Fusebox has been selected to take part in Phase 1 of AI4Cities, an EU-funded Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) project, aiming to help cities accelerate their transition towards carbon neutrality. The project is looking for AI solutions that can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the fields of mobility and energy, two domains responsible for 82% of all greenhouse gas emissions in European cities.
Following AI4Cities’ Request for Tenders on 01.12.2020 Fusebox was one of the 44 companies and consortia to submit an application for AI4Cities energy challenge. In total 97 applications were submitted; following a thorough evaluation by the AI4Cities Buyers Group, 21 suppliers were selected for the mobility challenge and 20 for the energy challenge. They all participate in the project’s Solution Design Phase and work on a full plan for the development of a prototype by the end of July 2021.
“This challenge facilitates Fusebox’s expansion into new markets, creates opportunity for the virtual power plant to grow much faster, and enables us to offer new services to our customers through larger tradable volumes,” said Tarvo Õng, Fusebox CEO.
Fusebox received 40,000 euros to further develop its solution in accordance with the input provided by the AI4Cities Buyers Group. All participants have three months to do so, following which the Buyers Group will evaluate which of these suppliers will continue to Phase 2, the prototyping phase of the PCP.
“Our innovative project helps cities reduce CO2 emissions and involves the private sector in contributing to CO2 reduction,” explained Reio Orasmäe, Fusebox’s Partnership Manager. “Through this new solution, the private sector can participate in the virtual power plant platform, and contribute to CO2 reduction through its flexible electricity consumption,” added him.
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 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 – such as big data applications, 5G, edge computing and IoT. Their choice to focus on energy and mobility-related challenges is informed by the fact that these two domains are responsible for 82% of GHG emissions in Europe’s cities.
