Triangulum smart cities project reaches completion

The €30 million award-winning Triangulum project is drawing to a close as the participating cities in the pioneering project begin to share the first results from the five-year long future smart cities programme. Triangulum is one of 14 European Smart Cities and Communities Lighthouse Projects funded by the European Union’s Research and Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020.

Since inception in February 2015, Triangulum has followed the journeys of three ‘Lighthouse’ cities: Manchester (pictured), Eindhoven and Stavanger as each city implemented and tested innovative smart solutions in bids to create more sustainable urban environments.

22 partners from industry, research and government have steered and developed numerous mobility, energy, ICT and business improvement projects as three ‘follower’ cities from Leipzig, Prague and Sabadell, and an additional observer city, Tianjin have shadowed developments; replicating the most successful concepts and solutions as Triangulum evolved.

In the UK, Manchester looked at the key issues of ICT, mobility and energy. Manchester City Council – the lead organisation of Triangulum in Manchester, The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University – partnered with Siemens as the technical partner to investigate how to balance energy consumption and demand, reduce costs and carbon emissions and increase the use of renewable energy along the city’s Oxford Road Corridor.

A new generation

In 2019 Siemens upgraded the Building Energy Management System (BEMS) at Manchester Art Gallery to create a more stable indoor climate within the 200-year old listed building.  The gallery houses priceless artefacts and artworks where the control of temperature and humidity were vital to the care and conservation of thousands of valuable pieces and the Grade III listed building itself.  The replacement BEMS utilised a demand-side response operation that activated heating, cooling and humidity on a needs-basis while predictive analytics were used to return energy sources back onstream when required.

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Siemens has been working with Manchester Met University on its distributed energy system at the university’s Birley Campus. A 400kWh lithium-ion battery, installed at the University Birley Campus which integrates with new solar panels also installed on the roof as part of the project.

The findings from the Manchester pilot will be used to develop smart city quarters in other cities around the world.  With 68 percent of the world population projected to live in urban areas by 2050 according to the UN devising sustainable urbanisation solutions will be key to managing future growth and development.

On the conclusion of Triangulum and the completed energy-related work, Juergen Maier, CEO Siemens UK said:  “We are immensely proud to have participated in Manchester’s smart city vision and have learned and demonstrated, in equal measures, that with the right blend of investment, technologies, governance and citizen engagement, cities can evolve to be eco-efficient and fit-for-the-future. Triangulum has shown a blueprint for low-carbon, cost-efficient smart cities.

“Manchester and Siemens have proven it is achievable, repeatable and scaleable. Now to meet the carbon neutrality targets set by many cities around the world – these projects need to be rolled out at city and regionally-wide scale to have a significant impact on energy consumption and carbon emissions.”

Manchester leads the way 

Professor Bamidele Adebisi, Smart City lead at Manchester Metropolitan, said: “Manchester is now one of the leading cities for Smart City technologies, using the expertise shared among partners to tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow. The technology has helped us to boost green energy solutions, and we can effectively balance energy demand, storage and usage – creating a more sustainable Oxford Road Corridor.”

Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Manchester has committed to a carbon neutral future by 2038.  Manchester City Council, The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, and Siemens won the Public Building Energy Project of the year at the 2018 Energy Awards for the work achieved under Triangulum.