – Marina Kurnevich: A startup addressing asset registration issues. Their solution involves taking photos of open trenches with a smartphone or tablet, instantly uploading them to their application, and adding location data. This ensures immediate and accurate registration of underground data.

3. Infratags – Henk Schwietert (Evalan): Their passive (no battery) RFID tags (Infratags) can be attached to cables and connection sleeves, allowing easy identification above ground using a scanner. The low-cost tags, around 50 cents each, can easily help find tagged assets. However, challenges include conflicting interests and delayed returns on investment. The Infratag was developed in collaboration with Tallo.

4. HvA Sensorlab - Marcel van der Horst: While not offering a direct solution, HvA Sensorlab has students capable of working on the problem. They have access to advanced equipment for developing or improving solutions.

5. VLabs – Diemer Cohen Stuart: Uses GIS data and Augmented Reality (AR) to visualize accurate geodata through AR glasses. This simplifies operational work, improves quality control, and allows for on-site guidance with work instructions. The glasses provide 5-10 cm accuracy, with a cost of 8500 euros per pair.

Are you interested in any of these solutions, would you like more information, or do you have an even better solution? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to Noor – noor@amsterdamsmartcity.com, or leave a comment below. We will continue with this topic in 2024!

Noor Veenhoven's picture #Energy
Amsterdam Economic Board, posted

Vacature: Communicatiemedewerker (10 uur per week)

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Ben jij student communicatie, hbo of wo? Zoek je een geweldig leuke, flexibele bijbaan als communicatiemedewerker, met veel eigen verantwoordelijkheid in hartje Amsterdam? Solliciteer direct!

Amsterdam Economic Board is op zoek naar een enthousiaste student die per 1 februari 2024 het communicatieteam helpt met mailings, content en events.  We werken op een geweldige plek in Amsterdam: het Marineterrein. Je kunt ook vanuit huis werken en je eigen tijd indelen. De 10 uur per week verdeel je, in overleg, over een aantal dagen.

Wie zijn wij?

Amsterdam Economic Board is het netwerk van bedrijven, kennisinstellingen, overheden en maatschappelijke organisaties met wie je samenwerkt aan de slimme, groene en gezonde Metropool van Morgen. Onze grote kracht is ons sterke en relevante netwerk, zoals onze Board, de Network Council, Young on Board en andere partners met wie we bouwen aan coalities. Dat doen we binnen de belangrijke, maatschappelijke thema’s waar Amsterdam Economic Board aan werkt. Samen zetten we initiatieven in gang, als antwoord op complexe uitdagingen.

Wie ben jij?

  • Je bent student communicatie (hbo of wo)
  • Je vindt het leuk om ervaring op te doen in een dynamisch communicatieteam
  • Je bent gemotiveerd om je te verdiepen in de onderwerpen waar we aan werken
  • Je bent een aanpakker die makkelijk switcht tussen taken. Je werkt planmatig, bent praktisch en dienstverlenend
  • Je durft vragen te stellen en met oplossingen te komen
  • Je hebt uitstekende kennis van de Nederlandse en Engelse taal (een schrijfopdracht kan deel uitmaken van de sollicitatieprocedure)
  • Ervaring is niet nodig, maar mag natuurlijk wel.

Wat ga je doen als communicatiemedewerker?

  • Je publiceert actuele content op onze website (WordPress) en social media-kanalen (LinkedIn en X)
  • Je geeft event-uitnodigingen en de nieuwsbrief vorm in Mailchimp en verzorgt eventregistratie in Eventbrite
  • Je helpt bij diverse events en bijeenkomsten
  • Je maakt presentaties in Powerpoint

Wat bieden wij?

  • Een functie per 1 februari 2024 voor 10 uur per week
  • Een werkweek die is aangepast aan je studierooster. Je verdeelt je werktijd flexibel over minimaal 3 dagen (binnen kantooruren)
  • Een jaarcontract
  • Je verdient €17,78 bruto per uur, aangevuld met vakantie- en eindejaartoeslag en diverse vergoedingen.

Interesse gewekt?

Dan horen we graag van je! Stuur uiterlijk 3 januari 2024 je cv en een korte motivatie via solliciteren@amecboard.com. Na de sluitingsdatum maken wij een selectie en hoor je of we je uitnodigen voor een kennismakingsgesprek kort daarna. Een schrijfopdracht kan deel uitmaken van de procedure.

Neem voor meer informatie over de functie contact op met Andrea Joosse via a.joosse@amecboard.com of 06 23 06 38 38. En bekijk vooral onze website. Hopelijk spreken we elkaar snel!

Amsterdam Economic Board's picture #CircularCity
Sanne van Kempen, Marketing & Communications Lead at Spectral, posted

Spectral Receives Investment from ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund to Scale its Operations

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Spectral, a pioneer in the integration of energy and information technologies and a highly impactful scale-up in the energy sphere, is excited to announce a major turning point in its expansion. Spectral has successfully secured an investment from ABN AMRO’s Sustainable Impact Fund (SIF). The fund invests in impact-driven companies seeking both social and financial returns. The investment will primarily be used to scale and professionalize operations.

Sanne van Kempen's picture #Energy
Kerstin Gerlagh, General Manager , posted

Swedish Chamber Tech for Good by Ericsson at the 5G Hub Eindhoven

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The Swedish Chamber of Commerce and Ericsson is very pleased to invite you and your business relations to the exciting Swedish Chamber of Commerce Tech for Good – 5G Impact on Sustainability, which will be hosted by Ericsson on November 7, 2023, at the 5G Hub at High Tech Campus Eindhoven.
The digital transformation is an important enabler for companies to become more sustainable: when business processes become more efficient, companies will be able to save energy and/or reduce CO2 emissions. 5G plays a key role in the digital transformation. This is demonstrated at the 5G-Hub in Eindhoven, a joint initiative of Ericsson, Vodafone-Ziggo, Brainport Eindhoven, and High Tech Campus. The 5G hub was established to promote innovation and stimulate solutions that help improve sustainability.

This event is offered free of charge, registration is however, compulsory.

Sign up at the Swedish Chamber of Commerce website:
November 7, 2023 Tech for Good by Ericsson at the 5G Hub – Swedish Chamber of Commerce

For more information visit our website or send an email to events@swedishchamber.nl

Meet-up on Nov 7th
Noor Veenhoven, Program manager energy & circularity at Amsterdam Smart City, posted

Technologies that allow for looking underground without digging

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The ground is full of cables, pipes, and other assets but we don’t always know exactly where they are located. Digging is the most common practice to look for assets, however, this has many negative impacts. It can lead to damage to assets, it costs time and money to dig, and it is often an inconvenience to the direct surroundings.

Therefore, it would be extremely convenient if we could find methods to locate assets without having to dig. We are looking for start-ups, research groups, and knowledge institutions that have developed or can develop a technology that can scan, detect, or sense, underground assets without digging.

Are you the person we are looking for, or do you know the person or organisation we are looking for? Please let us know by sending a message to noor@amsterdamsmartcity.com or leaving a comment below.

Noor Veenhoven's picture #Energy
Adriaan van Eck, Implementing IoT & Smart Energy , posted

Smart Energy Community - Elaad Testlab - Arnhem

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Op 31 oktober organiseren FAN en TKI Urban Energy de tweede fysieke netwerkbijeenkomst van de Smart Energy Community, in het testlab van ElaadNL, Arnhem, met als onderwerp:
 
Domotica en Home Energy Management Systems in de praktijk
 
Eindgebruikers aan het woord
Hoe weerbarstig is de praktijk? Sommige eindgebruikers zijn zelf al aan de slag gegaan met domotica om hun energiegebruik slim aan te sturen. Wij laten drie van deze enthousiastelingen aan het woord: Jan Kerdel, Michiel Damoiseaux & Harm van den Brink. Wat zijn hun ervaringen? Waar liepen ze tegenaan?
 
Setting the scene: HEMS & Domotica
Jasmijn Kleij van TKI Urban Energy gaat in op de vraag of Domotica ook kansen op voor slim energiemanagement biedt, of dat het nu nog vooral een oplossing voor de enthousiaste knutselaars.
 
Praktische lessen uit Belgie
Giovanni Oorthuizen van Xemex zal een presentatie geven over de nieuwe wet- en regelgeving in België, hoe zij daarop inspelen met energiediensten, en hun ervaringen met eindgebruikers.
 
En verder
* Paneldiscussie over Domotica, energiemanagement en de rol van de eindgebruiker
* Speeddaten & netwerken
 
Aanmelden
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/subscribe
 
Volledige programma ochtendsessie:
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/wiki/924116/ochtendprogramma
 
Volledige programma middagsessie: 'Smart Energy Day 2.0', georganiseerd door TKI Urban Energy, Dutch Power, Connectr, RVO en ElaadNL
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/part_program

Adriaan van Eck's picture Conference on Oct 31st
Noor Veenhoven, Program manager energy & circularity at Amsterdam Smart City, posted

Demoday #21: How to share the learnings of Local Energy Systems and form a coalition

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When thinking about the decarbonization of cities, Local Energy Systems (LES) are often mentioned as one of the key enablers in the future. While there is agreement that LES have a role to play in the energy system of the future, what exactly is this role and how do we scale up implementation of this solution?

Cities are a major source of GHG emissions, with UN estimates suggesting that cities are responsible for ~75% of global emissions, mainly by means of transport and energy use in buildings. The decarbonization of buildings within urban areas can prove especially difficult, as space is limited, issues like grid congestion delay further electrification and there are a lot of stakeholders involved.

LES can be a solution in the decarbonisation of buildings in urban areas, like residential spaces, business parks and hybrid areas, creating positive energy districts that simultaneously reduce their impact on the grid.  Preliminary LES pilot programs indicate that a LES can support decarbonization by integrating renewable generation and efficiently using energy by decreasing energy losses due to smart grids, communal energy management systems and by combining generation and use as locally as possible. We are however still in the early stages of building and growing LES around the globe, which is why we are focused on getting the right stakeholders together and learning about the requirements for scaling up such systems.

## Case & Set-up of the Session

During the latest Transition Day we hosted a work session on the topic of LES. In the past months, a number of partners in the Amsterdam Smart City network have expressed interest in the topic and would like to work together on the topic. Simultaneously the HvA, who is working on the ATELIER project with the aim to create Positive Energy Districts (PEDs), developed a framework to structurally categorize the various aspects involved in implemeting a LES. During the Demo Day, we considered two topics related to LES The first was a the framework created by the HvA, with the intention of capturing feedback and validating the approach.  Secondly, we considered how we can move from an informal network around LES, to a structural coalition that can scale up the concept.

## Insights

A framework for structurally capturing aspects of a LES

Omar Shafqat from the HvA / ATELIer project presented their framework for structurally capturing and monitoring aspects of LES. The framework categorizes various aspects into policy, market, technical and social considerations (from top to bottom). Next to that, it divides these aspects on a timeline along a planning horizon from longer term (planning) to shorter term (management). The framework is shown below in this image.

In response to the framework, the participants shared some the following feedback:
-        Testing the framework is necessary to validate and improve it. This implies an inventorization of LES projects and working through a few specific cases to check how the framework can be applied, and how it can benefit project managers/owners.
-        The framework should also be presented and validated by other key stakeholders such as Amsterdam’s “Task Force Congestion Management”.
-        Participants raised the question of who exactly will use the framework, and how? Is this intended as an instrument to be used primarily by academics, and researchers, or also by practitioners?

Forming a coalition on the advancement of LES

The second part of the work session was moderated by Joost Schouten from Royal Haskoning DHV, who led the discussion on the need for building a coalition around LES. He argued that the further development of LES requires an ecosystem approach, since multiple parties with different interests are involved, but there is no clear ‘owner’ of the problem.

A ‘coalition of the willing’ could help to advance the development of LES. A discussion in breakouts led to the following insights:
-        A coalition should be formed by the community itself, but it requires a party that coordinates during the kick-off phase. A discussion emerged around whose role should be to take on the coordination phase. Some participants were of the view that this should be led by a governmental party, others thought this should be organised by a network party like Amsterdam Smart City.
-        To effectively build a coalition, the involved parties need to be interdependent. To make sure that it is clear that the parties in a LES are interdependent, the parties need to state their interests in developing a LES, to determine whether there is a common goal.
-        Even when these interests are not fully aligned, communication between parties can help bridge gaps. Discussion leads to understanding and empathy.
-        An ambassador can be a vital enabler in the beginning of building a coalition, as a clear face and point of contact for such a group.
-        There are already many other communities and coalitions working on topics related to LES, including but not limited to 02025, New Amsterdam Climate platform, TET-ORAM, TopSector Energie, among others.  A key question is whether a new coalition is necessary, or whether it should be possible to join forces with an existing coalition / initiative.

## Conclusions and next steps

Many work session participants indicated support and interest to further contribute to the development of the LES project. The HvA framework was viewed as a useful tool to capture learnings from LES projects to facilitate scaling up. Additionally, the question of how to facilitate collaboration and coalition forming requires further attention. There are many parties involved in the development of LES, and they don’t always have the same interests. However, this is not an issue that any party can ‘own’ or ‘solve’ on its own. It requires an ecosystem approach, which is something that will need to be further detailed.

For now, we will simultaneously work on further building the coalition and looking for LES projects that can be used to test and further develop the framework. If you would like to know more or get involved in the project, for example by contributing you own LES to be tested by the framework itself, let me know via noor@amsterdamsmartycity.com.

This challenge was introduced in the Amsterdam Smart City network by Lennart Zwols from gemeente Amsterdam and Omar Shafqat (HvA). The session was prepared with and moderated by Joost Schouten from Royal HaskoningDHV. Do you have any questions or input for us? Contact me via noor@amsterdamsmartcity.com or leave a comment below. Would you like to know more about the LES challenge? You can find the overview of the challenge with the reports of all the sessions here.

Noor Veenhoven's picture #Energy
Adriaan van Eck, Implementing IoT & Smart Energy , posted

Smart Energy Community - Elaad Testlab - Arnhem

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Op 31 oktober organiseren FAN en TKI Urban Energy de tweede fysieke netwerkbijeenkomst van de Smart Energy Community, in het testlab van ElaadNL, Arnhem, met als onderwerp:
 
Domotica en Home Energy Management Systems in de praktijk
 
Eindgebruikers aan het woord
Hoe weerbarstig is de praktijk? Sommige eindgebruikers zijn zelf al aan de slag gegaan met domotica om hun energiegebruik slim aan te sturen. Wij laten drie van deze enthousiastelingen aan het woord: Jan Kerdel, Michiel Damoiseaux & Harm van den Brink. Wat zijn hun ervaringen? Waar liepen ze tegenaan?
 
