Auto-DAN
Deploying Augmented intelligence solutions to make EU buildings smarter
| Business | Period | Project Coordinator | Funding Scheme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | October 2020 - September 2024 | IES R&D Ireland | H2020 |
Challenge
The EU Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan has driven significant technology advancements in the recent years to enable new disruptive solutions for improving the energy efficiency and self-optimisation of existing buildings, but there are still some challenges to overcome:
- the majority of IoT platforms to make buildings smart are proprietary ecosystems with restraints on interoperability and access to data and applications. Open frameworks, such as FIWARE or SOFIA, partially solve the problem but they need an Application Programming Interface (API) or communication agent to be installed in the IoT devices and services;
- Open IoT platforms are neither compatible with each other nor suitable for data sharing between different vertical applications, e.g. data governance and energy management services;
- new standards such as IEC 61850, which defines communication protocols for intelligent electronic devices at electrical substations, are also emerging. However, even with common and interoperable standards. Solutions cannot always be standardised as a result of cultural differences, e.g. education, knowledge, perception, application of solutions etc;
- the majority of buildings do not have an automated building system to enable more efficient management and control and as a result manual analysis and intervention must be taken to maximise efficiency without any real mechanism for optimising energy use;
- protection of historic and conservation buildings prevent building smartification;
- lack of financing and end-user attitude towards smart technology.
Approach
The Auto-DAN project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101000169 to enable homes and small businesses across the EU to optimize their energy consumption and provide an assessment of the live energy performance of a building which takes into account the quality of appliances/systems installed, user operational habits and the smart readiness of a building.
In the framework of Auro-DAN, RINA is mainly in charge of the Self-Energy Assessment Procedure with associated Audits and Project Outreach and Leveraging R&D Professional Network.
Conclusion
In conclusion Auto-Dan solution will be made up of:
- Smart Hardware Infrastructure - Adaptable hardware strategy that can be applied to all building types and features to ensure maximum replicabilbilty of the Auto-DAN solution across the EU building stock;
- Inter-operable Software Architecture - The data analysis platform iSCAN will be used as a foundation for self-optimizing and self-assessing EU buildings stock complemented by 2 analytical features that provides optimization actions. Those features are a “Digital Occupancy Model” and a “Digital Twin”;
- Self-Energy Assessment Framework - Generates an automated, dynamic and continuous energy performance assessment derived from the monitoring of the energy consumption at building level, dis-aggregated monitoring at an appliance/system level and incorporates existing EU energy regulations (e.g. EPBD, ECO Design, SRI, and Energy Labeling).
