Project Description
Promoting best practices to support energy efficient consumer behaviour on European islands.
Info
Acronim: PROMISE
Partners: Innova S.p.A – INNOVA – Lead partner (Italia), Samsø Energy Agency – SEA (Denmark), Energy Agency Iceland – EAI (Iceland), Kos-Aegean Energy Agency – AEA (Greece), Agencia Insular de Energía de Tenerife – AIET (Spain), Forventi Media Limited – FORVENTI (UK)
Duration: June 2011 – November 2013 (30 Months)
Financed by: Program Intelligent Energy Europe
The project
Maximising energy savings and reaching high energy efficiency levels are crucial challenges currently faced by the EU. Residential energy demand is rapidly increasing due to larger homes, new services and additional appliances, putting a strain on the economies and energy infrastructures of EU regions.
Moreover, domestic energy use is still largely invisible to the user and this is a prime cause of wastage. Most people have only a vague idea of how much energy they use for different purposes and what difference they could make by changing day-to-day behaviour or investing in energy efficiency measures.
The overall goal of the project PROMISE is to support better information provision by tackling the main barriers that still exist today for taking up energy efficient behaviour among consumers.
Through PROMISE, households will be approached and supported in choosing the most energy efficient products and encouraged to reduce household consumption in gas and electricity. Furthermore, they will learn about successfully implemented measures which generate, through financial incentives and ownership models, a more participatory involvement in energy concerns.
PROMISE focuses its activities on insular regions located in European areas with different climatic and geomorphologic conditions: Samsø (Denmark), Iceland, Tenerife (Spain) and Kos (Greece).
The main reason why the project targets insular regions is that islands have a vital need to guarantee energy supply and adopt energy conscious behaviours that promote energy efficiency. Alongside with their manageable size with regard to population and consequently, a high probability to reach a wide range of households, the deep connection and identification of the inhabitants with their territories is a reason to a greater interest in safeguarding the territory and thus also in the willingness to adopt behaviours that support energy efficiency and the rational use of resources.
Web page of the projcet: http://www.ieepromise.eu/en
Duration: 30 moths (June 2011 – November 2013)
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Launch and implement an extensive awareness raising campaign on each targeted partner island (Iceland, Kos, Tenerife), aimed at reaching directly consumers/ households and influencing them in being more conscious with regard to energy consumption, making them adopt energy efficient behaviours, both in purchasing and the use of energy consuming equipment.
Integrate and refine islands’ energy action plans by providing further input obtained through the project to local policy makers.
Disseminate the project activities and achievements to as many European islands as possible by implementing a large scale European awareness campaign.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
Support the realisation of the goals set in the EU Energy Policy, i.e. the “20-20-20 targets” (reduction in EU greenhouse gas emission, increased use of renewables; and the cutting of energy consumption).
Support the implementation of EU Directives, in particular requirements set under the Ecodesign Directive, the Energy Service Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.
TARGET GROUPS
Private Households, as energy end-consumers. Tourists are considered in this category as well since partner islands are famous tourist destinations and thus, the increase in population during the summer influences significantly energy consumption.
Policy makers from the partner islands, involved in the policy making and responsible for setting up energy plans and incentives supporting the adoption of RES and energy efficiency measures.
Energy agencies and policy makers from further European islands, approached during the large scale European awareness campaign.
ACTIVITIES
Act. 1: Assessment of good practices and lessons learned
o Detailed analysis of the success story “Samsø – Renewable energy island”. In addition, successful practices related to efficient energy consumption and the rational use of energy sources implemented in the other islands will be considered in the analysis as well.
o Detailed analysis of the partner island contexts from the geographical, climatic, economic and legislative point of view, and self-assessment on how an awareness campaign for consumers can be best exploited in the respective islands’ contexts.
This first phase represents the core activity for developing the knowledge to be used for starting off with Pilot Actions and implementing awareness campaigns on the partner islands and on a larger scale at EU level. In this phase is crucial the participation of the stakeholders involved.
Act. 2: Capacity building and local awareness campaign
This second phase relates to the transfer of knowledge assessed in the first phase to the islands. The objectives of this phase are:
– To set up awareness campaigns with actions tailored to the different island contexts, aimed to reach energy efficient behaviour among consumers/households in the short to medium term.
– To integrate the lessons learnt into islands’ energy action plans, aimed to reach benefits and energy efficient behaviour among consumers/households in the long run.
The second phase will be implemented through three Pilot Actions that will be carried out in each project target islands (Iceland, Kos, Tenerife).
Each Pilot Action will consist of the following steps:
1) Knowledge Transfer and capacity building workshops led by Samsø Energy Agency as main teaching institution/ mentor and further integrated by the energy agencies of the other partner islands. Workshops will have duration of 2 days and will involve regional key stakeholders as intermediaries and multipliers (i.e. policy makers, consumer organisations, energy producers, SME associations, hotel associations, etc.) as well as households as end-consumers.
An EASW (European Awareness Scenario Workshop) session will be also organised in order to reach consensus among different regional stakeholders as regards the content of the awareness campaigns to be carried out in each island.
2) Awareness campaign, based on the results obtained through the regional workshops. The awareness campaign will be tailored to the regional framework conditions and implemented over the period of 18 months.
3) Support preparation of legislative measures: Lessons learnt from the workshops and in particular from the EASW sessions will be integrated into future energy action plans of the islands. The aim of this action is to guarantee a long term impact, and thus the sustainability of the PROMISE actions also beyond the project duration.
Act. 3: European awareness campaign
– A workshop/event will be organised in Brussels inviting representatives of at least 20 European islands involved in ISLENET, the Network of European Island Authorities, and further networks and initiatives, such as the CPMR – Conference of peripheral maritime regions and the European Energy Network.
– A large scale awareness campaign addressed to all European islands.
More information:
http://www.ieepromise.eu/en
www.facebook.com/PromiseTenerife