Setting the scene: HEMS & Domotica
Jasmijn Kleij van TKI Urban Energy gaat in op de vraag of Domotica ook kansen op voor slim energiemanagement biedt, of dat het nu nog vooral een oplossing voor de enthousiaste knutselaars.
 
Praktische lessen uit Belgie
Giovanni Oorthuizen van Xemex zal een presentatie geven over de nieuwe wet- en regelgeving in België, hoe zij daarop inspelen met energiediensten, en hun ervaringen met eindgebruikers.
 
En verder
* Paneldiscussie over Domotica, energiemanagement en de rol van de eindgebruiker
* Speeddaten & netwerken
 
Aanmelden
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/subscribe
 
Volledige programma ochtendsessie:
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/wiki/924116/ochtendprogramma
 
Volledige programma middagsessie: 'Smart Energy Day 2.0', georganiseerd door TKI Urban Energy, Dutch Power, Connectr, RVO en ElaadNL
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/part_program

Adriaan van Eck's picture #Energy
Regine Wehner, Project Manager , posted

ATELIER - Positive Energy Districts

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ATELIER is an EU funded project about AmsTErdam and BiLbao cItizen drivEn smaRt cities, aiming to create and replicate Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) within eight European cities. ATELIER showcases innovative solutions that integrate buildings with smart mobility and technologies to create rather than consume energy in its two Lighthouse Cities Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Bilbao (Spain). The Fellow Cities of ATELIER, Bratislava (Slovak Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Copenhagen (Denmark), Krakow (Poland), Matosinhos (Portugal), and Riga (Latvia), will replicate and adapt the successfully implemented solutions and thus serve as testbeds for future smart cities. Overall, ATELIER will thus generate an energy surplus of 1340 MWh of primary energy and save 1,7 kt of CO2 and 23 t of NOx-emissions.
To achieve successful implementations of energy saving measures, ATELIER puts citizens at the centre of all its activities: residents (<9000), local initiatives and energy communities will be included in decision-making processes and activities and will be strongly engaged in the development of the technical solutions throughout the project. Citizens will be involved in the Innovation Ateliers to create a maximum impact for the PEDs.
30 partners from 11 countries are working in 10 work packages.

Learn more about ATELIER at its public website (http://www.smartcity-atelier.eu/) or via the ATELIER Twitter and LinkedIn channels. Sign up here (link follows) for the ATELIER newsletter. Follow the project virtually and don’t miss an opportunity to come talk to its partners at events to learn more about how ATELIER will improve the life of its citizens and the liveability in its cities!

#Energy
Noor Veenhoven, Program manager energy & circularity at Amsterdam Smart City, posted

The next step for Local Energy Systems

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Thursday, the 30th of August, we had the first follow-up session about Local Energy Systems (LES) since the Transition day session in June. Over the summer Omar Shafqat (HvA, ATELIER), dr. Renée Heller (HvA), and Lennart Zwols (municipality of Amsterdam), have worked on finding a solution to the barriers to scaling up LES. They focused on the barrier of sharing information and learnings of LES projects. In this session, Omar presented a framework that could help overcome this barrier.

A barrier to scaling up LES: Lack of knowledge
In the previous session, we discussed how the difficulty with starting a new LES project is often that the information on how to do this is not readily available. Many pilots have been done, or are still ongoing, and there are definitely reports on the learnings of these pilots. Unfortunately, these learnings are not always available to everyone, and if they are, quite difficult to find and aggregate.
Lennart therefore proposed to make a framework in which we can gather all the information on LES pilots and projects, so we have a central place for the collecting and sharing of information. Omar and Renée have created this framework, which Omar presented in this session. The framework has three objectives:

1.     Collecting the learnings of the pilots in one place.
2.     Defining the gaps in our knowledge.
3.     Creating a starting point for people who want to create their own LES.

Definition of a Local Energy System
To properly create a framework in which various information of relevant LES projects can be collected, it was necessary to have a good definition of a LES. Omar presented the definition as follows:
A local energy system is an interactive, non-linear system that must contain:

  • Local generation
  • Controllable demand
  • Storage
  • Energy Management Systems
  • Energy communities

IMAGE DEFINITION LES

Hans Roeland Polman (AMS) commented that he was missing the infrastructure in this definition. Omar clarified that the lines between these five entities symbolize the infrastructure and that it is indeed an important component of LESs.
When we speak of LES it is always a balancing act. Different stakeholders have different objectives for implementing a LES, maximizing renewables, minimizing costs, flexibility/congestion, grid dependence, etc. This implies that the aspects of a LES are of differing importance to stakeholders, which is important to take into account with information gathering and sharing.

