General Assembly Report

This short blogspot is summarizing the first General Assembly that took place on 4th and 5th of June 2024; almost all REFORMERS Partners gathered at TU Delft premises for their first consortium meeting, after the kick-off in November 2023. The meeting took place in the amazing University Theatre Hall at X – TU Delft arts and sports compound, pushing presenters to their highest performing skills. The first day was partly dedicated to a walking tour of the energy laboratories and the Green Village, a few meters from the venue. After the visit, the team gathered again for a networking event: dinner and drinks allowed time for creative brainstorming and team-building.

Day 1

On the first day of meeting partners went through the progress of implementation of each Work Package and task, taking the opportunity to report about status, challenges and timeline for next steps. At first, Prof. Thierry Coosemans from VUB, Project Scientific Coordinator, opened the meeting, followed by the hosting partner TU Delft, represented by Ass. Professor Milos Cvetkovitc. After a quick “tour the table”, work package leaders presented updates as follows:

Rebecca Hueting from Deep Blue shared updates from the WP2 Communication and Dissemination package, presenting achievements and the successful submission of the identity kit and the website.
Thierry Coosemans and Wouter Parys from VUB addressed WP3 open points to discuss KPIs, assessment methodology for the Flagship Valley, including the scope definition on energy positivity and biomass imports.
Joep Sanderink focused on technical aspects of the Flagship Valley implementation plan and stakeholder engagement activities foreseen around September and October 2024. Further details were to follow on the Control philosophy workshop of the 2nd day.
Milos Cvetkovitc from TU Delft introduced the plan for data collection. The main topic concerned data, format, frequency, testing, optimisation and control algorithms for the digital twin towards its implementation as a sandbox.
Nicolás Pardo García from AIT presented WP6 activities for the toolbox to ensure energy valley transformation. In this work package, the interaction with the Flagship Valley and Satellite Valleys is fundamental to identify the requirements and needs of local stakeholders to be covered by the toolbox. On day 2, a workshop session on “Energy and Environmental Tool Requirements” will address open points to establish the basis for the deployment of these tools in the next phases of the project.
Vasiliki Stergiou from CERTH launched WP7 activities related to replication assessment with Satellite Valleys and potential additional sites, kicking off in June 2024. The main progress is currently related to data collection.
Francesco Sacco from RISE closed the session with WP8 kick-off announcement. As for WP7, the first task starts in June 2024 and will mainly concentrate on following Flagship Valley progresses and KPI Monitoring, with the goal of preparing the basis for the cross-sectorial replicability assessment and innovation potential.

After an informal lunch break, the team was invited to a walking tour of two key hotspots in TU Delft Campus : the Green Village Living Lab and the ESP – Electrical Sustainable Power laboratories.

Day 2

Control Philosophy Workshop

The workshop started at 9:00 am, led by Joep Sanderink from NEC and involving partners from Withthegrid, Repowered, TNO, Alliander, TUD and VUB. The discussion focused on identifying roles of each contributing member and defining a schematic view or mental map to ensure a shared understanding and a a draft timeline for tools integration.

Advisory Board set-up briefing

VUB, Deep Blue and EUREC discussed briefly on how to proceed for the set-up of an expert advisory board, including initial suggestions on potential members. Invitations will be shared around September 2024, and a first meeting organised towards the end of the year 2024.

General Assembly meeting

The General Assembly came together after the parallel sessions and reconvened to discuss WP1 and the coordination of the project and mainly to focus on the project data management; the Data Management Workshop was implemented under the guidance and with the support of VUB Data Steward and allowed the presentation of the project data management plan in its latest version. After a round of questions, the meeting focused on collecting partners’ needs concerning datasets availability. The need for a “decision tree” on how to use datasets and manage personal data issues and IPR aspects emerged.

Renewable Energy Valleys coordination meeting

The workshop involved all WP6 partners, namely representatives from each Satellite Valley and the Flagship Valley, to identify the current status of existing energy plans, available tools and technologies in each location and data availability, as well as specific requirements that need to be implemented in the tools to ensure energy valley transformation.

Digital Twin session

This rather technical session involved partners from EMPA, AIT, CIRCE, VUB, CERTH and several partners of the Alkmaar FV. During The session Eric Metselaar from Next Mobility introduced the digital systems implemented in Alkmaar and discussions followed on how to implement REFORMERS modules within the local environment, addressing also how the testing phase could be developed.