DELIVERABLE 3.

4
Technology Gap and Potential Impact on Energy Efficiency
First Draft August 2015

1. Introduction
Transition towards energy efficient cities requires an effective upgrade of all the different areas of
urban energy production, distribution and use. A method was developed for collecting the information
required for analysing the variation of strengths and weakness in technical and infrastructure
capabilities in European medium-sized cities, as well as to help identify best practices and tools for
enhancing the energy performance of city energy systems.
In order to evaluate the impact of each technology and service, several energy efficiency
indicators have been developed and others have been selected from existing methods in the literature,
so that the cities can use them for developing monitoring and ranking tools to help them compare their
energy performance with similar cities.

2. Technical Gap and Potential Impact on Energy Efficiency

Assessment
The methodology developed and presented in this report is based on the initiatives and strategies
carried out in the PLEEC project "Planning for Energy Efficient Cities" funded by the EU Seventh
Framework Programme [1], more specifically, under work package 3, responsible for identifying the
technology-driven energy efficiency potentials.

3.1. Domains and Key-Fields

All the energy systems involved in the operation of medium-sized cities were classified in several
domains and key fields, as a result of the collective contribution of city representatives and key field
experts in city planning and energy systems. This classification helps categorize all the different
technologies involved in different city energy systems, so that their impact on each key field and
domain can be compared. Results are shown in Table 1.
In order to establish a baseline, a general survey was sent out to all city representatives in the
project, in order to establish the level of relevance of each key field on energy efficiency improvement
for their particular cities
Table 1 Selected domains
Domain
Green buildings
and land use

Mobility and
transport

Technical
Infrastructure

Production &
Consumption

Key Fields
Renovation
Building Technology
Public transport
Motorized private transport
Pedestrian traffic and cycling
Transport of goods
Waste, water and sewage
management
Electric power grids
Heating and cooling grids
Public lighting
Industry and commerce
Private and public services
Consumers/Private Households
Renewable energy

3.2. Technologies
A list of 28 different projects for improving energy efficiency in the pilot cities, as well as other
similar ones in Europe were analysed, in order to extract the most successful and innovative
technologies used. A resulting number of 119 different technologies were extracted and associated
with the corresponding key field and domain where their impact on energy efficiency is the highest. A
list of all the enabling technologies evaluated under PLEEC is listed in Table 2.
Table 2 List of Energy Efficient Enabling Technologies (ET) evaluated under PLEEC
Domains

Key Fields

Renovation

Green buildings
and land use

Building
Technology

Technologies

Code

Radiant reflective coating,

ET.01

Aerogel as blow in insulation

ET.02

New lime mortars

ET.03

SketchUp Modelling

ET.04

Laser scanning Modelling

ET.05

Photographic Modelling

ET.06

Thermographic Modelling

ET.07

Radiant reflective coating

ET.08

Sun protective windows for roof glazing

ET.09

Sandwich faade system

ET.10

Open ceilings for increased natural lighting

ET.11

Cavity system for insulation of the floor

ET.12

Underfloor Heating

ET.13

High-efficient Roof insulation

ET.14

High Efficient Windows

ET.15

Building Energy management system (BEMS)

ET.16

Mechanical ventilation system with a heat recovery

(recuperator, wheel)

ET.17

LED lighting

ET.18

Heatpumps for heating, cooling and hot water

ET.19

Building Micro CHP

ET.20

Smart Lighting Control

ET.21

Thermal insulation of building evelope (walls, floor,

roof)

ET.22

Air sealing (air-tight construction)

ET.23

Passive building

ET.24

Thermal bridging minimizing technologies

ET.25

Ventilative night cooling

ET.26

Optimized Daylight System

ET.27

Smart thermostats

ET.28

Public transport

Mobility and
transport

Rooftop Solar PV

ET.29

Radiant reflective coating

ET.30

Solar Thermal Systems

ET.31

Cooling Grids

ET.32

High Efficient Windows

ET.15

Intermodality

ET.33

high frequency simple PT lines

ET.34

PT priority

ET.35

High Quality Buses

ET.36

DER for electric transportation

ET.37

Hybrid & CNG busses

ET.38

High efficient Power Electronics for Electric Buses

ET.39

Biofuels for Public Transportation

ET.40

Superblock integrated mobility network

ET.41

Integrated multi-modal e-ticketing system

ET.42

GPS GPRS on busses for mobility management

actions in industrial areas

ET.43

Chopper driving systems for trams

ET.44

Smart travel card system

ET.45

Integrated travel information system

ET.46

Electric busses

ET.47

Buss priority lines

ET.48

Demand oriented PT plan

ET.49

LPG busses

ET.50

Superblock integrated mobility network

ET.41

Carpooling (small scale)

