Smart Energy Supply Conception for the urban development area of aspern Seestadt (Vienna)

The paper describes the Smart Energy Supply Conception for the northern part of the urban development area aspern Seestadt in Vienna. It illustrates concrete options and potentials by different scenarios for the actual implementation of a future innovative energy system. The final conception was elaborated in the framework of a research project (Transform+) in cooperation with local key stakeholders and experts in the field of planning and energy research, public administration, including Vienna´s energy supply company and the responsible development agency. With the transformation of the former airfield of Aspern, the city of Vienna aims for a new quality in urban development, providing a new urban area with major central functions which is supposed to stimulate neighbouring quarters as much as the way urban development is being done in general. One of the main priorities in this context is the strive for high quality of life for future residents, combined with the important aspect of affordability. The masterplan foresees the development of a multifunctional area with a mix of residential, office, scientific, research and educational uses. By 2030, the area of aspern Seestadt (223 ha) shall be developed for 26,000 residents and offer 23,000 jobs. The masterplan for aspern Seestadt as well as the activities and measures set by the development agency Wien 3420 Aspern Development AG have been guided by the vision of an ecological, resource-friendly and climate neutral city from the beginning. This aim is also in accordance with the ‘Smart City Framework Strategy of Vienna’ passed in 2014 after the start of the implementation of aspern Seestadt (first phase). Within the context of the project Transform+, different options for a smart energy supply have been elaborated for the second implementation phase of urban development, named aspern Seestadt North. Here, in an area designed for 7,000 new apartments and 14,000 jobs, it was the main challenge to take the step from research on innovative future energy systems to a complete roll-out in an urban area to be developed in near future. In order to estimate future energy consumption (heating, cooling, electricity) and different options of energy supply and local renewable energy production, several ‘smart city’ scenarios were elaborated and compared against a ‘business as usual’ scenario. An important component in all ‘smart city’ scenarios is the share of renewable energy, for which a quanti¬tative target has been defined in the Smart City Framework Strategy for the city of Vienna (50% until 2050). To contribute to Vienna´s Smart City aims, aspern Seestadt North should strive to gain a high share of its energy from locally available renewable energy sources and also offer high flexibility to make use of additional sources (e.g. from potential future waste heat) in a later phase of implementation. In addition, total energy consumption and according CO2 emissions were critical factors for defining the final energy system configuration of the ‘smart city’ scenarios. As result, the elaborated ‘smart city’ scenarios show considerable potential for reducing energy consumption and significantly higher shares of renewable energy use compared to the ‘business as usual’ scenario, and therefore greatly reduced overall CO2 emissions. By implementing the ‘smart city’ scenarios, total energy consumption could be reduced by 39% against technical standards as in the ‘busines as usual’ scenario. Due to a higher use of local renewable energy supply the best ‘smart city’ scenario shows an overall CO2 emission reduction potential of up to 75%. Through the intensive cooperation process of the research team and the key stakeholders responsible for the development of the area, the Smart Energy Supply Conception laid a solid foundation for the relization of innovative future energy systems in aspern Seestadt

TRANSFORM – Governing the Smart City by Projects

With the recent ascendance of a sociology of public policy instruments (Le Gales & Lascoumes 2007), particular interest has been devoted towards understanding the emergence of the project as broadly indicative of wider transformations in strategic urban policy making (Pinson 2007, 2009, Beal 2010). Many Smart Cities are governed by research projects, and these are practically marked by an inherent tension. On one hand, the Smart City research project has the purpose of shaping consensus around acceptable “smart” urban futures, instituting new pluralist political spaces, in which scientific targets are always practically reversible if they do not fit consensus. On the other, the Smart city research project aims to scientifically evaluate what “right” choices have to be made to lead the city towards effective Smart City development in line with supranational targets and climate wisdoms. How can the Smart City research project shape consensus among a multiplicity of institutions, actors and groups while not compromising the scientific validity of the set targets and strategies? Drawing on the experiences of the project TRANSFORM in monitoring and shaping the transition strategies of six European cities, the aim of this paper is to elucidate some of the logics of strategic urban policy processes in their peculiar pathways towards the Smart City. In the course of the paper we would like to show how some of the tensions inherent in the role of Smart city research projects are practically addressed in the local framework of the project TRANSFORM and give a first tentative evaluation whether this has been successful so far. In the context of stagnant growth prospects and increased territorial competition, the urban project has become a primary vehicle for the promotion of local development. Newly build urban districts, such as Hamburg Hafencity or Aspern Seestadt in Vienna, mega events like the London Olympics, large scale revamps of urban public spaces such as the pedestrianization of Times Square, or the proliferation of cultural venues from the London Megadome to the old butcheries of Casablanca are prominent examples for the spread of the project form in urban policy making. Yet, while the urban project has become a preferred instrument of contemporary urban policy, it cannot be conceived of as a mere effect of the strategies it is embedded in but should be seen as a marker of the very advent of a project-based polis (Boltansky 1999) in which urban governance assumes the logic of the project itself. As has been argued elsewhere((Pinson 2005;2006; Brake 2000) it is a form of metropolitan governance whose primary purpose it is to shape consenus to scientificically elaborated urban development goals by substantively linking urban strategy and its implementation through the social mobilization of different actor constellations, thereby flexibly adjusting the strategic environment to changing external and internal circumstances, and monitoring the actions of local actors and their interests where they are generally segregated. Smart Cities are governed by research projects, and these are marked by an inherent tension. On one hand, the Smart City research project has the purpose of shaping consensus around an acceptable “smart” urban future instituting new pluralist political spaces, in which scientific targets are always practically reversible if they do not fit consensus. On the other, the Smart city research project aims to scientifically evaluate what “right” choices have to be made to lead the city towards effective Smart City development in line with supranational targets and climate wisdoms. How can the Smart City research project shape consensus among a multiplicity of institutions, actors and groups while not compromising the scientific validity of the set targets and strategies? Drawing on the experiences of the project TRANSFORM in monitoring and shaping the low-carbon transfromation strategies of six European cities, the aim of this paper is to elucidate some of the logics of strategic urban policy processes in their peculiar pathways towards the Smart City. Drawing on the experiences from the TRANSFORM cities in general and particularly from Vienna in formulating and experimenting their Smart City strategy, we would like to show how some of the tensions inherent in the role of Smart city research projects are practically addressed in the framework of the project TRANSFORM. In the first part we will provide a general theoretical background to the sociological analysis of the urban project, with particular focus on the challenges on the governance of local climate affairs. In the second part, we shall illustrate this by looking at the TRANSFORM project, first form a European perspective, then from the viewpoint of Vienna