By contributing up to one-third of the total consumed energy, buildings have been a major consumer but potentially can offer a lot of flexibility in the way the energy is used, stored and locally produced, and will therefore play a crucial role in this emerging chain with their on-site distributed energy resources (DER). From that point of view the building and its connection to the grid could be seen as a crystallization point of the new energy transition. Development of user-centric building energy management systems will impact significantly energy and value flows within the built environment as part of the smart energy system (SES) while fully integrating the functionalities of the so called Smart Grid. This particularly challenges the design, operation and organization of the future energy supply system to exploit fully the potential of smart buildings and its environment while maintaining system reliability and quality of energy supply.

The current pilot projects for Smart Grids all over the world are being scaled up rapidly. This is also an essential part of the implementation of the Action Plan of Network Operators of the Netherlands. Other examples are the SER Energy Agreement, the Green Deal Smart Energy Cities, the development of the Universal Smart Energy Framework and the setting up of an Integral Test Facility. Such tests and large-scale demonstration projects are essential to reduce the risk of investment and make large-scale technology deployment possible. The long-term impact of the our program concerns practical technological solutions and integrated smart systems for the built environment to address challenges related to a secure and efficient energy supply characterized by large-scale penetration of DER, to be implemented in future demonstration projects.

Our program focuses on the development of management and control systems, the development of emerging hardware technologies to be used in buildings, the ICT-enabled energy services (monitoring and prediction, data mining, market-based and real-time control), as well as technology exploitation via new business models and a realistic simulation environment (modelling lab) for testing entrepreneurship ideas and government policies.

The results of this program are expected to increase energy efficiency for buildings as well as scale-down extensive investments in the energy supply systems. It will create added value by emerging new business models for involved stakeholders including end-users, building owners, and grid operators. Developed projects will strongly facilitate innovation and the concept of smart cities and communities. The research will be carried out in close collaboration with a large number of industrial parties and non-profit organizations.

Unique selling points of the program

• Strong multi-disciplinary team from 3 academic institutions bringing together expertize in electrical engineering, building science, mathematics and policy management.
• Diverse pool of supporting industrial partners and stakeholders, covering all essential domains in the value chain of smart grid and built environment willing to implement the results.
• Coherent structural, operational and institutional innovation, with two-way interactions among research lines ensuring an integrated system-of-systems approach.
• Use of multi-agent systems as enabling software technology, ensuring autonomy and scalability.
• Developed hardware, software, designs and business models are essential inter-operable building blocks of SES, anchored in use cases and leading to best practices and standardization.

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