ET.51

Hybrid Vehicles

ET.52

Electric Vehicles

ET.53

Electric car sharing service

ET.54

Motorized private
Information system for decision support
transport
Sensor Based Traffic light regulation

ET.55
ET.56

Low Emmisions Zone

ET.57

Intermodality

ET.33

Emission prediction models for traffic management

ET.58

High quality park & ride

ET.59

Pedestrian traffic Electric bicycles

ET.60

and cycling

Transport of
goods

Superblock integrated mobility network

ET.41

Public bike sharing

ET.61

Electric mopeds

ET.62

Dedicated bicycle lanes

ET.63

LED streetlighting for bike/walk paths

ET.64

Protective intersection islands for pedestrians and

bikes

ET.65

Bike transportation in public transport

ET.66

Freight Plan / LTZ

ET.67

Smart Water Meters

ET.68

Color sorting of waste

ET.69

Waste, water and Leakage detection systems

sewage
Wetlands
management

Technical
Infrastructure

Electric power
grids

Heating and
cooling grids

Public lighting

Production &
Consumption

Industry and
commerce

ET.70
ET.71

Biogas from sludge from waste water

ET.72

Plant beds for stormwater

ET.73

Smart Electric Meters

ET.74

Self-healing electric grids

ET.75

IEC 61850 adoption for substation operations

ET.76

Near real-time grid operation

ET.77

Substation automation

ET.78

Mature IT system integration (e.g. CIM)

ET.79

Automatic outage restoration equipment

ET.80

Conservation voltage regulation equipment (CVR)

ET.81

Outage detection systems

ET.82

Low-temperature district heating networks

ET.83

Smart Heating Meters

ET.84

Double-loop high temperature/low temperature distric

ET.85
heating
District Cooling grids

ET.86

Intelligent streetlight management

ET.87

LED lighting

ET.18

Remote monitoring

ET.88

ISO 50001 Adoption

ET.89

Industrial Energy Management Systems

ET.90

Industrial Energy Information Systems

ET.91

Private and public Energy management programs in public buildings

ET.92

services

LED Lighting

ET.18

Building automation

ET.93

Building energy information systems

ET.94

In-home display energy monitoring systems

ET.95

Home-automation equipment

ET.96

Smart thermostats

ET.97

Ground sourced heat pumps

ET.98

LED Lighting

ET.18

Passive house technology

ET.99

Sensor-based home automation

ET.100

Consumers/Private Service oriented architecture for energy consumption ET.101

management
Households
Publish/subscribe systems for energy consumption
ET.102
management
Data logger energy management software platform

ET.103

Sensors setting for measurement of domestic energy

ET.104
consumption
Domestic energy consumption management portal

ET.105

Rule-based energy management decision support

tools

ET.106

Surveillance of the energy consumption condition

ET.107

Biomass fueled CHP Power plants

ET.108

Stirling engines

ET.109

Solar Cooling

ET.110

Solar Heating

ET.111

Heat Pumps for heating and cooling

ET.112

Solar PV on roof tops

ET.113

Solar power plant

ET.114

Biogas production from waste

ET.115

Hydropower (Both large and small-scale)

ET.116

Wind Turbines

ET.117

Waste combustion

ET.118

Pumped-up Hydro Storage

ET.119

Renewable energy

3.3. Energy Efficiency Indicators

The method for sequencing the indicators used in different city rankings described systematically
by [2] for 70 EU cities, was used as a base. Additionally, 9 indicators were added for a total number of
58 energy efficiency indicators, and each one was linked with a specific key field and domain. The list
of all indicators and their associated Domain/key field are listed in Table 3.
Table 3 Energy Efficiency Indicators
Domains

Key Fields
Renovation

Green buildings
and land use

Building Technology

Indicators
Share of annual thermal renovations

Share of dwellings in low-energy

buildings

Share of private low energy buildings

Share of public low energy buildings

Annual heating demand of a new

dwelling in low-energy building

kWh/m2/yr

Annual heating and cooling demand

in a new low-energy public building

kWh/m2/yr

Population density (admin. area)

