Energy consumption & emissions monitoring & assessment platform for Thessaloniki (ENIGMA)
About this good practice
The ENIGMA platform was created to address the challenge of managing and reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in Thessaloniki, in line with the city's goals for climate neutrality by 2030. It offers a comprehensive tool for decision-making, allowing for the real-time tracking of energy use and CO2 emissions across various sectors, including buildings, transport, and green spaces. The platform aggregates data from 12 data sets that cover 5 different sources (energy systems, buildings & facilities, transport – municipal vehicles, solid waste, land use & green spaces and digitalization). It provides detailed simulations and scenarios to inform targeted interventions, aligning with both local and European sustainability goals. The scenarios combine 6 key interventions and calculate energy and CO2 savings, as well as cost of investment for each sector (i.e. transport, buildings). Indicators, graphs and heat maps are provided.
The city authority is the owner of the platform, also being the main data provider for its development. CERTH/HIT implemented the platform, while hosting and maintaining it. Thessaloniki’s public transport authority also provided data for the development of the platform. The key beneficiary is the city authority that uses the platform for prioritizing and justifying investments, thus contributing towards the objectives set in its Climate Action Plan (reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2050).
Resources needed
Around 6 man-months (MMs) needed for the platform’s development (in data analysis, environmental science and IT specialism), considering, though, that the project started from a mature living lab setup with several components already in place.
Evidence of success
The platform has been used by the city authority for prioritizing interventions and justifying investments towards the reduction of CO2 and energy consumption. The city has already secured funding for the replacement of 100 municipal vehicles with electric ones, leading to savings of 750 tCO2/year. At the same time, they are proceeding with the replacement of more than 20.000 street light lamps with led lamps, resulting to savings of around 8,000 ktCO2/year and 8,000 MW/year.
Potential for learning or transfer
The platform's ability to integrate data from multiple sources and its flexible scenario-based approach make it highly transferable to cities/ regions of varying sizes and complexities. Other regions/ cities can benefit from ENIGMA for processing diverse data streams and create actionable insights, which could prioritize investments and allow for informed decision-making. This is particular important for cities aiming for significant reductions in carbon emissions and energy consumption, as the platform allows for possible (packages of) interventions to be tested and the optimum, in terms of costs-benefits, to be selected.
Key factors for successful transfer include the establishment of strong data-sharing frameworks and the active involvement of local stakeholders.
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH)