The City of Turin has a very rich natural heritage. Surrounded by the Alps and crossed by four rivers, the city provides its residents with one of the highest rates of urban green area per inhabitant, with a total of more than 18 km2 in continuous expansion.

Between 2006 and 2011, the City of Turin introduced specific energy and environmental requirements to the city’s building code relating to improvements of building’s façades and the thermal insulation of roofs when major renovation activities are undertaken. There are also minimum NOx (Nitrogen Oxide emissions) requirements for the replacement of heating systems.

The City of Turin signed the Covenant of Mayors in 2009 and has subsequently adopted two action plans, called TAPE: Turin Action Plan for Energy, in 2010 and 2015. In the first action plan the City set an emission reduction target of -30% by 2020, compared to the emissions in the baseline year 1991. The second action plan focuses on the monitoring of the actions undertaken in the first plan and identifies the next steps and the most suited actions to achieve the 2020 target.

In 2014 the City of Turin implemented an Energy Management System (EMS) for the city’s buildings, which is supported by Information and Communication Technology and Building Management Systems (BMS) for the detection, management, control and monitoring of energy consumption.

The City of Turin is committed to improving energy efficiency in their public buildings. One example is the energy requalification of the municipal police offices. The building covers an area of 22,000m2 and its total energy consumption was calculated to be 987.8 TOE/year (11 million kWh). New technologies such as LED lights, thermostats and motion sensors were installed. This is expected to lead to -30% in electricity consumption and -20% in consumption for heating and air conditioning. In November 2018 the requalification already led to 5% electricity savings and 30% savings in consumption for heating and air conditioning.

The project ‘Scuole 2.0’ is currently collecting and analysing energy data on school buildings, collected through the installation of a system of environmental quality detectors inside and outside schools. The pilot project commenced in May 2017 with the installation of the monitoring system in 14 schools. In 2019 the project will be extended to a total of 150 schools. The objectives of the pilot project are to highlight the benefits of a smart monitoring system, namely: analyse data on this specific type of buildings and estimate the maximum achievable amount of energy savings, raise awareness on the impact of consumers’ behavioural change on energy saving and especially the impact of simple thoughtful actions. In the second phase of the project the data collected will be used to carry out specific interventions to improve energy efficiency in the school buildings, ultimately leading to significant economic savings.

The public lighting system is another area of intervention that the City has prioritised. Through the ‘Torino Led’ project, the city has replaced 55,000 public lighting bulbs with LEDs, leading to significantly lower energy consumption. The savings were calculated to be around 50%. The city administration is currently planning to expand this further and to extend the project to include traffic lights.

The lead agencies for the project are the City of Turin and the University Politecnico of Turin.

Renovation of municipal police offices

Financing sources: European funds, Probis Project

Total amount: € 400,000

Payback period: 6 years

‘Torino LED’ project Financing sources: IREN S.p.A (Energy Service Company)

Total amount: € 17,000,000

Payback period: 12 years

‘Scuole 2.0’ project Financing sources:

Fondazione Bancaria “Compagnia di San Paolo”

Total amount: € 40,000 for the first 14 schools, € 350,000 for the extension to 150 schools

The collaboration between the Municipality and the University Politecnico of Turin has led to multiple positive outcomes. The City of Turin is now planning to provide the results of the research to owners of private buildings. Additionally, the City is currently working to create a single integrated Energy Centre, that will host regional and municipal administrative offices for energy management, private energy companies and the relevant University Politecnico offices and labs. Through the creation of this centre, the city is aiming at encouraging cooperation in the energy management sector and sharing knowledge between parties with different expertise.

Covenant of Mayors case study: Energy efficiency interventions for public buildings and lighting systems in Turin

http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/documents/Energy-efficiency-interventions-for-public-buildings-and-lighting-systems-in-Turin-WSPO-BA9Q2N