Piloting the iEMS in CleanMobilEnergy City Pilots

One generic transnational iEMS will be adapted to our CleanMobilEnergy City Pilots across North West Europe. These pilots range from small towns to large cities and cover different types of renewable energy, storage and electric vehicles.

Scroll down for a peek into our CleanMobilEnergy City Pilots: Arnhem (NL), Nottingham (UK), Schwäbisch Gmünd (DE) Stuttgart (DE)!

Arnhem, Netherlands

This city pilot is located in Arnhem, a medium sized city in the Netherlands with renewable energy already serving as a large share of its energy production.

With the implementation of CME, renewable energy will be supplied to cruise-ships in the maintenance harbour adjacent to the city’s industrial area through a cold ironing system. This means that instead of using the ship’s own diesel engine electricity is provided, which is to be generated by the nearby solar field. 

The project location for the Arnhem City Pilot is located all across the city, however the core of the attributes is located at the IPKW terrain. An industrial area, close to where the solar plant is under development (approx. 14 MWp), and in the near future 4 wind turbines will be added .

The solar field is not directly part of the CleanMobilEnergy investments, but will be the unique provider of renewable energy to this pilot. Connected to the solar field, the Arnhem partners have jointly developed and or connected to the CleanMobilEnergy iEMS :

• A Lithium-ion storage facility of 500 kWh, including all hardware (cables, small buildings etc.);
• A cold ironing (shore to ship power supply) installation for 18 river barges in the ‘Nieuwe Haven’;
• All public charging stations in the city of Arnhem (about 250);
• A CME-system location (computer plus software) to govern the Arnhem City Pilot system energy flows.

One notable feature about this pilot city is its charging plazas. The charging plaza featured in the images above was installed in Arnhem for public use and is composed of 16 charge points on one grid connection.

A computer directs different levels of power to different vehicles, depending on the vehicles' need. Additionally, Arnhem aims to connect cold ironing (shore-to-ship power) to a solar field through effective RES storage and the iEMS. Arnhem will utilise wind turbines as well, converting wind energy to charge EVs.

In CME, the Arnhem pilot is the only project which has been developed in a divided public space. This means that the energy generation, storage and energy using devices are remotely placed and have individual electricity connections, contacts and direct interaction is limited. In contrary to situations where these devices exist behind one connection, metering and billing system.

This project has shown that the combination of a huge renewable energy source and electric mobility (ships and cars) provides a feasible technical solution in a distributed environment.
However the energy administration rules and regulations, related finances on both energy contracts or costs of single or joint grid connections are not yet ready for this kind of innovative systems…

The utilisation of energy provided by the Arnhem solar field will be enhanced through the iEMS, with the objective to steer to less CO2 emissions on larger scale, and to investigate how the ships in maintenance and EV charging stations will use the highest percentage of locally made renewable energy.

This charging plaza in Arnhem is controlled and monitored by a computer to supply different levels of power to vehicles depending on their need.

Cold ironing, or shore connection, shore-to-ship power (SSP) or alternative maritime power (AMP), will provide shoreside electrical power to ships in Arnhem's main harbour.

Nottingham, United Kingdom

Nottingham is a medium sized city in the UK with a large share of its energy production sourced from renewable energy sources. Nottingham has large ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEV) funds, as well as the UK’s largest solar installation and the first Municipal Energy Company. Even before CME, Nottingham has a medium sized renewable energy storage capacity (is the most energy autonomous city in the UK), as well as electric vehicles and bi-directional chargers in controlled areas or depots.

In Nottingham, electric vehicles themselves will be used to power the buildings and depot by using innovative bi-directional chargers controlled by the integrated energy management system iEMS.

This City Pilot will deliver:

• 40 fully electric vans and cars operated by Nottingham City Council and based overnight at the depot;
• Installation of a fast charging hub with up to 5 Electric Vehicle charging points;
• Installation of 88kWp of PVs;
• The PV will feed into the building’s electrical infrastructure and be used either for EV charging, or in the building’s current energy load;
• Installation of a 378kW/676kWh lithium ion battery controlled by a site energy management centre;
• Installation of 40 “vehicle 2 grid” (V2G) bidirectional charge points to enable the vehicles to be used for energy storage and grid balancing;
• The iEMS.

CME project partner, Centre of Excellence for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies (CENEX), will oversee the city pilot of Nottingham with the help of Nottingham City Council (NCC). CENEX also provides technical and commercial support for demonstration projects in Nottingham, with a specific emphasis on the integration of electric vehicles into the energy system.

(Above) Electric charging compounds power Nottingham's public buses.

(Below) Through CME, the Harvey Hadden Sports Village in Nottingham now boasts a 67kWp solar car port with an additional 200kWp rooftop system.

Commercial vehicle-to-grid (V2G) units, such as this unit in Birmingham, are being installed across the UK.

Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany

The final city pilot, Schwäbisch Gmünd, is a small city in Germany with a population of around 60,000. Although Schwäbisch Gmünd boasts the 2nd largest solar park of Germany, the city utilises a small amount of renewable energy in relation to its total energy production. Here, there are small scale RES storage facilities, and electric bikes are being used in residential areas.

The actions of this city pilot:

• Various houses with PV systems installed and supplied with domestic battery storage, all linked to the iEMS;
• Each house will include 84 battery tubes connected to the installed PV, focused on charging low emission vehicles (LEVs), especially for short distances;
• Charging and exchange stations for batteries serve as a temporary storage and are integrated in the electricity grid;
• Analysis of data usage and electricity flows, etc.;
• Establishment of a lease and rental vehicle infrastructure with integrated LEV and battery exchange stations;
• Use of smart battery storage system for grid regulation.

The goal of the iEMS is to induce a high level of energy autonomy at small city scale. CME will allow for this by managing various solar installations and implementing LEV-charging infrastructure and buildings where energy is consumed and stored. The iEMS will manage and optimise this energy production and consumption.

The City of Schwäbisch Gmünd strongly supports the project's technological implementations. Unicorn Energy, with suport from the European Institute for Innovation - Technology e.V. (EIfI-Tech) and the City of Schwäbisch-Gmünd), manages this City Pilot.

E-car and solar park photo credits: Schimkat Fotodesign 

Unicorn Engineering and its regional partnership manages the German City Pilot.

(Below) Charging and exchange stations for batteries serve as a temporary storage.

(Above) Lease and rental vehicle infrastructure with integrated LEV and battery exchange stations is already in place.

(Below) The goal of the iEMS is to induce a high level of energy autonomy at small city scale.

Stuttgart, Germany

The City Pilot of Stuttgart will provide data on light electric vehicle (LEV) mobility in connection to the iEMS at church organisations. This unique mobility use case enables:

• CO₂ reduction by replacement of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars with light electric vehicles (LEVs) powered by renewable energy. 
• An attractive system to quickly implement the change of ICE cars to LEVs based on flexible MaaS turn key elements
• Trial in the context of vehicle fleets operated by churches and church organisations
• Strong emphasis on dissemination/showcasing the pilot at events 2021/2022
• High probability to industrialise the key elements utilizing the power of the iEMS - preorder of the Pop-Up Mobility Stations developed within the CME iEMS project are already possible at https://fairventure.de/station

(Above) One of eFlow's pop-up mobility stations made possible by the Interreg CleanMobilEnergy project in Stuttgart, Germany.

(Below) The installation and demonstration of a pop-up mobility station in Stuttgart, which integrates CleanMobilEnergy's cloud-based energy management solution, REMove.

The trans-European CME Ambassador network

CleanMobilEnergy is excited to present an inside look into the trans-European CME Ambassador network, which is designed to leverage CME policy recommendations and thus accelerate growth of the CME approach. CME Ambassadors are highly qualified, politically active individuals who engage with the project on a local, regional, and EU level throughout the project lifetime.

The CME Ambassadors are a foremost feature in the communication and dissemination of CME outputs to assure CME produces long-term effects that will extend well beyond the project’s completion.

Meet the CME Ambassadors!

Scroll down for brief biographies of the experienced and talented CME Ambassadors as well as their individual roles on the CME team.

Françoise Guaspare

After having worked at the Île-de-France Region President’s Cabinet on Transport for nine years, Françoise Guaspare is in charge of transport at the Permanent Representation of the Paris/Île-de-France Region in Brussels since 2008. She currently oversees Smart Cities, electro-mobility, eco-mobility trans-European network of transport, freight, urban mobility, decarbonisation of transport, Transport Research and Innovation, clean transport. Françoise Guaspare works very closely with the European Commission as well as the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the development of new financial schemes for sustainable urban projects; i.e. Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), and so on.

With strategic advising, Françoise supports the implementation of several European projects in the field of sustainable and urban mobility. She is constantly active in producing transport policy positions on behalf of European regions. She currently leads an expert group, established under the Sustainable Transport Forum (STF), focusing on financing in the framework of the alternative fuel in Cities. 

