Promoting Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Heritage Buildings: TERA for SMARTeeSTORY at the 2nd General Assembly in Granada
SMARTeeSTORY project energy efficiency IoT smart buildings edge computing digital energy heritage buildingA few weeks ago, TERA had the privilege of participating in the 2nd meeting of the SMARTeeSTORY Project at the stunning Chamber of Commerce in Granada. The event kicked off on April 3rd with a warm welcome from key figures in the community and city administrations whose presence underscored a robust commitment to SMARTeeSTORY's mission of advancing energy efficiency and sustainability in heritage buildings. During the assembly, TERA and the partners of the consortium highlighted the energy efficiency interventions ongoing at the three project’s demo sites, focusing on the advancements made for the Spanish demo at the Royal Chancellery and on the relevance of adapting culturally significant buildings to achieve important goals with minimal visual disturbance. Working with public buildings presents numerous challenges, particularly regarding the installation of equipment for monitoring purposes. Nevertheless, we are making positive strides through continuous dialogue with local administrations to overcome legal barriers. A tour of the demonstration site at Granada's Royal Chancellery followed. This historic building, constructed in the 1500s to house the Court of Justice, has a rich past, having served various functions over the centuries. Today, it remains the seat of the Andalusian High Court of Justice. The second day of the meeting immersed participants in workshops centered on the project's three demonstration sites. Insights from the previous day's site visit informed discussions on planning interventions for the coming months. Participants exchanged ideas, solutions, and challenges, reflecting the collaborative spirit of SMARTeeSTORY. As we near the one-year milestone of the project, there is a growing sense of momentum towards the common goal of transforming heritage buildings into exemplars of smart, energy-efficient structures within the EU. The meeting concluded with participants departing with renewed enthusiasm and a shared commitment to advancing SMARTeeSTORY's objectives. Looking ahead, we are eager to continue creating synergies with like-minded projects, driving progress towards smarter and more energy-efficient cities. Take a look to SMARTeeSTORY's to know more about #heritagebuildings #smartbuildings #digitalenergy #energyefficiency #IoT #edgecomputing and about the project's objectives.
The economic advantages of a CER
Smart BuildingThe Renewable Energy Communities, #CER, within the broader classification of #CACER, finally have the legislative-regulatory substrate, in addition to the legislative one, to finally be able to spread. What sense does CER have as an element that shapes the future scenario, which requires the implementation of #decarbonization, #energyefficiency of networks, #energydemocratization and the fight against #energypoverty? A lot, we don't say but just scroll through and international measures (from the #ParisAgreement on #sustainability to the #CleanEnergyPackage and the #EuropeanGreenDeal. This fermentation is convinced that, in order for them to spread, we must all be concrete in focusing on some practical aspects, starting with the economic benefits that CERs can bring. Therefore, at the warm invitation of the editors, our Antonio Sacchetti, CEO of TEra as well as Chairman of the WORking Group #DIgitalEnergy of the #SMartBuildingAlliance Italia, has produced some topics on "How to make money with CER", a text which you can find downloadable below and for Which we report the link to the prestigious and competent magazine Smart Building Italia, in whose May issue the article was published.
