Smarter Together: Monitoring and Evaluation of Integrated Building Solutions for Low-Energy Districts of Lighthouse Cities Lyon, Munich, and Vienna

Abstract

The Smarter Together project implemented in the three lighthouse cities (LHCs) of Lyon, Munich, and Vienna a set of co-created and integrated smart solutions for a better life in urban districts. The implemented solutions have been monitored using a novel integrated monitoring methodology (IMM) following a co-creation process involving key stakeholders of the LHCs. With focus on holistic building refurbishment and the integration of onsite renewable energy supply (RES), the three LHCs refurbished around 117,497 m2 of floor area and constructed 12,446 m2 of new floor area. They implemented around 833 kWp of PV, 35 kW of solar thermal and 13,122 kW of geothermal heating systems. Altogether, the realized solutions for low-energy districts in the three LHCs will annually save around 4000 MWh/a, generate 1145 MWh/a of RES and reduce around 1496 tCO2/a of CO2 emissions, corresponding to specific values of 37.6 kWh/m2.a and 11.9 kg-CO2/m2.a for final energy saving and CO2 emission reductions, respectively. KPI-based monitoring and evaluation of the implemented solutions provides qualitative and quantitative insight, experience and lessons learned to optimize the process of implementation and deployment of integrated solutions for holistic building refurbishment, and thus contribute to advancing sustainable urban transformation at the district level for both LHCs and FCs.

A Data-Driven Design Approach of an Energy Data Exchange Platform

“…Faulty sensors or Internet of Things (IoT) systems can cause compromised data sets that require cleaning and thorough documentation before utilization. [17]. There have also been calls for improved transparency and documentation practices related to data integration [18].…”

“…The monitoring data to be represented in the DEP comprises meter data from the mentioned energy supply units as well as sub-meters for individual heat consumption zones and distribution systems. The building energy system of the ZEB aims to achieve an annual net-zero energy balance [17]. Furthermore, the heat pump works for cooling (in summer) and heating (winter) to compensate the heat loss of the ground water.…”

“…The monitoring time cover a full year of building operation. Relying on this monitoring infrastructure, the following data can be automatically collected: the thermal energy consumption (partially diaggregated by rooms and floors), the electric energy consumption, the thermal energy generated by the solar thermal collectors and the heat pumps, as well as the nominal power and electricity production of PV panels [17], [22], [23]. The energy meter data are currently communicated to AIT as raw time series batch data, which necessitates data processing and cleaning steps.…”

Smart Energy Meters for Smart Grids, an Internet of Things Perspective

“…While an integrated smart meter to measure all the quantities has not been reported, individually these variables are increasingly being measured, monitored, processed, and controlled for smart energy scenarios [44]. Currently, an integrated application scenario is also not being implemented at the physical level; rather, these variables are processed at a higher level of integration and abstraction, typically at the applications layer and in the cloud [45,46], leading to the obstruction of the working mechanism, which might translate Energies 2023, 16, 1974 6 of 35 to data underutilization and other data collection artifacts. Smart meter designers usually think of measurement technique as an external factor, which is exemplified by the fact that most of the smart meter research takes off the shelf components, whereas in industry different types of meters in different scenarios result in different designs.…”