The first version of the framework for collecting information
After discussing the definition of LES, we dived into the framework. The goal of this framework is to have one format in which we collect information and learnings from all the LES pilots and projects (starting with the ones in our own network). This will allow us to speak a common language, easily compare projects, identify stakeholders and their interests, see where the knowledge gaps are, and more easily find specific information about LES.

Note: This framework is not the interface for the end-user. The framework should be used to catalogue information and learnings so that we have the information on all the different projects in the same format. We can then use this to build a user interface that end-users can interact with. How to best do this is still a topic of discussion.
The framework is presented below. On the x-axis, you can see the time scale. On the left you have the long-term (planning) phase, and on the right the short-term (management) phase.

On the left side, you can see the four areas in which the framework is divided:

  • Policy
  • Energy markets
  • Energy systems
  • Community/user aspects

The colour-coded third dimensions show which blocks relate to certain topics of interest, and should have information added on this topic. The topics of interest that have been added now are:

  • Congestion
  • Energy balance

It might be interesting to add others as well.

IMAGE LES FRAMEWORK

It was suggested by the group that electricity/heating might also be an interesting topic to add. Hans (AMS) also suggested that it would be interesting to add information about local infrastructure, such as a local heat network.

Discussion and questions
After the presentation of the framework a discussion followed. Many questions were raised which require further examination. A few of the key questions were:

  • What should the scope be of this framework? Are we just looking at our own region, or do we want it to be used on a much larger scale?
  • How do we connect to the other organizations and projects to this framework, and refrain from doing double work?
  • Who is the owner of this framework and will keep it up to date?
  • To make this framework usable for project managers, it should have a clear template that can be filled in. Who is going to make this, and how do we ensure that project managers of LES projects fill this in?

Next steps and call to action:
There are still many questions that need to be answered, and we will continue the research and learn by doing. We will start with the ATELIER and the LIFE project, to see if we can put them into this framework. This will be done by Omar (HvA, ATELIER), and Hans (AMS, LIFE). They will also create the first version of a template in which the information can be collected so that project managers can fill out this information. This will then be tested with the project managers of the LIFE project to see if the template and framework are indeed workable.

This will give a good starting point to see if the framework is suitable for the collection of information and learnings of LES projects. However, it will be far from complete. The ATELIER and LIFE projects don’t contain all the topics to properly test the framework and create templates for everything. We therefore need more partners with LES projects that can help test and develop this framework.

So if you are working on a Local Energy System project, and you would like to help further develop the framework, by giving feedback on the framework itself or using your project to validate the effectiveness of the framework, please let us know.

Noor Veenhoven's picture #Energy
Adriaan van Eck, Implementing IoT & Smart Energy , posted

Free KNX Smart Energy IoT workshop at FLEXCON2023 September 20 - 14.00 – 16.30 hours – max 8 developers.

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KNX and FLEXCON2023 are hosting an in-depth KNX IoT development workshop. Are you a developer who wants to build Smart Energy applications? Bring your RPi’s and other Linux devices and come to Les Brigittines in Brussels on September 20th ! Connect heatpumps, EV's, Solar systems, smart meters, sensors, batteries etc to the smartgrid

In this workshop, you will get to understand the KNX IoT development approach. You will get your hands om a state-of-the-art test bench, equipped with a virtual KNX installation featuring actuators with load control and real-time current detection, providing instant power consumption insights.

The workshop is free of charge. We have only 8 spots available, so apply now! For more information and subscription to the KNX IoT workshop on September 20th:
https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7460981/FLEXCON-2023-KNX-IoT-Workshop

For information on the #FLEXCON2023 event:
https://flexcon.energy

Adriaan van Eck's picture #Energy
Shilpa S, Talent Acquistition Specialist at Spectral, posted

Vacature Technisch Projectmanager (Smart Energy Solutions)

De rol

Als onze nieuwe projectmanager:

  • Communiceer je met allerlei belanghebbenden over het beloop van projecten. Intern zijn dat bijvoorbeeld: de business developers, finance manager, het product & delivery team, en het managementteam. Je communiceert extern met onze klanten, partners, en leveranciers.
  • Je begeleidt projecten van begin tot einde: je stapt in tijdens het tekenen van het contract, begeleidt de ontwikkeling, en viert de succesvolle oplevering.
  • Je staat klanten, indien nodig, bij tijdens het gebruik van onze producten.
  • Je bepaalt samen met business development de scope van het project en definieert de doelen die we willen behalen.
  • Je bereidt samen met business development de budgetten voor, gebaseerd op de scope van het project en de vraag vanuit het team.
  • Je houdt de kosten van het project bij, zodat we binnen budget blijven.
  • Je ontwikkelt een gedetailleerde planning voor het project, inclusief mijlpalen en updatemomenten, en houdt die bij.
  • Je communiceert consistente updates naar interne en externe belanghebbenden over de strategie, aanpassingen, en de voortgang.
  • Je beheert de contracten met leveranciers en communiceert onze verwachtingen met hen.
  • Je meet de resultaten van de projecten en identificeert mogelijke verbeterpunten.
  • Je reist indien nodig naar onze klanten (binnen Nederland) om met hen te overleggen.