Spatial structure and LandPopulation density (settled. area)
use
Share of detached houses
Transport performance in public
transport
Public transport

Unit

hab/km2
hab/km2
%
km/pass/year

Energy demand in public transport

MWh/year

CO2 emissions in public transport

Tons/Year

Cost of a monthly ticket for transport

EUR

Transport performance in motorized

private transport

km/pass/year

Energy demand in motorized private

transport

MWh/year

CO2 emissions in motorized private

Motorized private transport transport

Tons/Year

Mobility and
transport

Pedestrian traffic and

cycling

Cost of petrol

EUR/Liter

Parking fee

EUR/Hour

Level of motorisation

Cars/Cap

Transport performance in bicycle

transport

km/pass/year

Transport performance in pedestrian

transport

km/pass/year

Length of bicycle network per

inhabitant
Transport of goods

Meters/Cap

Transport performance in transport of

goods

Kms/Cap

Energy demand in transport of goods

MWh/year

Waste. water and sewage

management

CO2 emissions in transport of goods

Tons/Year

Waste generation

Tons/Year

Waste generation per capita

Tons/Year

Recycling of waste
Waste collection fee

Technical
Infrastructure

Share of smart-meters
Electric power grids

EUR/kg
%

SAIFI

Outages/Cust

SAIDI

Hours/Cust

Heating and cooling grids

Share of district heating

Public lighting

Share of energy efficient lamps

All Sectors

Total Energy demand Without

transportation

MWh/year

Energy demand in Industry sector

MWh/year

CO2 emissions in industry

Tons/Year

Industry and commerce

Production and
Consumption

Share of companies with energy

management

Energy demand in service sector

MWh/year

CO2 emissions in service sector

Tons/Year

Energy demand in private

households

MWh/year

CO2 emissions in private households

Tons/Year

Share of household income spent on

petrol

Share of household income spent on

electricity

Private and public services

Consumers/Private
Households

All Energy Supply +

Imports

Fossil and nuclear energy

Energy Supply

Energy Supply - All

MWh/year

Energy Imports

MWh/year

Energy supply - solid fuels

MWh/year

Energy supply - gas

MWh/year

Energy supply - crude oil and

petroleum products

MWh/year

Energy supply nuclear

MWh/year

Electricity tariff - traditional mix

EUR/kWh

Energy Supply - All renewables

MWh/year

Energy supply - wind

MWh/year

Energy Supply - Solar

MWh/year

Energy supply - biomass

MWh/year

Energy supply - hydropower

MWh/year

Energy supply - tide. wave. ocean

MWh/year

Renewable energy

Energy supply - Geothermal including

heat pump

MWh/year

Energy supply - waste

MWh/year

Electricity tariff - renewables mix

EUR/kWh

3.4. Technology Adaptation Assessment tool

The technology assessment tool is an online dynamic spreadsheet where technology experts of
the work package have linked 119 technologies extracted from 28 case studies of energy efficiency
improving projects, with the cities energy efficient indicators presented in section 3.3.
The online tool contains multiple spreadsheets, each one for each specific domain and key
domain, where all the indicators and technologies are linked together. For each enabling technology,
the color-coded rating of low, medium or high is determined, based on its impact on its associated
indicator. Likewise, for each individual city, the adoption level of each technology is also determined,
based on the following criteria:
Table 4 City technology adoption level criteria
Adoption
Level

Criteria

LOW

Technology not available in the city. No

demonstrations or just a few only
available.

MED

Several demonstration and pilot projects

have been conducted.

HIGH

General population already has access

and uses the technology on a regular
basis.

3. Technology Adoption Potential Analysis

With the results obtained from the online assessment tool, the first analysis performed, is to
evaluate each enabling technology (ET) impact on its respective indicator. This result, provides city
planners, with a specific idea of which technologies provides with the best improvement potential for
increasing the performance of any particular energy efficiency indicator.

