BUILDING CPI – Public Procurement of Innovation as a tool to improve energy efficiency in public buildings in small and medium-sized municipalities
The BUILDING CPI project aims to promote the development of innovative technologies and/or solutions and their mass market deployment in the field of energy efficiency, while simultaneously improving public services offered by municipalities through the incorporation of these products and reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in municipal facilities.
Municipal participation in R&D&I actions is generally low, as municipalities are typically buyers of mature technological products, services, or solutions. Most successful cases of public innovation procurement come from major European cities such as London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, or Stockholm. In the few examples in Europe, this intervention always occurs in large and major cities, assuming that R&D&I actions are directed from the supply side.
This project intends to use the Municipality of Sueca (approx. 30,000 inhabitants) as a pilot or launch case, allowing the adoption of PPI as a preferred public procurement policy. In addition, the project aims to promote the creation of innovative clusters (SMEs, business associations, universities, technology institutes, etc.) initially in the Ribera region and later across the Valencian Community.
It is important to note that the project focuses on the launch of a public procurement for innovation procedure, not pre-commercial procurement. PPI is defined as the acquisition by a public body of a product, service, or material that does not exist (or is not yet widely available on the market) at the time of purchase but can be developed within a reasonable timeframe.
The project will enable the identification of innovative solutions and products and the implementation of a PPI procedure focused on reducing energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in a municipal building of the Sueca City Council.
Finally, a dissemination action will be carried out, targeting municipalities in the Valencian Community. This will include a seminar and the transfer of methodology through on-site training in two additional municipalities, preferably in the Ribera, adopting a know-how transfer protocol on PPI between these municipalities and the Ribera Consortium.
The BUILDING CPI project aims to consolidate the innovative cluster promoting sustainable energy initiated by the European project PROMINENT MED, initially including: municipalities of the Ribera, Ribera Consortium, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia Provincial Council, and Valencian Association of Energy Services Companies (AVAESEN).
The project has been funded by the Valencian Innovation Agency (AVI) under the Public Procurement of Innovation (PPI) promotion program and the action line “Promoting demand for innovative product and service tenders”, corresponding to the 2018 fiscal year.
