Andrea Costa

Multi-Criteria optimisation using past, real time and predictive performance benchmarks

Abstract Performance based design, construction, commissioning and operation of buildings requires virtual testing and validation of project alternatives. In the case of environmental and energy management of buildings, whole Building Energy Simulation (BES) models can be used to determine indoor environmental conditions, building energy consumption, system performance, and associated CO 2 emissions, etc. BES is currently used at the design and commissioning phases of the Building Life Cycle (BLC) but not during the operational phase. This paper defines a methodology that incorporates predictive BES into building operation while acknowledging present technological limitations with respect to model accuracy and required resources. This predictive model also requires detailed definition and characterisation of inputs including: Historical data from buildings; Real time data such as measurements from meters and wired and wireless sensors underpinned by a Building Management System (BMS) and Future data such as short term weather forecast values and expected occupancy schedules. The paper concludes with a demonstration of the predictive BES model methodology using an existing building at University College Cork, Ireland.

Towards sustainable water networks: automated fault detection and diagnosis

The paper will present an overview of one of the Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD) systems developed within the Waternomics project. The FDD system has been developed basing on the hydraulic modeling of the water network, the real time values of flow and pressure obtained from installation of innovative ICT and commercial smart meters and the application of the Anomaly Detection with fast Incremental ClustEring (ADWICE) algorithm adapted for the drinking water network. The FDD system developed is useful when we have to consider more than one parameter at the same time to determine if an anomaly or fault is in place in a complex water network and the system is designed on purpose to cope with a larger features set. The new FDD system will be implemented in an Italian demo site, the Linate Airport Water network in Milan, where a large water distribution network is in place and where, due the many variables coming into play, it could be very difficult to detect anomalies with a low false alarm rate.

Development of Future EU District Heating and Cooling Network Solutions, Sharing Experiences and Fostering Collaborations

Heating and cooling consume half of the EU’s energy and much of it is wasted. The lion’s share of heating and cooling is still generated from fossil fuels, mainly natural gas, while only 18% is generated from renewable energy. In order to fulfil the EU’s climate and energy goals, the heating and cooling sector must therefore sharply reduce its energy consumption and cut its use of fossil fuels. To this end the European Commission adopted a heating and cooling strategy in February 2016 as part of the wider Energy Union Package. A number of activities and projects funded by the programmes of European Union are supporting this new EU heating and cooling strategy.