The big challenge for cities or other localities is that each smart city type project is treated separately, when in fact the smart city project should be treated as a whole, said Răzvan Copoiu, CEO Signify Romania and South-East Europe, during the „Smart Cities – What we can do today” conference, organized by Energynomics.
“A city must consume as little as possible, be as environmentally friendly as possible, and the urban mobility side should always be taken into account. The green cars segment will create more energy consumption, which is why it is important to compensate it with efficient lighting. An LED lighting has more than 50% more efficient consumption and can greatly offset the increase in consumption. An intelligent lighting system adjusts consumption according to what the city wants. A sustainable city needs to consume as little as possible, to be as green as possible, on which the idea of sustainability is based,” he said.
“The National Resilience and Recovery Plan (PNRR) is at the forefront, the speed with which projects are proposed is very high, some funds have been used, but I would like to draw some alarm signals. One is related to the ‘Renovation Wave’, where, even if some of the funds have been consumed, we are talking about the need to attract billions of euros. The attention turned to the building area, while in other segments, such as that of bicycle lanes, there were very few project submissions. It’s a shame, because this grant can only be attracted until the end of the year. There are consultants who already have the solution, the funds should be attracted,” he said.
In the field of green schools, Signify, together with Electrica and OMV Petrom, created an nZEB building pilot project at Elie Radu High School in Ploiesti. “It is a very nice concept that is not yet applied in Romania and the paradox is that we are talking about a mandatory standard, which was taken only as a recommendation. Now we have a pilot, it’s true, made with private funds, which should be multiplied by European funds. There is the program “Effective Romania”, which made all the calculations related to what it means to have an nZEB building”, added Răzvan Copoiu.
The conference “Smart Cities – what we can do today” was organized by Energynomics, with the support of our partners ABB, Automobile Bavaria Group, Consolight, Eaton Electric, Enel X, Flash Lighting Services, LAPP Romania, Phoenix Contact, REI Group, Sixt, Signify.
