Our project coordinator, Belén Gómez-Uribarri from Acciona, took some time out of her busy schedule to give us her personal take on Energy IN TIME. Find out where the idea for Energy IN TIME came from, how Energy IN TIME differs from existing BEMS and what the main advantages are of using the Energy IN TIME solution in your building.
1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
I hold a Degree in Industrial Engineering by the University of Seville (SPAIN). I have been working on engineering field for more than ten years, been mainly involved in projects related to Renewable Energy Sources and Energy Efficiency. At the present, I belong to the Energy Efficiency Installations Group at ACCIONA R&D Technological Centre being involved in several EU- funding Projects related to Energy Efficiency and RES in Building field. Energy IN TIME is the project in which I am more deeply involved as Coordinator.
2. Where did the idea for Energy IN TIME come from?
ACCIONA is one of the most foremost Spanish business corporations, leader in the development and management of infrastructure, renewable energy, water and services. ACCIONA also acts as an Energy Service Company (ESCO) for large buildings and industries. The activity developed in this field has conferred to ACCIONA a good and accurate vision of the market’s needs in Building Energy Efficiency Management. The progresses and developments carried out in the ACCIONA’s R&D Technological Centre in Energy Efficiency and Environmental Technologies field have constituted the main sources of innovative tools to facilitate the best Energy Efficiency Management tools to ACCIONA’s ESCO as well as the inspiration for new innovative tools as it is the concept of Energy IN TIME Solution.
With the very powerful Energy IN TIME’s Consortium, composed by the most foremost European entities with a very high expertise in different fields like; Control Strategies, Data Treatment, Communications Issues, Energy Audit Methodology, Simulation and Modelling tools, Energy Management, Decision Support Tools…, among others, and with the EU support will be possible to develop this powerful and innovative solution for Building Energy Management that is Energy IN TIME solution
3. What are the main advantages of using Energy IN TIME?
Using the Energy IN TIME solution will ensure, through optimization strategies applied to control algorithms , a high energy efficiency level in many different type of buildings with a unique tool and remotely, which means that energy will be consumed:
– IN TIME, only when it is really needed,
– only what it is really needed, and
– in the most cost-efficient way possible, promoting the RES integration
All this will be translated in lower energy consumption, less CO2 emissions, and a more sustainable and efficient energy generation and consumption.
4. How will the Energy IN TIME solution differ from existing BEMS? What is the main innovation?
Most BMS’s ensure the correct functioning of the hydraulic, mechanical and electric systems and equipment, and assure comfortable conditions according to user demand, but don’t take energy efficiency into account nor try to reduce energy consumption.
In contrast, the tendency in the building energy efficiency market is to offer remote energy efficiency services, consisting of energy auditing and monitoring, and the generation of energy consumption reports, but not managing and controlling the BMS to improve energy efficiency.
Energy IN TIME offers a centralized control building platform able to communicate with BMS devices and provide them with an optimal operation plan according to the building’s particular configuration and taking into account external variables such as weather conditions, users’ behavior, building usage schedule.
5. What is the biggest technical challenge that needs to be overcome in the development of the Energy IN TIME solution?
There are three biggest technical challenges to be overcome in Energy IN TIME solution:
The management of a huge amount of information. Energy IN TIME will communicate with several buildings, each building will be different with its own constructive characteristics its local climate characteristic, its own energy performance and its own control and management needs. Together with forecasted data, Energy INTIME will manage IN TIME data. The communication with each building will be settled by an innovative Communication platform concept. And all together will be integrated in a centralized tool.
Accurate building simulation model. In order to achieve a proper energy management policy in buildings it is important not only to have an accurate building simulation model of the energy building performance but also this model has to be continuously calibrated and its complexity level and execution time have to be the adequate ones to be easily implemented for control algorithms
Advanced control techniques. In Energy IN TIME it will be developed an innovative modular Simulation based building Control. This Control will implement dynamically the operational plans, generated through the simulations done with the virtual operating models, achieving an optimal schedule and balance of the power flow between energy sources and storage. So the HVAC set-points will be continuously adjust for adapting the building’s energy performance to occupancy and weather loads, based on the actual and forecast information