Public Funding for Integrated Environmental Solutions Limited

3D-UP (Dynamic, Digitised Decarbonisation investment and engineering roadmaps for UPgrading building portfolios) will develop a digital twinning infrastructure and methodology for the development of decarbonisation pathways for building portfolios. The decarbonisation pathways will be complemented by a suite of data-driven services that will catalyse the adoption and implementation of the decarbonisation actions by reducing their cost and their duration. Those data-driven services will correspond to particular use cases that will be delineated through engagement with building portfolio owners/operators and users/occupants. The needs and constraints of the owners/operators and users/occupants will be incorporated into the digital twinning infrastructure while several other stakeholders in the value chain of decarbonising buildings portfolios (e.g. technology suppliers, AECOs and engineering consultants, financing institutions) will also inform the respective use cases and the design and development of the digital platform's UX interfaces and outputs. Those additional information layers of buildings users and operators' constraints and of financing (from private and public sources including active decarbonisation support schemes) and engineering will be incorporated into the 3D-UP digital platform to enable the technoeconomic optimisation of decarbonisation pathways along a suite of complementary decarbonisation services. Those services will provide inherent investment de-risking features and buy-in from both building portfolios owners and users. Thus, the deployment of the 3D-UP dynamic decarbonisation roadmap platform will ease the process and slash the cost of generating decarbonisation roadmaps for building portfolios. Furthermore, it will enable the monitoring and management of the decarbonisation measures implementation. The main impact of 3D-UP is envisaged to be an acceleration of both decarbonisation roadmaps but also of decarbonisation investments from multiple public and private building portfolio owners. Such energy efficiency investments are related with (e.g. improved indoor air quality, job-creation, energy poverty alleviation, environmental sustainability, asset valuation increase, energy security). The deployment of 3D-UP will offer productivity benefits and economies of scope to engineering consultants and facilities management companies since they will be able to reduce the cost and duration of generating decarbonisation roadmaps for portfolio owners. The latter will avail of a dynamic digital tool where could easily plan and manage decarbonisation pathways and monitor their implementation. Furthermore, they could more easily and accurately communicate decarbonisation specifications to their supply chain partners. Finally, the use of 3D-UP to provide consultancy services to local governments and regional energy agencies could lead to optimisation of decarbonisation policies and improvement of relevant financing mechanisms and deployment of decarbonisation support grants.

3D-UP (Dynamic, Digitised Decarbonisation investment and engineering roadmaps for UPgrading building portfolios) will develop a digital twinning infrastructure and methodology for the development of decarbonisation pathways for building portfolios. The decarbonisation pathways will be complimented by a suite of data-driven services that will catalyse the adoption and implementation of the decarbonisation actions by reducing their cost and their duration. Those data-driven services will correspond to particular use cases that will be delineated through engagement with building portfolio owners/operators and users/occupants. The latter will be representing all market segments (i.e. local councils, housing estates, universities campuses, commercial real estate companies, health services) to enable the scalability and replicability of the proposed solution throughout the UK. Similarly, the needs and constraints of the owners/operators and users/occupants will be probed and identified during the Phase 1 (Feasibility Study) to inform their codification into the digital twinning infrastructure in Phase 2\. Several other such stakeholders will also be surveyed in Phase 1 for a representative mapping of their needs. The building portfolio owners will also be used to contact suppliers and other stakeholders in the buildings decarbonisation value chain to incorporate features in the digital twins that support their involvement in the implementation of the decarbonisation pathways. Additional information layers of buildings users and operators' constraints and of financing (from private and public sources including active decarbonisation support schemes) will be incorporate to the digital twinning infrastructure to enable the technoeconomic optimisation of decarbonisation pathways with inherent investment de-risking features and buy-in from both building portfolios owners and users. Overall, the main objectives of the work in 3D-UP are: 1.The needs solicitation of stakeholders (building portfolio owners/operators, building users/occupants, suppliers, engineering consultants and companies) through surveys and focused interviews 2.The prototype software development mapping to incorporate portfolio owners/operators, and building users/occupants constraints along direct output codification for front end engineering design and tendering and financing applications 3.The use cases delineation and their respective data-driven services required to deliver an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) 4.The full feasibility study for the MVP envisaging the required resources to be invested and the timeline for its development.

