Public Funding for Green Running Limited

**TRUST2** is an industrial research project that aims to accelerate the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in building management. Despite its potential impact, decision makers in the building industry are hesitant to make the investment required and adopt AI due to a lack of trust in its effectiveness and reliability. Managers and owners need to see convincing real-world demonstrations of AI/ML systems saving money and energy, keeping operations efficient, people comfortable and safe, in similar buildings to their own. System integrators also do not want to risk their reputation by recommending unproven technologies to their customers. Despite the risks, the potential payback for investment in AI in the built environment is significant. With rising energy prices, businesses are now increasingly concerned about controlling energy costs beyond sustainability reasons. Other operational efficiencies are also achievable, from space utilisation to manpower. **TRUST2** aims to demonstrate the benefits of AI in building management, particularly in the United Kingdom where the smart building industry lags behind in adoption despite being a leader in AI/ML innovation. This Phase 2 project utilises insights from sensor and other data with AI and machine learning as the expert in the loop to control selected building management systems. The Phase 2 real-world application of these technologies in an existing building will be evaluated and highlighted in live demonstrations, case studies, scientific papers, and articles to increase trust in the use of AI in building management and reduce barriers to adoption in the industry.

In this project, we aim to further extend the functionality of Verv Smart Isolators, a device that performs non-intrusive load monitoring of electrical signals. We wish to validate that our product, already deployed at customer sites around the UK, may also be used as low-voltage grid sensors to detect power quality phenomena such as harmonic distortion and transient signals. Successful completion of this project will allow us to demonstrate that our network of Verv Smart Isolators can be leveraged by Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) to facilitate the monitoring of supply voltage in their network, and quickly raise an alarm if any disturbances have been detected by our energy systems. A swift response to such problems can prevent both damage to energy infrastructure and potentially harmful customer disconnection. We will collaborate with our chosen partner, NPL, to validate that our Smart Isolator hardware can detect reference signals generated in their specialist laboratory within a matter of minutes. We believe this innovative concept has the potential to drastically enhance the monitoring capability that DNOs have access to. The types of reference signals to be validated will be a combination of both definitions from existing standards (such as EN 50160 and IEC 61000-4-30) along with completely new test signals, or adaptations of existing ones, that are likely to occur on the modern grid network.

In 2016, air conditioners and electric fans accounted for approximately 10% of global electricity consumption. With rising temperatures, global energy use from air-conditioning units is expected to triple by 2050\. The US currently consumes 616TWh for cooling, with air conditioners already found in 87% of households. Although UK market penetration is significantly smaller (only around 1-3% of households have air conditioning), air conditioner sales are increasing (by over 10% in 2018 compared to 2017). As a result of rising temperatures and warmer urban living conditions, by 2050, up to 32% of English households are expected to install air conditioning. However, air conditioners can be expensive and energy inefficient to run, particularly if units are not well-maintained or serviced regularly. A poorly maintained or defective air-conditioning unit will increase maintenance and operating costs substantially, while increasing carbon emissions and reducing unit lifespan. Studies from the US have found that a domestic air conditioner should cost about £120/year to run, but one-fifth of households pay over £650/year above this, primarily because of inefficient air filters. Worldwide, inefficient air filters alone are responsible for wasting an estimated 0.1-0.3% of power consumption. A poorly maintained or faulty air-conditioning unit is not just costly/inefficient to run, it can be a significant fire risk. In the US, fires arising from faulty air-conditioning units cause an average of 20 deaths, 140 injuries, and £60million in property damage each year. Despite being potentially hazardous and one of the most costly domestic appliances to buy, run, and repair, air conditioning units do not have integrated performance monitoring. Even the newest equipment fails to offer anything analogous to a vehicle's "check engine" light. Verv is on a mission to make our homes smarter, more efficient, and safer. With Innovate UK support, we will create a Smart Isolator that analyses changes in the power draw of an air-conditioning unit as an early indication of reducing energy efficiency and fault progression, unlocking prescriptive maintenance. Using our device, households will benefit from reduced running costs (lower power consumption) and significantly improved safety (reduced fire risk). Furthermore, by enabling accurate fault detection at an early stage (pre-catastrophic failure), when it is still economical to repair the unit, our device will extend appliance lifetime and improve sustainability. This project is aligned with global pressure on appliance manufacturers to shift to a repair-over-replace culture, in line with eco-design policies such as "right-to-repair" legislation.

Eco-design policy has traditionally focused on improving energy efficiency of household appliances, rated from A+++ (highest energy efficiency) to D (lowest energy efficiency). Taking tumble dryers as an example household appliance, models with lower energy ratings typically have cheaper upfront costs (sale price: c£150-£300) compared to top-rated models (sale price: c£350-£1,000). However, under standard usage conditions (defined as 160 drying-cycles/year), a C-rated tumble dryer may consume more than three times the energy of a top-rated model, meaning that over a 10-year lifespan, a C-rated model can end up costing hundreds of pounds more than an A+++-rated model, while also being responsible for three times more carbon dioxide emissions. With modern heat-pump technology delivering highly energy efficient tumble dryers, attention has recently switched to making appliances easier to repair and longer lasting. Under current practice, tumble dryers typically have manufacturer warranties of only 1-2 years. Customers can pay for extended warranties (e.g., for 5 years), but large household appliances invariably fail without warning, and when they do, replacement tends to be easier than repair. Indeed, UK's leading specialist warranty provider for household appliances replaced rather than repaired more than half a million broken appliances in 2017 alone (Domestic&General\_2017). Appliance manufacturers are under increasing global pressure to shift to a repair-over-replace culture; 77% of European consumers would rather repair than replace their goods (European\_Commission\_2014). However, today, we do not have the required monitoring technology to enable fault diagnostics and prescriptive maintenance of household appliances. With Innovate UK support, Verv, working with a leading UK-based appliance manufacturer, will create a new device that sits between an individual household appliance and the wall socket, analysing changes in the power draw of the household appliance as an early indication of fault progression. This data will transform how we view our large household appliances, enabling accurate fault detection at an early stage (pre-catastrophic failure), when it is still economical to repair these appliances. By avoiding untimely/sudden appliance failures, our monitoring device will reduce appliance downtime (improving user convenience) and also significantly improve the safety of household appliances, which can be a significant fire risk. By enabling proper maintenance, customers will further benefit from reduced running costs (lower power consumption), while modern, smart household appliances will also potentially be suitable for software updates to improve energy efficiency without replacing the entire product. Thus, supporting the transition of household appliances towards a sustainable future.

