INESC TEC promotes sustainable energy strategies for cities

On 2 and 3 July, INESC TEC hosted the second technical meeting of the European project “CitInES - Design of a decision support tool for sustainable, reliable and cost-effective energy strategies in cities and industrial complexes", in which INESC TEC’s Power Systems Unit (USE) is participating. The aim is to design tools to support the implementation of sustainable and efficient energy strategies for cities and large industrial complexes.

Several subjects related to the project’s development were presented and discussed at the meeting, such as the specification of information requirements for cities and industrial complexes, the developments and results obtained so far and the next technical and administrative activities of the project.

The aim with this project is to encourage a sustainable energy future in Europe by providing the tools that consider the interactions between several energy vectors at different scales. Several tasks are being carried out as part of this project such as: assessing the impact of the urban planning strategies and investment decisions in terms of the economy, finance and environment; optimising the local energy strategy, including the use of renewable energies, electric mobility, the coordination between different energy vectors, the development of smart grids and demand management; assessing financial and environmental risks, proposing robust strategies to face uncertainties resulting from fluctuating fuel prices.

All project partners were represented at this meeting, including representatives of the Italian cities of Bologna and Cesena, and of the oil refinery company Tupras (Turquia). INESC TEC’s researchers present in this meeting were Nuno Fidalgo, Mário Couto, Tiago Armando and Luís Seca.