Our economy, and in particular the energy economy is evolving fast. The day of the large international energy provider capturing and exporting local value is coming to an end, in future energy 'systems' are local, with the value of energy consumption created and retained locally through the use of emerging technologies and open markets with energy delivered to users through new consumer offering and business models, empowering all participants in the energy economy to get their fair share of the value creation. REWIRE-NW takes a revolutionary mission-oriented approach to the Smart Local Energy System (SLES) proposition through its combination of the SLES framework and its focus on community and local benefit and value retention, its core objective being the creation of an energy system that is not only optimised and balanced at the local level in energy terms, but also in terms of welfare and benefit of all of its stakeholders. Through the SLES framework REWIRE-NW will propose new market arrangements that pave the way for change. New structures and procedures in the form of the intelligent 5G enhanced Mission-Oriented Local Energy Market (MOEM) and data-centric Intelligent Local Energy Architect (ILEA) operated under a new entity, the Smart Local Energy Company (SLEC) will drive the system towards a lower cost and lower carbon outcome. The definition of these new entities will be established, but their objective will be locally focussed and impact driven from the start. Change will require an evolution in regulation and a revolution in approaches to finance and ownership. Local is at the heart of REWIRE-NW and the benefits of an increased role for the public and community sector alongside commercial ownership will be realised. REWIRE-NW sees this future as a key opportunity to redefine the role of community in energy and design a system that priorities local social and economic objectives. If value is created locally it should be distributed locally.

Within the UK grid infrastructure environment, renewable potential is curtailed, preventing large penetration of Renewable Energy Sources and injection of all available power into the grid. This leads to an opportunity for micro-grids at the community level to be optimised, enabling local balancing and providing extra revenue schemes, i.e. electric transportation charging, or electric heating. In addition, Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) such as blockchain can be used to stipulate and store smart contracts that enforce proportional fairness among participants in low-carbon microgrids. CEDISON will examine the synergy between DLTs, intelligent building monitoring and control at community level, including forecasting based on weather and electricity price and Peer-to-Peer trading to smart energy systems. CEDISON is the first of its kind to define a way to capture the benefits of local balancing markets, at building and district level, enhancing consumer digitalisation, and being able to measure the impact in rural and city district microgrids. CEDISON is disruptive, in a way that allows evaluation of interactions of data trading providing insights to consumers, planners, markets, business and governmental bodies.

The BICYCLE project aims at promoting the new technologies developed by IES to support all the stages that lead to the creation of an Intelligent Community in South East Asia, with particular focus on Hong Kong. This will be done through a set of activities aimed at understanding the needs and requirements of potential user groups, as well as local barriers that need to be overcome to achieve a successful market uptake. These activities include the creation of partnerships with local regulatory agencies, universities and businesses as well as the organisation of bespoke events and training for target group. This will allow us to create a base of users for our software and technologies as well as a network of potential customers for our community level technologies.

Title: City Information Model and Neighbourhood Manager for the Real-Time Identification and Analysis of Power and Heat Usage at the Macro-Scale (MIRIAM) Challenge Selected: Challenge 1 - Data Platform for Real Time Energy (Power and Heat) Usage Abstract: MIRIAM is an interoperable Neighbourhood Manager and City Information Model which gathers both Real-Time Information (RTI) and Building Specific Information in a city to analyse and understand both power and heat data at macro-scale. Real data from the buildings in the city are gathered from multiple available sources such as smart meters, Automated Meter Readings (AMR), Building Management System (BMS) and climate data from weather stations to mention a few. Building specific data is gathered from building owners/ occupiers in the city, including utility bill information and information such as building type, floor area, occupancy and use and information with respect to the buildings services and equipment. All data is collected via a user friendly web portal, whether it is RTI to be updated at regular time intervals or manual data that is entered once. Where possible, real data is used to show real measured energy use in the city and where real data is not available, simulated data is generated via the building specific information. All data is stored via an interoperable City Information Model (CIM) server, which supports multiple file formats so that all available data from a city is included. The filtered data is viewed via an online portal as 3D model geometry, 2D interactive maps or raw data. This is used to understand energy usage and flows in the city and the amount and type of data available will determine if one or all views can be utilised. As more information from the city is uploaded by the city inhabitants, the accuracy of the simulated data improves and eventually through available RTI, simulated building data is replaced by real building data to have a real-time accurate picture of how the city is ever changing and evolving to its users needs and behaviour. The data from the CIM server is also exported to a Neighbourhood Manager (NM), which characterises the city in terms of power and heat. The NM uses a powerful simulation engine to predict savings and Return on Investment as a result of a variety of retrofit measures suitable to different end users. Four identified end users have been identified for the initial development of the MIRIAM product offering and customised displays to suit these users needs will be developed. These are: 1) the Individual Building Owner, 2) the Public Community, 3) the Business Community and 4) the Technology/Service Provider. The Individual Building Owner will use MIRIAM to identify potential simple and deep retrofit measures for their building; the Public Community will identify district schemes that benefit a defined area; the Business Community will identify opportunities for a portfolio of buildings; and the Technology/Service providers will use MIRIAM to identify areas for target marketing. As the tool is developed, additional end users will be targetted and customised displays developed to suit their needs.

