iBECOME
A virtual BMS (vBMS – mind of the system) platform to make EU buildings smarter and more interconnected
| Business | Period | Project Coordinator | Funding Scheme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Energy | June 2020 -November 2023 | IES R&D | H2020 |
Challenge
Nowadays, the majority of EU buildings do not have a Building Automation System (BAS) to enable more efficient management and control. Usually, also larger buildings that do have BAS are underperforming due to a lack of knowledge on how to control such kind of smart systems on a daily basis and a lack of access to the data.
This lack of intelligence in the smaller buildings and lack of interconnectivity in the larger buildings/facilities has a negative impact on the adoption of the new emerging services in the areas of energy management, optimisation and demand response.
For this reason, IBECOME has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 894617 to anticipate and augment the digitalization, decarbonization and decentralization of the energy system.
In particular, the Project Consortium will develop a scalable and modular Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that will operate as a powerful virtual BMS (vBMS – mind of the system) in order to optimize:
- energy performance,
- comfort conditions
- flexibility potential within buildings and facilities: iBECOME solution will be suitable for any size, type and complexity of building and facility irrespective of their energy systems and equipment.
Last but not least, iBECOME deployment will demonstrate the effectiveness of essential retrofits to maximise energy efficiency and flexibility through collaboration of ESCOs and aggregators.
Approach
In the framework of iBECOME, RINA is mainly in charge of the development of the following additional energy and non-energy services:
- commuting optimisation (including EV optimised charging)
- healthcare management related to energy consumption and comfort.
In particular, we are going to develop 3rd party non-energy services algorithms based on energy monitoring, integrating them in iBECOME.
Moreover, we will support the demonstration partners for the audit of the involved buildings as well as for the definition of retrofit actions.
Finally, we are responsible for the review and analysis of market conditions and of the development of the exploitation plan to bring iBECOME innovative technology to the market.
Conclusion
iBECOME will imply multiple benefits for the building owners, occupants and end-users including:
- energy savings,
- better and less costly operation and maintenance (O&M) of heating, cooling and energy systems,
- increased wellness and productivity and potential for new revenue streams from new energy services such as demand response.
Moreover, iBECOME will particularly leverage already designed building renovations since commonly in such projects a building simulation model already exists (or the data to created it have already been harvested) and BAS hardware has already been factored in the investment cost. In such cases, with minimal additional upfront cost iBECOME will be able – beyond fortifying energy efficiency and Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) – to generate additional revenue streams (e.g. demand response services) or lower the cost of necessary Operation and Maintenance (O&M) services, thus contributing to the significant decrease of the payback period and further incentivising the uptake of the solution.
