The Living Lab for Testing Digital Energy Solutions (DES-Lab) aims at involving the JRC staff and stakeholders in testing the Living Lab method, with the objective to transform the JRC Ispra site into an Energy Living Lab. The project will serve as a tool to support site modernisation, as well as to reach ambitious energy performance objectives.
The ongoing pilot phase of the project, expected to be concluded by December 2020, will most likely be postponed due to the force-majeure situation linked to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The organisation of workshops to engage JRC Ispra staff is essential for the success of the project. To this purpose, a co-design workshop was organised on 30 January 2020 by unit C.3 jointly with Unit H.1, in collaboration with Units R.I.4, C.2 and C.4, and co-developed by Prof. Jöelle Mastelic and Dr. Francesco Cimmino, University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland.
The co-design workshop aimed at:
- engaging the main stakeholders, and setting a common vision and objectives for the implementation of pilot use cases.
- empowering the participants – JRC staff, in fostering a “practice what we preach” approach;
- understanding the different individual perspectives, needs and barriers to enable the co-design of solutions closer to these needs, and to increase their adoption and uptake.
The co-design workshop focused on three key subject matters, i.e.:
- Smart charging systems for electric mobility, concentrating on staff needs and concerns, and commuting habits;
- Energy efficiency and savings, particularly in terms of buildings’ energy monitoring and management systems;
- Open data and visualisation, with the goal of opening and sharing energy-related data with the staff, as a first step.
Commitment from senior management is crucial to ensure that the subsequent experimentation and piloting phases benefit from the necessary human, technical, and financial resources.
The event was attended by over 50 participants, mostly JRC Ispra staff belonging to various Directorates and Units. Representatives from the Municipality of Milan in charge of the H2020 Sharing Cities project, and from the Italian start-up Cartender were also among the participants.