POWERBASE project kicks-off in Frankfurt on 14-16 October 2024

 

Twelve emergency response and research organisations have joined forces to prepare future procurement of renewable energy technologies to set the path towards low-emission emergency operations and significantly improve workplace and accommodation conditions of emergency responders and sheltered people.

POWERBASE aims to address this technology gap and provide the basis for future procurement of promising renewable energy technologies by emergency response organisations. Working from an end-user perspective, POWERBASE will analyse the needs of emergency operations for different disaster situations, including wildfires in very hot climatic conditions, cross-border flooding with a high number of displaced people, and an earthquake scenario in a rural mountainous region. The project will also map the available technologies and potential new innovations, which can meet these needs in future. This will help emergency response organisations to bridge this gap and decide on investment in low-emission, reliable, self-sufficient, mobile power supply for emergency shelters and bases of operations.

POWERBASE is coordinated by the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW), and brings together the European emergency response organisations Austrian Red Cross, Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, Ministry of Interior France, Ministry of Interior Italy, Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, Slovenian Samaritan Association and the Dutch national Fire Department. Their expertise is complemented by leading research institutes, procurer organisations and legal experts Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (Germany), Center for Security Studies-KEMEA (Greece) and Vieira Costa Gomes – Sociedade de Advogados RL (Portugal), as well as management consulting and dissemination experts – ARTTIC Innovation GmbH (Germany).

The role of KEMEA in the project is twofold. Thanks to its expertise as Lead procurer in numerous Pre-Commercial Procurement projects, its legal advisors will be leading Procurement Preparation activities, while researchers of the Emergency management and Civil Protection sector will significantly contribute to the scenarios and operational requirements definition and existing solutions review, as well as they will lead the solution providers/end-users community building.

POWERBASE is supported by the EU in the framework of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme with 1 million €. The project started on October 1, 2024, and will end on September 30th, 2025.