As data availability varies across and within EU member states, start with sources for real-time monitoring data which can be disaggregated into energy demand by sector and fuel. Think about local and regional municipality beside national data bases, Distribution System Operators (DSOs) which hold energy consumption data, national statistic offices, local surveys, and energy traders.

In lack of official monitoring data, the urban energy system modeling (UESM) introduces a modeling approach, involving model abstraction of buildings in a municipality combined with statistical data, climate data, and physics-based modeling, to derive energy demands. In general, PLENTY-Life applies a graded approach to data collection, prioritizing local sources, followed by regional and national levels.

To facilitate the collection of data for the establishment of a baseline energy balance, the PLENTY-Life project has developed a streamlined data collection template, which you can download here.

The data sources will cover all official local/regional/national documents, communication with the local stakeholder, previous studies, and any prepared strategies of other cities in the pilot country.

Relevant datasets include demographic and lifestyle data, as well as economic data. Think about determining parameters such as:

• Population size and growth rate, distribution in potential and active labor force, household sizes for demographical data,
• Consumption patterns, electrical appliance ownership and transport patterns for behavioral data,
• GDP growth rate and GDP by sector for economic data.

Common data sources include Open Data DB of the country, Local statistics offices, Local news, Open Street Map etc.

For further explanation and detailed description of the pilots, please click here.

Examples from Pilots: