Client: Integrated Urban Renewal, Technical and Environmental Administration, City of Copenhagen

Sectors: Public Administration, Public-private partnerships, City Planning, Buildings and Energy 

Services: Stakeholder engagement, innovation, workshop design, facilitation

Year: 2020

Flexible and renewable energy in urban neighbourhoods

“It’s actually a perfect match already“. This was the first reaction of a company representative after participating in a matchmaking workshop during the Flexible Energy Living Lab.

Twenty representatives from commercial and knowledge partners gathered to voice their contribution to the municipality’s strategic ambitions as part of a Living Lab aimed at bringing flexible renewable energy to already established buildings. An ambition that requires a close interaction between technologies and user experience. Therefore, selected partners were involved in designing partnerships for each participant to engage in and benefit from.

“We met like-minded people and companies with whom we can collaborate. The focus, programme and group of participants fully met our expectations“, another participant expanded.

Partnerships to enable a portfolio of solutions

“How can we build solid partnerships to deliver targeted renewable and flexible energy solutions for the existing building stock?”. This was the question that the municipality and the partners would need to collectively answer.

In a Living Lab, there can be large amounts of information and considerable complexity. Therefore, there was a sense of relief in the room when it became apparent that all material was visualized in advance. Equipped with clearly laid out templates, there was no need to drag out time with prolonged presentations. Instead, participants were given the opportunity to meet each other in a structured way, so that the right synergies could be easily identified.

For the municipality, it was crucial to identify and demonstrate a portfolio of solutions suitable for a range of neighbourhoods with different user profiles. It was important to involve business partners early in the project, particularly to ensure a harmonious coupling of hardware and user-directed software, and to ensure good business potential for the companies throughout the development and testing phases.

Five consortia to demonstrate potential

Clear mutual benefits were of great importance. Thanks to the diversity of partners, careful balancing of components in each solutions turned competition into collaboration. At the same time, solutions were able to more fully address local needs from the start.

With the commitment of the commercial partners, five solutions were developed based on the interconnection and integration of proven technologies. Each solution was adapted to a specific type of neighbourhood, thus providing the municipality with clear criteria for appropriate test sites for each working group. Most importantly, the municipality moved forward with renewed confidence in the commitment of the companies and that the impact on end-users was thought through from the start.

Want to know more?

Do you want to learn more about this case? Get in touch with Partner, Emil Kragh at +45 6016 4290.

You can also explore more case stories. Find out more about the Technical and Environmental Administration of the City of Copenhagen on their website.