It has been recognised within Europe that approximately 80% of a building’s total lifecycle energy usage occurs during its operational stage. Recent studies indicate that the ‘as-built’ performance of new or refurbished buildings frequently does not achieve the ‘as-designed’ predicted performance. With an aim to bridge the performance gap between design intent and actual operation performance and therefore increase the operational efficiency of buildings, a tool called VESCAN has been newly developed by IES which goes beyond the traditional use of building simulation at the design stage to the operational stage and enables operational energy efficiency measures to be developed and employed. This development was funded by Scottish Enterprise. VE-SCAN provides users with the tool to more accurately calibrate the model of the building by using the actual recorded information from the operational building data. By comparing the differences between the simulated calibrated model and the operational building data, it enables the user to identify where the building is underperforming. It was developed with intentions to overcome the discontinuity between the simulated performance of a building at the design stage and in operation; and the problems of maintaining efficient building control operation by the Building Management System. To conjunction with VE-SCAN, another newly developed IES tool via a TSB funded research project, called VE-THERM extends the applications to manufacturing facilities where it allows the processes being undertaken in the building to be assessed in an integrated manner, therefore manufacturers can understand and reduce their energy use at operation stage based on metered or estimated data. Currently both tools are prototype products and need development to take to market as fully fledged commercially viable products. Hence we are applying for the funding to carry out marketing research on the assessment of their commercial viability.

To develop an optimisation control strategy and integrate it with the dynamic simulation environment and real-time building energy performance models.

The OPTIMISE tool will be specifically designed to give better guidance on design decisions and will enable the delivery of low impact and zero carbon buildings in the UK. The innovative approach will be applicable at every design stage, with the most significant gains in building performance resulting through its application to the concept design stage (during which there is the greatest potential to explore alternative design solutions). The tool will be able to optimise complex design factors such as glazed area, choice of construction materials, building orientation and compliance based on objectives such as energy consumption, carbon emissions and cost and constraints such as achieving specific daylight factor values. The developed technology is a software tool that provides designers with a set of alternative optimised design solutions that aid decision making at any design stage. This takes advantage of existing 3D dynamic simulation modelling software (IES) and optimisation algorithms, designed specifically for use with a dynamic building design process (Loughborough University).

A major barrier to the design of low-carbon buildings is lack of insight into the success and failure of completed construction projects. LESSONS is an innovative web based design tool, containing a database of completed construction projects. Practitioners will be able to search for ‘Lessons’ from past projects to positively influence their new designs. Practitioners will be able to share knowledge by uploading ‘Lessons’ from their completed projects. Lessons will include information about building type, location, floor area, energy, and environmental performance. It will also have the functionality to upload 3D design models, containing information on energy use, CO2 emissions, solar, day lighting, airflow and system design. The models can be downloaded from the website, allowing ease of application of the design decisions to a similar building under consideration. This will allow for faster formulation and evaluation of appropriate schematic and detailed designs. A designer orientated relational database will give practitioners access to both quantitative knowledge and qualitative knowledge in a way that is suitably integrated with their desktop. Furthermore, lessons learnt while trying to meet Government targets (e.g. CSH levels 4+) will be better disseminated through the proposed tool, giving both the experienced and the novice practitioner easy access to a large body of design knowhow, allowing them to accelerate and improve the quality of low-carbon building design. The modular software architecture will enable continuous expansion of the database so as to maximize the scope, frequency and quality of the design tool. The initial tool has been developed for new build and existing domestic and school buildings. However, the early experience gained will allow the tool to be extended in the future to other building types such as retail and commercial, and other areas of sustainability including design of water systems.

IMPACT is a specification and database for software developers to enable the production of software tools that carry out consistent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC). IES, who are a partner in the consortium funded by the Technology Strategy Board to develop IMPACT, will be the first to release IMPACT compliant software tools. Other developers will be able to develop and release IMPACT tools later on. IMPACT is based around interoperable Building Information Modelling (BIM) where the user attributes sharable information to drawn or scheduled entities, in this case environmental and cost information. This may be done as a ‘check’ at particular stages in design development or iteratively as part of the user’s general workflow. Put simply, IMPACT measures the quantity information in the BIM and multiplies this with environmental impact and cost ‘rates’ to produce an overall impact and cost for the whole or a selected part of the design. Fundamentally, the results generated allow the user to identify aspects of the design where cost and environmental ‘savings’ can be made. In addition, overall results for designs are comparable to assess performance.

The THERM project aims to move the manufacturing industry towards a more resource-efficient, low-carbon future, by developing an integrated sustainable manufacturing modelling tool (THERM). The tool seeks to integrate ‘Sustainable Building Design’ tools and ‘Sustainable Manufacturing Process’ tools to achieve an ‘Integrated Sustainable Manufacturing’ system. It is concerned with the creation of a new, innovative commercial modelling tool specifically for the manufacturing industry. Drawing from the consortium’s widely acknowledged experience, THERM will change the way the manufacturing industry approaches low environmental impact and cost-effective design.