3.1. Transportation
Enabling Technologies Impact on Energy Efficiency Indicators
The impact of each enabling technology impact on the transportation energy efficiency indicators
are listed in Table 5. Cities should start developing ETs that offer HIGH impact on energy efficiency
indicators, especially those, that impact several indicators within different key fields. For instance, in
transportation, the ET Intermodality offer very HIGH potential for improving the Transportation
Performance in Public Transport as well as Transport Performance in Bicycle Transport and
Transport Performance in Pedestrian Transport.
As a rule of thumb, each city should select which indicators are most relevant for achieving its
energy efficiency goals, and then select which technologies offer the highest impact on these
indicators.

Table 5 Enabling Technology Impact on Energy Efficiency Indicators

Domains

Key Fields

Public
transport

Mobility
and
transport

Motorized
private
transport

Pedestrian
traffic and
cycling

Transport
of goods

Indicators

Indicator
Code

ET Impact on the
indicator

Intermodality
high frequency simple PT lines
PT priority
High Quality Buses
Integrated travel information system
Demand oriented PT plan
DER for electric transportation
Hybrid & CNG busses
Electric busses
Revamped power electronics
Electric busses
Biofuels for Public Transportation
DER for electric transportation
Hybrid & CNG busses
Integrated multi-modal e-ticketing
system
Hybrid & CNG busses
Biofuels for Public Transportation
Superblock integrated mobility
network
Sensor Based Traffic light regulation
Carpooling (small scale)
Hybrid Vehicles
Electric Vehicles
Carpooling (small scale)
Sensor Based Traffic light regulation
Electric Vehicles
Low Emmisions Zone
Electric car sharing service
Carpooling (small scale)
High quality park & ride
Hybrid Vehicles
Electric Vehicles
Electric car sharing service
Carpooling (small scale)
High quality park & ride
High quality park & ride
Carpooling (small scale)
High quality park & ride
Intermodality
Public bike sharing
Superblock integrated mobility
network
Intermodality
Superblock integrated mobility
network
Demand oriented PT plan

HIGH
HIGH
MED
LOW
HIGH
HIGH
MED
HIGH
MED
MED
HIGH
MED
HIGH
HIGH

MT.13

Dedicated bicycle lanes

HIGH

MT.14

Freight Plan / LTZ

HIGH

MT.15

Freight Plan / LTZ

HIGH

MT.16

Biofuels for freightTransportation

Freight Plan / LTZ

LOW
HIGH

Transport
performance in
public transport

MT.01

Energy demand in
public transport

MT.02

CO2 emmisions in
public transport

MT.03

Cost of a monthly
ticket for transport

MT.04

Transport
performance in
motorized private
transport

MT.05

Energy demand in
motorized private
transport

MT.06

CO2 emmisions in
motorized private
transport

MT.07

Cost of a petrol

MT.08

Parking fee
Level of
motorisation

MT.09
MT.10

Transport
performance in
bicycle transport

MT.11

Transport
performance in
pedestrian transport

MT.12

Length of bicycle
network per
inhabitant
Transport
performance in
transport of goods
Energy demand in
transport of goods
CO2 emmisions in
transport of goods

Enabling Technology

HIGH
LOW
MED
HIGH
MED
LOW
HIGH
MED
LOW
HIGH
MED
MED
MED
LOW
MED
HIGH
HIGH
HIGH
HIGH
MED
LOW
LOW
MED
HIGH
HIGH
MED
HIGH
LOW
LOW

Technology Adoption Level

Once the enabling technologies that most suits each citys action plan, the technology adoption
level for each ET should be looked at. This will determine the improvement/innovation potential, from
the existing adoption level in each city.

Figure 1.

Transportation ET adoption in all PLEEC cities

The adoption level of each technology analysed in the transportation domain is presented in
Figure 1. The technology with the highest adoption was high quality buses. Other technologies, like
Dedicated bicycle lanes experienced an overall high adoption level, for Jyvskyla, Tartu and Stokeon-Trent, but low for Santiago de Compostela, Eskilstuna and Turku. Other technologies presented a
more mixed adoption level and similar analyses were obtained from different domains. When both
technology adoption level and impact on each indicator are looked at together, city planners can make
better decisions about which technologies development to focus on.

References
[1]

E. S. Programme, Planning for Energy Efficient Cities, 2015. [Online]. Available:

www.pleecproject.eu.

[2]

R. Giffinger and G. Haindlmaier, Smart cities ranking: an effective instrument for the
positioning of the cities?, ACE Archit. City Environ., vol. 4, no. 12, pp. 726, 2010.