AI4Cities project selects seven prototypes to be tested in six cities


31 March 2022


AI4Cities project selects seven prototypes to be tested in six cities

The EU-funded Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) project Ai4Cities has selected seven prototypes to be tested in the six project cities. Four of these pilots are using AI-based technologies to make cities’ energy domains more sustainable and will be tested in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Greater Paris and Stavanger. The other three AI-based pilots focus on reducing CO2 emissions in the mobility domain. They will be tested in five of the same cities, with only Tallinn replacing Copenhagen.

The four solutions selected in AI4Cities’ Energy Lot are Holoni, developed by a consortium of Alphaventuri (Norway) and Energinet (Denmark); SPIKE, developed by Enerbrain (Italy); BEE, developed by a consortium of Eeneman (Finland), Unetiq (Germany) and Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland); and C-In. City, developed by an all-French consortium of Kayrros, La Javaness, and Nexqt. In AI4Cities Mobility Lot the selected solutions are Avenue, developed by a consortium of Nommon and Populus (both from Spain); MPAT tool, developed by a consortium of Vianova (France) and Rebel Ticketing (The Netherlands); and Ix3, developed by a consortium of MarshallAi and Dynniq (both from Finland). AI4Cities has reserved a total of 1,45 million euro for the consortia to do their pilots.

Kaisa Sibielius, coordinator of the project at Forum Virium Helsinki is highly satisfied with the quality of the selected companies. “The solutions are diverse, innovative and efficient at reducing CO2 emissions. In addition, they have great potential for replicability and scalability. They address gaps in some of the fastest growing markets in Europe and beyond. This was very important to us, as we want these solutions to be implemented beyond our project cities.”

Holoni leverages AI beyond the prediction of solar production and predicts how much solar surplus can be generated from positive energy buildings; Enerbrain’s SPIKE is an all-in-one, cloud-based software/hardware platform supporting data exchange with proprietary IoT-enabled devices and communication with other IoT devices/platforms; The BEE (Building Energy Efficiency) solution combines several of the latest technologies to connect buildings with the energy grid and their environment and to optimise their overall emissions impact; C.in-City empowers citizens by providing them with near real-time transparent information on how they can reduce their emissions, enabling policy makers to design the most effective and actionable policy options

AVENUE is an innovative solution aiming to predict the impact of shared mobility services on urban transport GHG emissions; The MPAT tool (Mobility Policy Auto Tuner) is an engine to optimize the CO2 emission-reduction potential of city mobility policies, with a focus on shared micro-mobility; The Ix3 solution works by taking information from traffic cameras and from other traffic sources and then integrating it into the city’s traffic light system. In doing so, it increases traffic fluency and decreases unnecessary stops.

The Ai4Cities project launched its Request for Tender in December 2021 and selected a total of 41 suppliers (20 in the Energy Lot, 21 in the Mobility Lot) to participate in the Solution Design Phase to work on a plan for the development of a prototype. 20 of them, evenly divided across both lots, were then selected to go through to the prototyping phase. In the current, final, phase of the project, the seven remaining suppliers will get the opportunity to test their solution in the project cities.

The AI4Cities Buyers Group consists of lead procurer Forum Virium Helsinki (representing the city of Helsinki), Cap Digital (representing Paris Region), the city of Amsterdam, the city of Copenhagen, the city of Stavanger and the city of Tallinn. These six cities and regions have developed ambitious strategies and policy plans to become carbon neutral by – at latest – 2050. In AI4Cities they joined forces, supported by expert partner ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability, to go through a PCP process, aiming to procure non-market ready solutions which can help them accelerate their transition to carbon neutrality by utilising artificial intelligence and related enabling technologies.



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