As local governments assumed an increasingly strategic role in achieving national and EU climate objectives, the use of robust, data-driven planning tools became indispensable. Municipalities, together with technical consultants, were central to the preparation and implementation of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) within frameworks such as the EU Covenant of Mayors and the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The recast EPBD introduced new obligations for local and regional authorities, including the development of Building Renovation Plans and the progressive phase-out of fossil fuel-based heating systems — requiring more integrated, spatially aware, and performance-based energy planning at the local level.

In this training session, Alessandro Piccinini, Technical Manager of R2M’s Energy Division, presented the technical use of advanced digital tools specifically designed to support municipalities and their consultants in the energy analysis of a SECAP. Through the presentation of best practices applied to municipal decarbonisation plans and practical examples, participants learned how to collect and structure local energy data, develop a baseline model by importing available urban data, and simulate future decarbonisation scenarios using the iES Suite tools, which were exploited in the European Step-WISE project to support municipalities.