She also leads the Transport working group of the European Regional Network on Research and Innovation (ERRIN) and the local public investments of POLIS Network.

Follow Françoise Guaspare on Twitter

Oberbürgermeister Richard Arnold

Richard Arnold was born and raised as a ''Gmünder''. Having studied Administrative Sciences in Konstanz and in Frankfurt in Germany, Richard Arnold received a scholarship to attend the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at Cambridge in the United States. Later, he became a fellow of the German Council of the European Movement at the College of Europe in Bruges and was employed by the Center for European Studies in Brussels as an expert in EU Agricultural and Environmental Policy for two years.

In 1990, Arnold’s love of nature brought him to the BUND, the Federation for the Environment and the Conservation, as Deputy Head of "Europe" in the Ministry of Agriculture in Stuttgart. From 1993 to 1996, he served in the State Ministry, and from 1996 to the year 2000, he finally took over as the Head of "Cross-border and Interregional Cooperation". From 2000 to 2009, Arnold headed the Representation of the State of Baden-Württemberg of the European Union in Brussels. In 2007, the time of the German EU Council Presidency, Arnold was selected in a survey of business enterprises in the prestigious "Managermagazin" to be amongst the top 20 most famous and influential Germans in Brussels.

The exciting tasks and the multifaceted challenges as the highest representative of one of the most economically powerful countries in the EU have brought Richard Arnold into the limelight on other political levels. In 2009, Richard Arnold was elected Oberbürgermeister (''High Mayor'') of Schwäbisch Gmünd in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In 2012, he was honored by the Mérite Européen for his services. In September 2013, Richard Arnold received the "Mayor of the Month" award from the international City Mayors Foundation in London for his response to the current refugee crisis in Europe. He is the first German mayor to hold this award. Schwäbish Gmünd's Oberbürgermeister also lands an impressive fifth place on "World Mayor Honors List", the Foundation's 2016 Honorary List.

In May 2017, the Gmünders re-elected Richard Arnold as Oberbürgermeister. Strengthened by the re-election, the city council of Schwäbisch Gmünd is currently continuing on its quest for an open, citizen-oriented urban policy. Now, the city is planning to take further steps toward sustainability and quality of life, especially as this relates to serving displaced refugees and adapting to Europe’s energy transition, into a dynamic future.

Follow Schwäbisch Gmünd on Twitter

Councillor Sally Longford

Cllr. Sally Longford of the Nottingham City Council (NCC) in Nottingham, United Kingdom has lived and worked in Nottingham for her whole life. She is a committed environmentalist and studied Geography as a mature student at the University of Nottingham, continued as a Postgraduate and subsequently became a teacher. She retired from teaching in 2014.

Longford was elected for the NCC in 2011 and became a Cabinet Member in 2017. As Portfolio Holder for Energy and Environment, she currently holds the responsibility for many important city and environmental issues that she considers very close to her heart, including sustainability, carbon reduction, healthy and adequate air quality and conservation.

''I look forward to my involvement in the CME project,'' explains Cllr. Sally Longford in an interview with CME, ''particularly sharing learnings from the innovative trial of Vehicle2Grid and battery storage technologies in our City Pilot. I am proud that Nottingham City Council is investing in demonstrating smart solutions to manage energy and increase use of renewable generation at our operational sites, supported by Interreg NWE funding. CME will help to drive Nottingham’s ambitious environmental agenda and help to achieve our UK100 pledge which commits the city to 100% green energy by 2050.''

Follow Cllr. Sally Longford on Twitter

Tanja Dalle-Muenchmeyer

Cathelijne Bouwkamp

Cathelijne has been appointed Vice Mayor for the city of Arnhem on 30th of May 2018 as a respresentative of the Green Party (GroenLinks) in Arnhem. She has been leader of the Green Party in the Arnhem Council since 2014. Cathelijne previously has had manegement jobs and advisory jobs in the cultural field in Arnhem. As vice mayor she is responsible for:

• Sustainability (programme New Energy made in Arnhem)
• Green infrastructure of the city
• Spatial planning
• Public space
• Refugees
• Animal welfare
• Designated mayor for several neighbourhoods

In her role as ambassador for the CME project and vice mayor of the lead partner she will have an active role in building a ambassadors team for this project. She will be visiting all partners during the project life time and meet with all appointed ambassadors. She will also be present at all CME events in Arnhem and EU meetings in Brussels where CME plays a part. Cathelijne is very much engaged in sustainable living and activily contributes to the energy transition.

