New collaborations

The 5^th edition of the Public-Private Partnership on Energy-efficient Buildings (EeB PPP) Workshop was held in Brussels on the 27^th and 28^th of April this year, and Energy IN TIME was there to take part in the proceedings. This year’s edition of the popular event featured parallel working sessions to assess the impact and benefits of project clustering, panel discussions on maximising impact and innovation, a presentation on EeB success stories, as well as presentations by representatives of the DG RTD, E2BA and EIB.

The EeB PPP is a joint initiative of the European Commission (EC) and the Energy Efficient Buildings Association (E2BA), and was launched in December 2008 as part of the European Economic Recovery Plan. It provides a platform for the support of research and innovation to reduce carbon emissions and improve the energy performance of new and existing buildings and districts throughout Europe, while at the maintaining the industrial competitiveness of the European construction sector. In the years since its launch it has attracted a high industrial participation and contributed significantly to the continuous innovation of a sector with a yearly turnover of more than € 1.2 trillion and which contributes more than 10% to the GDP of Europe.

Energy IN TIME participated in the Parallel Working Session 2: “ICT for design, monitoring and management of energy efficient buildings and districts”, where we gave a joint presentation with five other projects in the area of energy performance monitoring and management of energy efficient buildings, including partner projects PERFORMER and TRIBUTE.

In total, the event brought together representatives from 96 projects in the field of energy efficiency, which provided the perfect opportunity for networking. It was a particular pleasure to meet and work with the projects Built2SPEC, Insiter and Accept, three new projects financed in 2014 H2020 call, and we hope to be able to continue collaborating with them in the future. Contact was also made with the CSAs EEBERS and SWIMming, with whom we will also be collaborating in the future.

Successful completion of the 1st Reporting Period

Energy IN TIME completed its 18 month reporting period in March this year and gathered at the EC headquarters in Brussels on the 19^th of March to present the results at the 1^st period review meeting. The official review of the Commission was that Energy IN TIME is on schedule, making good progress, and well in its way to reaching all the set objectives.

The meeting kicked off with a welcome address by the Project Officer and a summary of the main achievements by the Project Coordinator, after which each of the WP leaders got a chance to present the results of their WP for the first 18 months and the plans for the next period. After a long and productive day, the Project Officer and the Project Technical Advisor ended off the meeting with advice and feedback on the results.

Highlights from the results of the first reporting period included the completion of 4 project milestones and 23 deliverables, including the Plan for the Use and Dissemination of Foreground, or PUDF. This document summarizes the strategy and concrete actions for the protection, exploitation and dissemination of the results generated by the project. So far, 5 key exploitable results have been identified, some of which are already partially or fully developed, as well as a number of other key innovations in the field of building energy efficiency and management.

The project partners left Brussels motivated by the positive feedback and ready for the next reporting period, which will run from M19 to M36. It will be a crucial time for the consortium and the project, and one in which most of the technical developments will need to be finalized, but we look forward to these challenges with the continued cohesion and good collaboration that we have enjoyed so far.

Successful Energy IN TIME General Assembly meeting in Helsinki

A total of 24 participants gathered together in an autumnal Helsinki on the 15th and 16th of October 2014, for the joint 1st General Assembly and 2nd Steering Committee meeting of the Energy IN TIME project. The meeting was hosted by local partner Caverion, who did a splendid job not only of organizing a successful meeting, but also introducing the rest of the partners to a bit of the local culture and food.

The meeting was opened at 11:00 on the first day at Caverion’s offices in Vantaa, with a brief presentation of the Caverion Corporation by Unit Manager Heikki Rostila. His presentation focussed on the company’s 24-hour Energy and Control Room Services, and included the service model implemented as well as the tools used for the energy consumption monitoring, the automation user interfaces and the Caverion Care alarm monitoring software. This was followed by Mika Ruokonen (also of Caverion), who presented the Dispatching and Helpdesk tools. The morning session was finalised with a walking tour of the Caverion Control Centre and the Helpdesk rooms.

After a break for lunch in a well-known restaurant in central Helsinki, courtesy of Caverion, the participants took a short walk to Sanomatalo, one of the project’s four demo sites, where the afternoon session took place. We were welcomed by Raija Seilonen, the Facilities and Services Manager, who gave us a short presentation on Sanoma, one of the largest media and learning companies in Europe and the building’s main tenant. Tuukka Vainio (Caverion) then gave us a short presentation on the main characteristics of the energy systems installed in the building, before proceeding with the guided tour of the building. The meeting closed on schedule on the first day and the partners went their separate ways, to meet up later for a social dinner at one of the oldest and most historic restaurants in Helsinki.

Day 2 was opened by project coordinator, Belén Gómez-Uribarri, who then handed over to the Work Package leaders for a recap of the main advances of each Work Package and the plans for the coming months. Highlights included the presentation of the Weather Tool, developed in WP1, and a demonstration of the Virtual Auditing App for tablets, developed as part of WP2. After a short break for lunch it was back to business with a presentation of the Dissemination and Exploitation Plan by Heidi Rohwer (FUNIBER) and Paolo Musso (STAM), before ending off the afternoon with the parallel working sessions. The meeting wrapped up shortly before 17:30 with a few last words from the project coordinator, and the partners made their weary way back to their hotels for a well-deserved rest, after a successful and productive two days of work.

Recent events

October was a busy month for the Energy IN TIME partners, with two important project-related events taking place. From the 1st to the 3rd of October Energy IN TIME attended its first international conference, Sustainable Places 2014, in Nice, France, where a poster was presented. Then on the 15th and 16th of the month the 3rd General Assembly of the Energy IN TIME Consortium took place in Helsinki, Finland.

Sustainable Places 2014 offered a wide range of thematic sessions focusing on energy efficiency on building, district and cities levels, and was therefore an ideal opportunity to present Energy IN TIME. This year’s edition also hosted the 2nd EeB KPIs Workshop supported by the European Commission and the 14th International EuropIA conference focusing on “ICT for architecture, city and information design”. The Energy IN TIME representatives also attended a joint workshop with the European projects Tribute and Performer, with whom we will be collaborating during project execution.

The General Assembly featured a visit to hosting partner Caverion’s offices in Vantaa, as well as to Sanomatalo, one of the demo sites. It also included a review of the project progress, parallel WP working sessions, and a presentation of the Dissemination and Exploitation Plans, to coincide with the release of deliverables D8.2: “Dissemination Plan”, and D8.5: “Plan for the Use and Dissemination of Foreground”.