Sustainable energy solutions

Societal pressures coupled to technological advances necessitate that energy planning be conducted not only with the techno-economic paradigm in mind, but also taking into consideration environmental, political, and social sustainability factors. Projections considering current energy policies demonstrate that global electricity consumption will grow by 84% in the next 25 years. As such, energy efficiency is one of the most cost-effective ways of meeting the EU's key strategic policy objectives in addressing climate change, ensuring security of supply and enhancing competitiveness, while creating jobs and contributing to affordability to customers. It is a core element of the 20/20/20 objectives but also a major prerequisite to move forward towards the 40/27/27 objectives by 2030. A well-designed energy efficiency policy can indeed significantly contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions and it is clear that energy efficiency plays a crucial role in Europe’s energy future.

ICT consumes energy, but it is also an important means by which energy efficiencies may be achieved. Classically, this was achieved by optimizing the performance of energy-using systems and processes in industry and commerce. However, while industrial processes and public infrastructures still offer many opportunities for energy saving through automation and optimization with classical ICT, this is more difficult in a home environment. Classical measures to reduce the energy consumption of residential/offices are limited; essentially they consist of the use of more energy-efficient appliances, including the reduction of stand-by losses. With the advent of “smart” technology from the ubiquitous computing domain, further possibilities to reduce the growing energy consumption in the residential sector are now emerging. Example scenarios include automatically detecting activity in the home, so that the heating or the air conditioning can be adjusted accordingly, or the fridge that communicates in an “Internet of Things” (IoT) way with a smart residential/office electricity meter in order to use, when available, cheap excess energy in the power grid (for example produced by intermittent renewable energy sources) to cool below its normal temperature.

The Smarties group works in the following areas:

(a) Behavioral modeling for energy end users

(b) Big data analytics from energy consumption smart meters

(d) Policy making and energy business models

(e) Energy Union

(f) Climate mitigation and adaptation