Teamgrootte: 5
Rapporteert aan: Technical Project Manager Team Lead

Over jou

Je bent een ervaren project manager met een hart voor duurzaamheid die op zoek is naar een volgende uitdaging.

MUST-HAVES

  • Minstens 2 jaar ervaring in projectmanagement en dergelijke rollen 
  • Minstens 3 jaar ervaring in ten minste een van deze branches:
    ○ Smart grids
    ○ (Hernieuwbare) energie(opslag)
    ○ Control & automation
    ○ Software engineering
    ○ ICT-systemen
  • Bewezen vermogen om problemen creatief op te lossen
  • Je bent bekend met projectmanagementsoftware (zoals ASANA) en -methodes
  • Ervaring met het managen van projecten van begin tot einde
  • Uitstekende analytische vaardigheden - je ziet het verschil tussen de hoofdboodschap en de ruis eromheen
  • Sterke socialevaardigheden, of je gesprekspartner nou je collega, een klant, of een partnerbedrijf is
  • Bewezen vermogen om projecten af te maken volgens de geplande scope, budget, en tijdslijn
  • Je spreekt en schrijft vloeiend Engels (de voertaal op kantoor is Engels)
  • Je spreekt en schrijft vloeiend Nederlands (onze klanten bevinden zich voornamelijk in Nederland)

 

NICE-TO-HAVES

  • Ervaring met ontwikkelgereedschap zoals GITlab
  • Ervaring met electrische/duurzaam energie systemen
  • Ervaring met power systems en SCADA systemen

 

Ons aanbod

  • Marktconform salaris met bonus bij goed functioneren van het bedrijf en het team
  • Twee keer per week biologische, vegetarische lunch op kantoor, vrijdagmiddagborrel, vers fruit
  • Uitdagende rol in ambitieuze, internationale werkomgeving, met veel ruimte voor eigen inbreng en persoonlijke ontwikkeling
  • Hecht en gezellig team
  • De kans om écht het verschil te maken in de mondiale energietransitie
  • Bijzondere, innovatieve projecten met impactvolle, toonaangevende klanten en partners

De startdatum is flexibel, maar je zou direct kunnen beginnen.
Lees hier meer over ons en over onze projecten hier.
Klinkt goed? Klik op onderstaande knop om te solliciteren. We kijken ernaar uit van u te horen!

#Energy
Shilpa S, Talent Acquistition Specialist at Spectral, posted

Vacature Technisch Consultant/ Energy Consultant at Spectral

De rol

Je wordt onderdeel van het Spectral Consultancy Team, een klein team van consultants en engineers met een grote drive om innovatieve en impactvolle projecten te kick-starten.

Als technisch consultant ga je een belangrijke bijdrage leveren aan het begeleiden en adviseren van onze opdrachtgevers op het snijvlak van duurzame gebiedsontwikkeling en intelligente energienetwerken.

De projecten die wij uitvoeren zijn bij voorkeur gericht op de mogelijke implementatie van één van onze (toekomstige) smart grid platformen om daarmee duurzame impact te realiseren. Ons werk bestaat uit technisch-financiële haalbaarheidsstudies, potentie-analyses voor het ontsluiten en vermarkten van flexibiliteit, het ontwerpen van integrale, duurzame energieoplossingen en het begeleiden van tendertrajecten voor bijvoorbeeld batterijsystemen.

Jouw technisch (voor)ontwerp en overzicht van technische en functionele eisen vormt de start voor het werk van de development teams binnen Spectral.

Je werkt hierbij dagelijks samen met je collega's van het Consultancy Team en met de andere specialisten en developers die binnen Spectral rondlopen.

Binnen een project worden er verschillende vaardigheden van je gevraagd: de begeleiding van het gehele proces, maar ook subtaken als het eerste kennismakingsgesprek, het formuleren en formaliseren van de opdracht, het (mede) uitvoeren van de adviesopdracht of het technisch ontwerp en het geven van en een wervende eindpresentatie.

Met jouw inhoudelijke expertise en scherpe visie op het gebied van slimme, integrale en duurzame energietechnologieën breng je het Consultancy Team naar een hoger niveau.