Follow Cathelijne Bouwkamp on Twitter

Welcome to CME's Mobile Minute

Here you will get the low-down on all things CME...in one minute or less!

The CME Mobile Minute is designed to give you a brief insider's look into what's going within the CleanMobilEnergy project across North West Europe.

Mobile Minute #1: Local Stakeholder Meeting in Schwäbisch Gmünd, 25th July 2018

This first Mobile Minute captures Chris Ashe, Director of the European Institute for Innovation - Technology (EIfI-Tech), giving an up-to-date overview on EIfI-Tech's involvement in CME. This Mobile Minute immediately follows a local stakeholder group meeting in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany on the 25th of July.

Mobile Minute #2: City pilot update from Nottingham, UK (August 2018)

It's summertime and the sun is shining. Can you think of a better time for a solar panel installation?!

Katie Greenhalgh, Energy Projects Manager for Nottingham City Council (NCC), gives a pilot update from a PV system (solar panel) installation in CME city pilot Nottingham, UK (August 2018).

Mobile Minute #3: City pilot update from Arnhem, NL (September 2018)

Behind the scenes of our shore-to-ship power (SSP or cold ironing) CleanMobilEnergy pilot site in Arnhem, Netherlands - featuring Jan Fransen of CME subpartner Walvoorzieningen Nederland (WVnld) & our project's lead partner, Peter Swart of Gemeente Arnhem.  

Here is where the Dutch partners will make connections to supply renewably sourced energy to at least 18-21 large vessels coming into the Nieuwe Haven (''New Harbor) in Arnhem. The vessels will eventually receive this energy directly from solar panels on site, which can be switched on and off using smart technology and optimised via the iEMS.

Mobile Minute #4: Grand opening of Nieuwe Haven cold ironing pilot site (December 2018)

Within the CleanMobilEnergy project, the Dutch pilot city Arnhem focuses on supplying ships with renewable energy, sourced directly from solar panels through shore-to-ship power (SSP or cold ironing). This video documents the grand opening of the Nieuwe Haven pilot site, held on the 7th of December 2018.

Some highlights of the grand opening event

The Nieuwe Haven (''New Harbor) in Arnhem supplies ships with renewable energy, sourced directly from a solar panel field nearby, which will be optimised using the interoperable energy management system (iEMS). 

Mobile Minute #5: Introducing the new CleanMobilEnergy Stuttgart pilot

 CleanMobilEnergy pilot partner, Hannes Neupert, provides a brief introduction to the new City Pilot in Stuttgart, Germany, which explores light electric vehicle (LEV) mobility as replacement for combustion engine cars used by churches and their networks.

Through a series of digital seminars, the Interreg North-West Europe CleanMobilEnergy (CME) project shares its lessons learned to ensure the successful rollout and longevity of the CME interoperable Energy Management System (iEMS) across the 4 City Pilots of Arnhem, Nottingham, Schwäbisch Gmünd and Stuttgart.

The events will take place in September 2021 – November 2022 as a continued series, with each digital seminar building upon the last.

CME Digital Seminar Series

1. General overview of CME 
2. Overview of interoperable Energy Management System (iEMS): The concept of iEMS, ‘From innovation to implementation’
3. City Pilots: A ‘deep dive’ of CME pilots all together, comparing implementation, some of the lessons learned – What barriers they come across + drivers? What are the technical lessons learned? These seminars will be split up into two sessions: A deep dive into the Arnhem & Schwäbisch Gmünd City Pilots and A deep dive into the Nottingham & Stuttgart City Pilots
4. Lessons Learned through CME / WP LT
5. Policy recommendation/policy session: Upscaling & replication of CleanMobilEnergy, KPIs and monitoring. From a policy perspective, this session aims to answer, "Who’s driving this whole system of defining KPIs? How can the iEMS help achieve decarbonisation (net zero) by 2050?" – this is a policy driver that impacts the KPIs of all potential iEMS-adopting cities

The second event in the CleanMobilEnergy Digital Seminar series took place place on Wednesday, 16 February 2022 from 10:00 to 10:45 Central European Time (CET) and aimed to present CleanMobilEnergy's interoperable Energy Management System (iEMS), developed and tested in various City Pilot environments. 

As many European cities are investing in renewable energy and e-mobility, the iEMS can be applied to varying situations in multiple cities, offering a solution for decarbonisation beyond the context of mobility. Electricity from the grid will only be required when prices are low or renewable energy sources are not available – and the iEMS monitors and optimises the system 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The iEMS provides solutions for decarbonisation; it brings all sectors requiring to be decarbonised into a single package, where digitisation serves as the enabler of decarbonisation.