E-mobility is set to be a cornerstone of future low carbon travel. EVs currently make up about 1% of global vehicle sales, but EV penetration is forecast at 35-47% of new cars by 2040 (BNEF, 2017). By 2030, EV sales are expected to account for 60% of UK new car sales, but mass electrification of mobility still relies on improved access to charging services. E-mobility innovators Agile Impressions and artificial intelligence experts creators of Verv Green Running, designed a novel solution intended to meet the market need for improved EV charging services. The consortium seek to explore the potential for a Blockchain Enabled Controller for E-Mobility Sharing (BECEMS). BECEMS allows private charging station owners to share their charging assets with others and do the billing, by connecting it to a network accessible to the public. Businesses, communities and individuals just have to register and set times when their private charging point is free for use, improving utilisation factors and therefore returns on investment for existing and new charging assets. This feasibility study validate and refine the technical and commercial potential of BECEMS, applying cutting edge technology to improve the user experience and economics of EV charging infrastructure.

"The ""Internet of Things"" offers appliance manufacturers a valuable opportunity to improve their understanding of post-production product performance and user interaction. Innovations such as smart sensors, cloud computing and data analytics can all support increased profitability by enabling new services, improving product design and potentially facilitating orchestration of new, circular business models. Yet at present only 35% of manufacturers globally are exploiting these technologies, and even those that do are limited to dispersed insights. To address this market need, and exploit the opportunities of the IoT for UK manufacturers, UK SME Green Running propose their patent-pending OPERating Analytics for elecTrical appliancEs (OPERATE) solution. Leveraging strong in-house expertise of electrical monitoring-derived insights, machine learning algorithms and data analytics, Green Running's technology agnostic solution offers a comprehensive range of product/user insights with which manufacturers can improve their profitability. This 9 month industrial research project, including a 3 month participant trial in partnership with one of the UK's leading consumer appliance brands will help validate OPERATE's full functionality, evidenced by a robust data set, and refine the customer proposition to ensure the optimal business model for exploitation."

"At 40% EV market penetration, 32% of UK local electricity networks will require intervention, with an estimated cost of £2.2bn by 2050 (EA Technologies). Clusters of EVs, such as EV car clubs' hubs, have a more significant impact on the local grid, especially when looking at peak demand, harmonics and voltage violations. V2G has the potential to reduce low voltage network upgrade requirements. In today's perspective, DNOs have no ability to harness V2G to adjust load in localised areas to avoid network faults or support in recovery from network outage/black start circumstances. In order to meet the market need for a cross sector solution, Agile Impressions (AI), Green Running (GR) and E-Car Club (E-Car) seek to establish feasibility for a Blockchain Enabled Vehicle to Local Grid (BEV2LG), implementing GR's emerging blockchain technology in the e-mobility sector, where EC and AI have a strong record delivering business-minded innovation. BEV2LG will enable EV fleet owners to export electricity back to the grid when most needed by local grids and do billing, creating a platform in which EV fleet owners can provide grid balancing services to local networks operators (DNOs) through blockchain technology. This guarantees e-mobility to benefit from: high interoperability across stakeholders, secure permissioned interaction so that various stakeholders work on one value chain, no single point of failure (decentralized, transparent, redundant and secure), and pay-as-you-go microtransactions to be profitable (no middle man). This feasibility study validates the technical and commercial potential of BEV2LG, applying cutting edge technology to unlock V2G services to benefit local networks."

Green Running and Powervault are both fast growing SMEs at the forefront of energy sector innovation, with respective expertise in machine learning based electricity disaggregation and small scale battery storage. For both companies, key customer segments and early adopters include social landlords, community energy groups and local authorities, for whom standard B2C offerings are ill-suited with respect to issues such as tenant fairness. More broadly, despite clear and consistent public approval ratings for renewable energy technologies, only ~5% of the UK population have direct access to these carbon free sources of electricity. This 12 month feasibility study will establish the technical and commercial potential to use innovations in distributed ledger technology to facilitate increased and shared access to low carbon energy sources, and optimum business models for implementing such technologies.

Each year the average UK household disposes of £800 worth of electrical and electronics items, 40% of which is repairable. 40% of this is made up of large household electricals such as washing machines. At present, the cost of repair too often exceeds the cost of replacement, meaning there is little incentive to improve the resource efficiency of appliances and increase product lifetimes - resulting in significant resource loss each year. London based artificial intelligence experts, Green Running believe the application of novel machine learning algorithms can be used to modernise the process of appliance repair - and achieve cost savings in the process through improved operational efficiencies. The NiFM project, transcending energy and information communications infrastructure, will undertake a complimentary programme of works to establish technical feasibility and devise a working prototype from which to engage potential clients and investors. To fully exploit the opportunity available Green Running will evaluate the potential to orchestrate business model innovation to increase SME revenues, job creation and bottom line profitability.