European Public Local Authorities’ Network for driving the Energy Transition

Project Information

ePLANET

Grant agreement ID: 101032450

DOI

10.3030/101032450

Project closed

EC signature date 23 June 2021

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 31 August 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 498 533,75

EU contribution

€ 1 498 533,75

Coordinated by

CENTRE INTERNACIONAL DE METODES NUMERICS EN ENGINYERIA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ePLANET (European Public Local Authorities’ Network for driving the Energy Transition)

Reporting period: 2023-03-01 to 2024-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The European Union (EU) prioritizes energy transition, aiming for broad public sector involvement at all governance levels. Updated 2030 climate and energy targets include a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (50% under the Green Deal), a 32% share of renewable energy, and a 32.5% improvement in energy efficiency.
Despite progress in local sustainable energy planning, urban areas still generate around 75% of global carbon emissions. Challenges persist due to a lack of coordination among initiatives and inconsistent policies across governance levels.
The ePLANET project has supported energy transition efforts in the province of Girona (Spain), the Zlín region (Czech Republic), and Crete (Greece) by creating a framework for harmonized information-sharing via a digital platform. From October 2022 to August 2024, the platform integrated 250 energy transition plans and 7,523 measures, accessible to public officers involved in energy transition. The project influenced 324 policies and formalized collaboration through 252 Memorandums of Adhesion.
ePLANET engaged 1,787 public and private stakeholders and trained 949 public officers in areas such as energy planning and building energy performance. The project’s impact includes establishing permanent Energy Transition Offices in Girona, prompting regional implementation across Catalonia. In the Zlín region, the energy agency used ePLANET insights to prioritize solar installations on public buildings based on photovoltaic potential.

Overall, ePLANET has advanced energy transition in pilot regions, though more work is needed to meet the EU's 2030 goals.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

ePLANET successfully followed its work plan, achieving all major objectives and submitting all deliverables. The project made significant contributions to the expected impacts, with active partner involvement and participation in 25 external events for dissemination and collaboration, engaging 9 EU projects and 7 third parties.

Key technical achievements included assessing the governance status in the three pilot regions, identifying their needs, and reviewing existing governance structures. This resulted in a new energy transition (ET) clustering governance methodology and the implementation of a platform with a common data model for harmonizing, storing, analyzing, and sharing ET data.

The project addressed capacity building needs by co-designing training programs, leading 25 sessions that trained around 1,200 stakeholders. ePLANET expanded its influence to 7 follower regions, hosted 12 forums, and organized 3 site visits involving over 500 stakeholders. Institutional collaboration was strengthened through 258 Memorandums of Adhesion and influencing 324 policies.

ePLANET effectively communicated its results, establishing an open community on Zenodo to share public deliverables and project outputs. Four key exploitable Results have been identified:

• Governance Model for Energy Transition: A methodology was developed for clustering governance of energy transition deployment, tested in regions such as Girona (Catalonia), Zlín region (Czech Republic), and Crete (Greece), detailed on D2.4 ePLANET clustering governance (https://zenodo.org/records/7966798).
• Territorial PV Potential Tool: A tool designed to assess photovoltaic potential on solar rooftops applied in the Zlín region and available on GitHub under EUPL license (https://github.com/BeeGroup-cimne/solar_potencial_estimation_v2).
• ePLANET Platform - ET Territorial Observatory: Enhancements to existing energy management software to include features for SECAPs digitalisation and building energy performance analysis. Transferred to Inergy (https://www.inergybcn.com/en/)
• ePLANET Platform - Data Gathering, Harmonization, and Dynamic Update: Automated systems for continuous data collection, harmonisation, and updating to support SECAPs development and building energy evaluation. Available on GitHub under EUPL license (https://github.com/BeeGroup-cimne/ePlanet_backend_modules).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The ePLANET project made significant progress in the pilot sites, advancing beyond the state-of-the-art in energy transition (ET). The initial analysis of ET governance helped identify key actors and led to recommendations that improved governance structures. Notably, Girona implemented a multilevel clustering governance model, inspiring Catalonia to adopt the ePLANET model across the region.

The project conducted various capacity building activities, with materials made accessible on Zenodo to support wider stakeholder engagement. Policy recommendations emerged from governance analysis and consultations, focusing on four main areas: strengthening ET governance through better communication and coordination, improving access to data for Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs), adopting the EU taxonomy for standardized action classification, and creating targeted funding for ET initiatives.

While progress has been made toward the EU’s 2030 ET targets, challenges remain for municipalities. To address this, the LEADNET proposal was submitted under LIFE-2024-CET-LOCAL to support ET efforts by providing resources and improving the deployment and monitoring of ET plans.

Project Poster

Platform visualisations

Consortium Group

Final Event

Data Architecture

Clustering Governance Schema