Communicated by Pierre Kil of OpenRemote through the digital seminar and live demonstration of the iEMS was that, by assuring the smart integration of renewable resources through interoperability – based on open standards for data flows and analysis tools – the iEMS will make it possible for RES to be used locally; with the iEMS, electric vehicles can be charged with 100 % renewable energy, offered at an optimal price. 

AGENDA

10:00 - 10:25 Presentation on CleanMobilEnergy's interoperable energy management system – and how it can be valuable in your city/region

10:25 - 10:45 Moderated Q&A session

Speaker(s): Pierre Kil, Open Remote

Event Moderator: Chris Ashe, European Institute for Innovation - Technology e.V. (EIfI-Tech)

The first event in the CleanMobilEnergy Digital Seminar series provides a general overview of the CleanMobilEnergy project, through which an interoperable Energy Management System (iEMS) is being developed and implemented to optimise energy production and usage, thus dramatically reducing carbon emissions.

Watch the video recording of the first event of the digital series, which took place on Tuesday, the 28th of September 2021 from 11:00-12:00 CET, online.

CleanMobilEnergy Final Conference

Road to Decarbonisation: Clean, Smart and Secure Solutions

Towards local energy communities, affordable electricity grids and resilient organisations – the CleanMobilEnergy final conference

Join us on the 6th December 2022 in Arnhem, Netherlands for the final conference of the Interreg North-West Europe CleanMobilEnergy (CME) project.

The event will serve as a unique opportunity to understand our road to decarbonisation. Speakers from the CME project and other innovative projects and organisations will share their experiences and learnings regarding realising local energy communities, electric mobility, sustainable heating, energy storage and smart, flexible energy systems (such as V2G) from a range of perspectives including technical, financial, social, governance and legal/policy to paint a holistic picture of the future of the energy system and how we get there.

The full-day conference will feature experiences from the implementation of pilots in Arnhem, Nottingham, Stuttgart and Schwäbisch Gmünd within the CME project as well as real-world implementation learnings from other state-of-the-art projects in the field. In the CME pilots, e-mobility solutions were implemented together with local renewables, storage and an open-source energy management system (the REMove tool) to connect, monitor and optimise the energy flows. By matching local energy needs with local renewables through smart solutions, such a system increases renewable energy's economic value and significantly reduces carbon emissions. This also contributes to increased energy security and independence of European cities and regions, at a time when the cost of energy has been increasing to record levels throughout Europe.

This event is meant for forward-looking local decision makers (including local and regional governments, community organisations and cooperatives), system integrators, e-mobility providers, renewable energy providers, electricity grid operators and ICT developers, to provide a clear view of how models such as energy communities and energy management tools like REMove can support organisations, cities and regions in their decarbonisation journeys. The event will be held in English.

Finally, the second day of this event will include a site visit to the CME project’s Arnhem pilot site, where the ReMove tool supports the supply of local renewable energy from a 14MW solar farm to river cruise ships in the maintenance harbour adjacent to the city’s industrial area through a cold ironing (shore-to-ship power) system, as well as other pilots conducted at the IPKW innovative business park such as fuelling of hydrogen vehicles.

Register for the event

Agenda

Day 1

Welcome by host (Peter Swart, Arnhem) and moderator (Ian Hill)

Plenary session EU Government (DG ENER / REFORM) - EU-level vision and policy → POLIS in contact

Plenary session NL Government (Robert Monteban, Ministry of Infrastructure and Water management) - V2G/V2X progress and policy

Plenary session Business (large corp - Siemens) - industrial vision and policy → Hugo in contact

Plenary session CME (Peter Swart, Arnhem)

Coffee Break

Breakout sessions x3

• Energy security + decarbonisation (policy) → RESCHOOL project
• Affordability (financial) → Power Parking project
• Governance → cVPP project, LIFE project

Lunch

Pitch session e.g. SCALE project

Breakout sessions x3

• Social inclusion and engagement → COBEN project
• Technical approaches → CME (LIST), Open Remote
• Integrating e-mobility → FASTER project, FlexPower project, eHubs project

Coffee break

Panel discussion by breakout session moderators - plenary

Wrap-up by moderator

End (Drinks)

Day 2

Plenary (CME) - focus on smart systems’ contribution to decarbonisation

Site visits (walking tour) - CME Arnhem pilot at harbour & IPKW innovations on-site

Wrap-up by moderator

End (Lunch)