Step-WISE Easier energy transition planning for local authorities

The EU-wide assessment of National Energy and Climate Plans has found a significant shortfall in the establishment and achievement of National targets in terms of energy reduction and investment. Climate actions need to be scaled up and this requires appropriate definition and achievement of local targets in the transport, buildings, and electricity supply sectors (around 60% of the EU's current energy-related emissions).
Moreover, despite the availability of several different tools, stakeholders often face the lack of appropriate easy-to-use tools to support them in the definition, simulation and evaluation of suitable strategies for sustainable energy tailored to local conditions for achieving the ambitious targets set-up in their local plans.
Step-WISE directly addresses this shortfall by boosting local and regional authorities’ capacity to implement and monitor sustainable and targeted Clean Energy Transition Plans (CETPs) using a digital and user-friendly toolkit.

The project is carried out by a consortium of 7 partners: INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTION [IES], R2M SOLUTION SRL [R2M], SINLOC-SISTEMA INIZIATIVE LOCALI SPA [SINLOC], ENERGY AGENCY OF PLOVDIV ASSOCIATION [EAP], ENERGEIAKO GRAFEIO KYPRION POLITON [CEA], FREDERICK UNIVERSITY FU [FredU], CERES OTC [CERES]. Step-WISE entails three main components:
i) a two-wave cascaded Capacity Building Programme, with the first wave focusing on consortium experts to Use Case (UC) leaders training while the second wave focusses on dissemination to local and regional authorities by UC Disseminators, empowering them to develop, deliver and monitor their local energy plans and roadmaps.
- a Use Case based approach which takes into account different local needs in the alignment of national level targets to local level plans, incorporating the intricacies of local collaborative and adaptive planning; the specificities of local conditions and context in terms of its geography (rural or isolated or carbon intensive area); the engagement of different entities (e.g. Energy Agencies, regional and local authorities, private actors and local communities, etc); and learning approaches favoured by the stakeholders (top-down or bottom-up), thus capturing different level of innovation and ambition according to local geographical challenges and political context
- a unique easy-to-use digital toolkit, that will enable local stakeholders to take into account the “local DNA” of the specific region and area by modelling energy assets alongside the characteristics of its climate, geography, ecology, economy, social capital, as the first step towards a systemic, future-appropriate CET plan.

-Increase local and regional authorities’ skills and capabilities in the field of clean energy transition planning.

-Promote and accelerate Clean Energy Transition plans development towards decarbonization of EU energy in line with EC directives.

- Promote holistic energy planning to mainstream the carbon neutrality goals within all relevant sectors.

- Direct energy and emissions saving impact on Step-WISE approach early adopters