Following the project partner meeting held in Derry, Northern Ireland on 23rd January 2020, the SMARCTIC project is progressing into the pilot development stage. The project aims to empower SMART Regions and SMART Energy Communities with implementation of a modular SMART Energy Management Model (SEMM) that adapts the needs of various Northern Periphery & Arctic Areas. The developed SEMM will be applied in the development of six pre-identified pilots that address diverse aspects of SMART energy management. The pilots will be deployed, monitored and analysed in various locations including, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and the UK.

Pilot implementations are often considered the ‘key outputs’ of funded transnational projects as they present tangible installations with benefits and results that are often immediately felt. In the case of the SMARCTIC project, the role of the deployments is to test the SEMM in real life conditions and evaluate the model’s effectiveness in facilitating increased affordable, reliable and efficient supply and usage of energy within NPA communities.

A key objective of SMARCTIC is to enable communication between energy stakeholders, build awareness, trial new solutions and change energy behaviour. An important component of this phase will be the monitoring and assessment of the solutions under a common transnational methodology. It is envisaged that this will produce quantitative and qualitative information to analyse the performance of the solutions developed. This analytical information will also be used to continuously upgrade and improve the model.

Development and deployment of the pilots will be led by Icelandic partner, Dr. Ragnar Ásmudsson of Varmalausnir (Heat RD), who has experience and expertise in deploying energy solutions to final customers. The pilots will be deployed from July 2020 until June 2022. It is envisaged that knowledge gained from this phase will facilitate further improvement of the SEMM and also pilot implementations in other NPA regions.