Supporting Energy Efficiency Decisions with IT: Initial Experiences from the EnRiMa Project

Abstract

Abstract. IT solutions can aid decision makers in making informed decisions that lower the energy consumption in buildings. However, in order to design and implement an IT solution there are a number of issues that need to be resolved, for example, adequately handling sometimes contradicting goals of the decision makers and integrating the Decision Support System with the existing building IT infrastructure in the form of building management systems. In this paper we report on our initial experiences from implementing a decision support system for the management of energy consumption in public buildings. The experiences are based on our work with the EnRiMa project that aims to develop a state-of art decision support system for lowering the energy consumption and CO 2 emissions of public buildings. We divide our experiences into two areas, namely, business concerns and software architectural, and provide our initial solutions and lessons learned with respect to these areas. Furthermore, we discuss a number of challenges for future work in the area of IT support for energy efficiency.Keywords: Sustainability, Green IT, Energy Efficiency, Decision Support System. IntroductionEnergy efficiency and reduction of CO 2 emissions is one of the main challenges of our society. This paper presents experiences from an ongoing EU funded FP7 project on IT solutions for improving energy efficiency of public buildings -EnRiMa (Energy Efficiency and Risk Management in Public Buildings). The overall objective of EnRiMa is to develop a decision-support system (DSS) for operators of buildings and spaces of public use. By providing integrated decision support for handling conflicting goals such as cost minimization, meeting energy efficiency, and emission-reduction requirements, the DSS will enable operators to improve building energy efficiency in the most cost-effective manner based on their tolerances for comfort and risk. The DSS will aid the operators' in adjusting on-site