Deze functie is gevestigd in Nederland 

Over jou

MUST-HAVES

  • Je hebt minimaal 2 jaar relevante werkervaring op het gebied van (duurzame) energie, bij voorkeur als technisch consultant of engineer
  • Je hebt een afgeronde HBO/WO opleiding in een technische richting met een sterke interesse in (duurzame) energietechnologie
  • Je bent communicatief sterk, zowel in woord als geschrift, in Nederlands (moedertaal) en Engels (Engels is de voertaal binnen Spectral)
  • Je krijgt er energie van om samen te werken met opdrachtgevers, stakeholders en het interne team
  • Je staat ervoor open om te ontdekken waar je, buiten het consultancy team om, binnen Spectral nog meer waarde kan toevoegen en je talenten tot uiting kunt brengen
  • Je bent technisch sterk onderlegd en hebt een veelzijdige en analytische blik op de energietransitie. 
  • Je bent in staat om vanuit een helikopterview problemen te analyseren, oplossingen aan te dragen en dit te vertalen in een technisch (voor)ontwerp.
  • Je bent ondernemend, proactief en leergierig en in staat om zowel zelfstandig als in een team te werken
  • Je voelt je comfortabel in een relatief jonge en snelgroeiende organisatie met een turbulente en ambitieuze werkomgeving waar we allemaal net even dat stapje extra zetten om de klantverwachting te overtreffen en impact te maken
  • Je hebt, net als de rest van het team, een tomeloze drive voor duurzame energie-innovatie en je krijgt al energie bij de gedachte aan het verder (internationaal) opschalen van de onderneming

NICE-TO-HAVES 

  • Modelleerervaring (bijvoorbeeld Python of MATLAB)
  • Ervaring met business case berekeningen
  • Je krijgt energie van het scoren van new business

Kom bij het team

CV en motivatiebrief dient in het Nederlands te zijn

Klinkt goed? Solliciteer dan via https://jobs.spectral.energy/technisch-consultant

#Energy
Amsterdam Economic Board, posted

Investeren in de Metropool Amsterdam doen we samen

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Welke investeringen zijn nodig voor de transitie naar de slimme, groene, gezonde Metropool van Morgen? Onderzoeksbureau Birch bracht het in kaart, in opdracht van de Metropoolregio Amsterdam en Amsterdam Economic Board.

Het rapport van Birch inventariseert de ambities en plannen van regionale kennisinstellingen, bedrijven, maatschappelijke organisaties en overheden. En analyseert welke belangrijke vervolgstappen de regio nog moet nemen. Door voort te bouwen op de aanbevelingen hopen we de mogelijkheid tot investeren in de hele metropool te vergroten.

De focus ligt daarbij op transitie-thema's binnen digitalisering en duurzaamheid:
⦿ Gezondheid en preventie
⦿ Veilig datadelen
⦿ Artificial Intelligence
⦿ Duurzame digitale infrastructuur
⦿ Biobased en modulair bouwen
⦿ Slimme mobiliteit
⦿ Waterstof
⦿ Slimme energiesystemen

Ben jij met jouw organisatie betrokken bij een van die thema's? Lees het artikel en neem contact op om mee te denken over investeringsmogelijkheden.

Amsterdam Economic Board's picture #DigitalCity
Patricia Hoogland, Programma- en communicatiemanager at Amsterdam Smart City, posted

Transition day 2023: Local Energy systems, scale up, scale up, scale up

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Energetic for energy

The technology is here. People and organizations are there. We have a lot of learnings from innovation pilots like Live and Atelier: we're all set. And yet, scaling up local energy systems like Live and Atelier seems to be incredibly difficult. What are the obstacles and barriers to scaling up these initiatives? These questions were the focus of the working session "local energy systems, scale up, scale up, scale up”.   The partners unanimously recognized the issue of scaling up as it affected all of them, and enthousiastically engaged in the work session.

Barrieres for upscaling

Together we searched for the actual challenges where local energy systems can be a solution, and the barriers for upscaling. We looked at the first actionable follow-up steps to achieve the required upscaling.

We chose a <em>chair battle</em> as work format and had an open and honest conversation about the challenges we face. It was fascinating to see that sometimes the different stakeholders, despite having the same goal, cannot come to an agreement and this can lead to considerable frustration.   

What we learned?

A lot! The picture report says more than a thousand words, but  in short:
·      We can only solve this challenge together; and that’s difficult
·      Citizens and companies often do not know where to go and often do not know the existing possibilities
·      We have the same goal, but there are many different interests
·      The solutions are already there

And now?

We will continue the topic with great energy in the coming period and try to set up a fixed program structure to keep the development up to speed. 

Do you want to know more about this challenge? Please let me know. patricia@amsterdamsmartcity.com

Patricia Hoogland's picture #Energy
Jessica van der Plas, Program Officer Energy & Circular at Amsterdam Smart City, posted

Demo Day #20 : Upscaling ATELIER Buiksloterham

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To mitigate climate changes and reduce CO2 emissions, the transition of the current energy system to a more sustainable and decentralized one is needed. In Amsterdam, the Buiksloterham demonstration project from ATELIER is paving the way for this transition. Buiksloterham is a Positive Energy District (PEDs) in practise, in which a local smart energy system and P2P trading governed by a citizen’s energy cooperation is implemented. The ambition of ATELIER/Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences is to research how to upscale and replicate this PED. For the Demo Day on the 16th of May, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences asked the Amsterdam Smart City network to discuss how we can learn from the Buiksloterham project to support replication and upscaling. Read through the most valuable outtakes from this session below.

