Lead Objective 2: Energy Management
Large-scale integration of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in communities with more than some 1.000 inhabitants requires a comprehensive technical and organisational management of a large number of distributed energy generation, consumption and eventually storage units. It also requires the comprehensive involvement of a large number of individuals and different groups of society, including local companies. The lead objective of applying comprehensive energy management in the 4 communities can be broken down in the following specific objectives:
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Combining the three management systems in a comprehensive (4 local and 1 global, inter-communal) management system for technically and organisationally connecting a bundle of complementary measures acting at different levels.
Methodological links between CONCERTO, material flow management and environmental management
While technical energy management, as implemented through the use of DEMS in this project has a clear link to CONCERTO, the investigated links to the other two management systems, EMAS and MFM are less straightforward, and worth to be specified further. First there are links between the CONCERTO processes in general and environmental management:
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Within CONCERTO processes in general, a lot of energy is saved and energy from renewable sources is made available. The same is aimed at and achieved within environ-mental certification processes, but at a lower level with regard to energy and at a higher level with regard to other environmental aspects such as avoiding waste and water saving.
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A CONCERTO process in general needs to involve as many local players as possible – otherwise the ambitious goals with regard to the overall energetic performance of the community can not be achieved. I.e. the CONCERTO process is a joint public-private process – exactly like EMAS alike processes such as ECO-Profit.
Within this project, the CONCERTO processes in the contractor communities are seen through the glasses of business plans and are considered as economic modernisation processes. In addition, material flow management as a means for mapping the energetic and economic interaction of different players in communities is applied.
