The MOEEBIUS framework will be validated in 3 large-scale pilot sites, located in Portugal, United Kingdom and Serbia, incorporating diverse building typologies, heterogeneous building and district energy systems and spanning diverse climatic conditions. In order to span a greater range of climatic conditions, three locations with quite different climates have been chosen for the pilot deployment in Mafra (Portugal), Belgrade (Serbia) and London (UK). The Living Labs play a key role in testing, refinement and validation of the MOEEBIUS framework at both building and district levels. Additionally, they will be also served as demonstrators showing the running MOEEBIUS framework, with emphasis on the benefits achieved and their potential.
Three main groups of activities have been planned within the demonstration buildings:
- Installation, calibration, evaluation and optimization
The Roll-Out phase of the MOEEBIUS pilots will be driven through these four steps distributed between October 2017 and February 2019:
- Installation of the required equipment (October 2017 - January 2018).
Installation of a new innovative non-intrusive, low-cost, plug & play and self-configurable sensor/ actuator wireless device (integrating a wide range of sensors, such as luminance, occupancy, temperature, humidity and control interfaces) with enhanced communication capabilities and energy autonomy to complement existing monitoring infrastructures in buildings and ensure the collection of all required information for the holistic energy performance assessment and optimization of the building environment.
- Initial calibration of MOEEBIUS models and profiles (July 2017 - September 2017).
The dynamic visual and thermal comfort models which facilitate the definition of accurate comfort profiles of occupants within buildings will consider occupants as dynamically interacting entities within their environment through appropriately controlling their HVAC operations and luminance conditions. These Models will be calibrated with the aim to enable dynamic user profiles that reflect and more specifically quantify the discomfort of occupants based on the analysis of evidence captured exclusively from the observation of users' control actions under specific conditions.
- First real-life trial of the MOEEBIUS framework and evaluation of gap reduction (February 2018 - May 2018).
A first real-life trial of the MOEEBIUS framework will be done in order to fine-tune the MOEEBIUS platform and evaluate the gap reduction between the actual performance of the buildings and the performance predicted by the BEPS. This first trial will allow an overall analysis and evaluation of the pilot operation phase of the project across the pilot sites. To this end a consolidated evaluation will take place for providing individual, aggregated and comparative assessments of pilot results, considering energy efficiency, peak-load management, user acceptance and overall ICT framework performance, along with its cost-efficiency (savings vs costs).
- Optimization of DR and EE strategies, further calibration of models and roll out of the second trial phase (June 2018 - February 2019).
Demand Response strategies will be formulated to offer fine control optimizing the operation in the framework of energy efficiency-driven or demand response-driven strategies. The load models will provide flexibility and support the indoor environment optimization in terms of comfort and health preservation. At a neighbourhood level, MOEEBIUS will create high-level demand flexibility profiles illustrating the response capacity of demand in price-based control strategies for peak-load management optimization. Finally, further calibration and a roll-out of a second trial phase will be carried out to test again at the Living Labs the deployment of the optimized operation through the MOEEBIUS framework.
2. Results Validation, Impact Assessment and Cost-Benefit
Three main pillars of the results validation will be defined in order to evaluate the fulfilment of the project objectives:
- Technical assessment of the MOEEBIUS framework.
MOEEBIUS shall provide precise allocation and real-time assessment of detailed performance contributions of individual critical building components and real-time building performance optimization through control and maintenance.
- Impact analysis assessment of the MOEEBIUS framework
This analysis aims to identify the evaluation criteria based on which the impact analysis of the MOEEBIUS framework will be evaluated towards its objectives and under different evaluation scenarios. The impact analysis should be defined so that all the critical aspects of the MOEEBIUS framework performance reflect the different stakeholder needs and requirements are examined. For each of the evaluation domain a number of key performance indicators will be identified in order to evaluate the MOEEBIUS framework considering all functional and non-functional aspects.
- User acceptance assessment of the MOEEBIUS framework
The MOEEBIUS evaluation framework will be complemented by means of the user acceptance assessment. This evaluation refers to the acceptability, reliability, easiness to use and attractiveness offered by the MOEEBIUS framework to its users and to other people affected by its use, aiming to examine the impact of the MOEEBIUS framework to the end stakeholders of the system. For this purpose, besides the monitoring and assessment of some quantifiable indicators, a questionnaire will be done to the Living Lab participants to have their feedback concerning MOEEBIUS system based on their experiences during pilot realization.
3. Living Lab Dissemination and Communication
The major focus of the MOEEBIUS dissemination framework is to ensure that the project’s outcomes (scientific results, tools and methodologies developed, validation results, etc.) are widely disseminated to the appropriate target communities, at appropriate times and via appropriate methods. To this end, the MOEEBIUS Living Lab is expected to play a significant role by supporting the knowledge replication, transfer of results and the promotion of open innovation.
Before the deployment of MOEEBIUS framework, three dissemination and training workshops will be performed at each of the pilot sites in order to raise awareness, engagement and acceptance of pilot site occupants and stakeholders, train users and contributing to the adoption of the MOEEBIUS concept and operation in the pilot sites of the project, involve all stakeholders in the evaluation of MOEEBIUS results.
Gannt chart of Living Lab activities
To find out more about the methodology for the activities plan to be dimplemented in the Living Labs read "MOEEBIUS Living Lab Activities Planning" report.