What learnings to focus on?

Starting off, the participants pointed out that it would be most important to learn which choices have been made and why. Therefore, we need to keep track of these decisions and their outcomes. It was suggested to write down all the arguments for the choices made and create a matrix that shows what works or doesn’t work.

It would also be useful to make an impact assessment that shows how much CO2 and electricity is being saved a year. Another great source of information would be around collaboration, specifically with the network operator for example. How did the connection of the PED to the grid go and what learnings are to be gained from that collaboration wise?

Drivers for community involvement

Gathering the insights around community involvement would also be helpful. Danijela and Renée, from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, explained how it has been difficult to get the community involved in the project. Based on the experience of the worksession participants, we concluded this is an issue in other local energy system projects as well. It would be great to investigate why this is the case and what the residents need/desire.

The participants suggest looking at the project from the (possible) resident’s point of view; Why would I want to live in a PED building? What’s in it for the residents?
There is a lot of focus on getting people on board with economic benefits, but is that actually what people want? This could also be connected to comprehensive wellbeing. What else can people benefit from by living in a PED and/or being involved in the community?

Local CO2 reduction vs national grid relief

The issue of getting people on board by promising lower energy costs brings up another question; Is this way of trading energy beneficial for the energy grid capacity? How would it work if we would all start trading energy?

A battery can be very useful for an energy community, for example. But batteries can actually put more load on the energy grid than needed and are therefore not always desirable when you look at it from the municipalities point of view. Local solutions for CO2 reduction and/or economic benefit could burden the national grid.

It is important to keep this in mind when creating the targets for a local energy system. In order to scale up the ATELIER project, it is therefore key to not only maximise economic value but also include other values. If the main focus is on creating economic benefit in order the gain the interest of the community, it is important to keep the effects on the national grid in mind.

New energy law

Finalizing the discussion, we shortly discussed the new energy law. This law says that you cannot own your own grid. Only the network operator can be the owner at the moment. This creates less flexibility and possibility since these network operators are obliged to provide a high certainty for the availability of electricity. The group suggested that the learnings from ATELIER might be helpful in influencing the change of this energy law. This would create more grid connection flexibility which would contribute to upscaling.

The discussion and collaboration around local energy systems and energy communities will be continued in the Amsterdam Smart City “Local energy systems” challenge. This article is written by Jessica van der Plas, former Programme Manager Energy & Circularity at Amsterdam Smart City.

From mid-june 2023, Noor Veenhoven joined the team as our new Programme Manager Energy & Circular. Want to know more about the local energy systems challenge? Reach out to Noor via noor@amsterdamsmartcity.com or leave a comment below!

Jessica van der Plas's picture #Energy
Adriaan van Eck, Implementing IoT & Smart Energy , posted

Energy Communities and other collective solutions

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On June 6, Flexiblepower Alliance Network (FAN) and TKI Urban Energy are hosting the second webinar in the 2023 series of the Smart Energy Community: "Energy Communities and other collective solutions" (in Dutch).

Opening
Opening and update on the activities of Flexiblepower Alliance Network (FAN) by Adriaan van Eck, chairman of FAN.

Starting an Energy community, but how?
If you want to set up an energy community, where should you start? How do you organise an energy cooperation? Thijs Huls from the energy community Agem, in the Achterhoek, discusses what it takes to start an Energy community in terms of data, agreements and platforms and will explain how you can make an energy community really smart about their energy.

Power pitch: Groendus
Energy communities are not just for consumers, energy cooperations can also benefit businesses and entrepreneurs. René Raaijmakers of Groendus will tell us more about the opportunities for businesses to engage collectively in energy communities.

Power pitch: BAM
Within the innovation project TROEF, BAM is developing an energy-as-service concept. Marco Thijssen of BAM will explain more about the community platform that is part of TROEF and how they use gamification to encourage users to pursue their common goal.

Guide to Smart Energy Systems
Richard de Bruin of Rebel Group presents the Smart Energy Systems Guide, a report the Rebel Group developed on behalf of TKI Urban Energy. Richard will take us through the approach and considerations involved, taking three perspectives: energy hubs, business parks and energy communities.

Register:
https://cdn.flxml.eu/f-0411e667dc269719

Website:
https://topsectorenergie.nl/nl/agenda/smart-energy-community/

Adriaan van Eck's picture Online event on Jun 6th
Wouter Mulders, Communications Coordinator at Drift, posted

Question hour: Accelerating the energy transition

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As DRIFT, we’re noticing that changemakers in the energy transition are currently facing challenges that we could only dream of years ago – or that kept us up at night. In this question hour, you get to ask transition experts Gijs Diercks and Noortje Flinkenflögel all sorts of questions about the energy transition in general and our course Versnelling van de Energietransitie in particular.

Wouter Mulders's picture Online event on Jun 2nd