MEU – A cartographic-based web-platform for urban energy management and planning

This paper presents MEU (http://meu.epfl.ch) project results: a new GIS-centric web application for energy management and planning of existing or new urban zones. The project has been carried out with the collaboration of four Western Switzerland cities and three energy utilities companies using a “bottom-up” approach. The methodology involves the set-up of a dedicated geodatabase model aimed at structuring all energy-related knowledge of a city. Computation solvers could then be used to design and evaluate future energy scenarios. The ArcGIS Server-based web services are readily usable for cities in terms of data import, management, computation and display. The clear geographical presentation of computation results – for example on buildings' footprints thematic maps - using GIS functionalities and analysis tools facilitates the communication with all stakeholders at the local scale (such as energy utilities, local administrations, local government and the public) and provides figures to guide energy policy and investments. A complementary project on the monitoring of energy flows at a broader territorial level is also presented.