Innovative local public-private-citizen partnership for energy governance

The VILAWATT UIA - URBACT Transfer Mechanism boosts the energy transition process by setting up a public-private-citizen partnership, where citizens and main social actors play a key role. The priority is to increase citizen commitment and sense of belonging to promote a sustainable energy transition process. Main achievements in the Lead Partner city, Viladecans, include: citizens got a saying at the Consortium through the associations linked to it. These associations have been created thanks to Vilawatt’s participatory strategy, as they did not exist before. When it comes to energy supply, Vilawatt pools the demand for energy and provides energy to all association members (100% Certified Renewable Energy) Faster energy retrofitting of private buildings. In addition, three residential buildings (in an underprivileged district) have received 1,4 M€ investment in a process that has been boosted by the city hall, naturally, the neighbours were part of the decision making process of the retrofitting works.