AmBIENCe: Extending energy performance contracting to active buildings

Goals

AmBIENCe is a project aiming at extending the concept of Energy Performance Contracts (EPCs) to active buildings (with accessible and valorised flexibility) and making it available and appealing to a wider range of buildings (and group of buildings), combining savings from traditional energy efficiency measures with additional earnings coming from the deployment of (implicit and explicit) Demand Response schemes. The active EPC will be deployed with an eye toward favouring:

• the investment in efficient equipment and services for both public bodies and private actors;
• the empowerment of consumers that will better manage their energy consumption;
• the energy efficient renovation of buildings to provide additional comfort and safety features for consumers.

Highlights

• Led by VITO NV
• NEW R&D leads the implementation and validation work package

Demonstrators

• Porto (Portugal): the Active EPC concept will be deployed in two EDP office buildings inaugurated in 2011, with an incorporated set of efficiency measures. The demonstration will focus on collecting knowledge regarding the mixing and combination of energy efficiency measures with other-than-energy services, in a general and multi-functional offering to further assess the applicability and bankability in the future.
• Hasselt (Belgium): the Active EPC concept will be deployed inside the campus buildings of the PXL University College. The demonstration will focus on enhanced energy efficiency and renovation of 15 campus buildings by unlocking the potential of HVAC, regulation and lighting systems. Building specific consumption and flexibility/storage models will be implemented with control algorithms to determine optimal control strategies for given contexts (e.g. specific regulation and tariff structures) and scenarios (evolution of costs etc.). Additionally, specific user behaviour models will be integrated into existing buildings (using sensorization, ICT and IoT).