EU-project SMARTeeSTORY turns historical buildings into climate neutral landmarks through smartification
Genoa, 23/05/2023 – The 13 European partners of SMARTeeSTORY met from 22-23 May 2023 in Genova, Italy, to kick-off their Horizon Europe-funded four-year project. The meeting provided an opportunity for the consortium to introduce themselves, discuss objectives, and establish a roadmap for the project’s successful completion. SMARTeeSTORY accelerates the digital transformation of historical non-residential buildings in Latvia, the Netherlands and Spain. By combining energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and digital and smart technologies, the project strives to turn local historic landmarks into climate neutral buildings while, at the same time, preserving their unique identity. Historical buildings are important landmarks of European cities, which is why they play a crucial role in showcasing the benefits of the green and digital transition to the general public. Due to their high energy consumption and challenging retrofitting requirements, however, a dedicated approach is required. SMARTeeSTORY therefore applies a replicable and customisable technological infrastructure to maximise energy efficiency and occupant well-being based on the historic buildings’ unique features and potential. “For best results, SMARTeeSTORY demonstrates the proposed digital solutions in three real-life demonstration sites located in different climatic regions, where energy renovation is not an option. We will gather and share lessons learnt so that there will be even more digitalisation of historic buildings in the future, across Europe and beyond.” – Matteo Porta, RINA-C, Project Coordinator SMARTeeSTORY actively promotes the exchange of knowledge and best practices among stakeholders, including building owners, energy service companies, and public authorities. To do so, the project will organise workshops, site visits, training sessions, and networking events to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among related initiatives and projects, as well as with external audiences. The SMARTeeSTORY consortium consists of the following members: RINA CONSULTING SPA, Italy FUNDACION TECNALIA RESEARCH & INNOVATION, Spain TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITEIT DELFT, the Netherlands RIGA MUNICIPAL AGENCY “RIGA ENERGY AGENCY”, Latvia RIGAS TEHNISKA UNIVERSITATESPA, Latvia PELLINI SPA, Italy AGENCIA ANDALUZA DE LA ENERGIA, Spain CUERVA ENERGIA SLU, Spain FUNDACION CARTIF, Spain SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC SPA, Italy EXUS SOFTWARE MONOPROSOPI ETAIRIA PERIORISMENIS EVTHINIS, Greece TERA SRL, Italy STEINBEIS INNOVATION GGMBH, Germany Project Coordinator Matteo Porta, RINA-C Main Press Contact Bettina Remmele, Steinbeis Innovation gGmbH
Beeta, the energy-saving app is on Striscia la Notizia
Nowadays, when energy resources are becoming more and more precious and high energy bills are an issue that concerns most Italians, the famous tv show ‘Striscia la Notizia’ aired on 7 October 2022, offered an in-depth look at energy-saving monitoring apps. The digital expert, Marco Camisani Calzolari, particularly recommended the Beeta app, developed by Tera srl, to continuously monitor the electricity consumption of electrical appliances and obtain advice on their optimal use. The Beeta Game app, already available free of charge on all digital stores, turns energy saving into a sort of competition, where the winner is the user with the most virtuous behaviour. Know more about Beeta 👉🏻 www.beeta.it Video on Striscia la Notizia 👉🏻 https://www.striscialanotizia.mediaset.it/video/caro-bollette-come-risparmiare-grazie-alle-app_78169.shtml
Interoperability in IoT Systems for Smart Building and Digital Energy.
The majority of Smart Home solutions in Italy relate to security and energy management. The possible uses are many and varied, but the majority of the more than 290 connected home solutions surveyed in Italy and abroad (31 percent) are dedicated to security (surveillance cameras, locks, connected video intercoms and motion sensors), as reported by data from the Internet of Things Observatory of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano. Another major application field is energy management, such as solutions for remote control of household appliances (10 percent) and management of heating and cooling systems (8 percent) and consumption monitoring of electrical devices (10 percent). It is precisely thanks to the new second-generation electricity meters (” with a communication protocol called “chain2”) that service providers will be able to acquire an increasingly important role within the Smart Home, and they will also have the arduous task of managing the energy consumption data collected within the home in real time in compliance with regulations. Interoperability between platforms and devices is what will make all the difference in a Smart Building and Smart Home Digital Energy system, and that could foster the growth of IoT. But what is meant by interoperability and what is the difference between open and closed communication protocols? Closed and open communication systems and protocols For many years, “home automation” systems have been characterized by closed technologies, linked to closed communication protocols (also called “proprietary” since they are developed by a specific manufacturer) characterized by a certain limitation of use: this approach allows devices to communicate only with devices of the same brand and not to interact with devices of other manufacturers. This means that the customer is forced to buy a specific brand and has no possibility to customize his or her own “home automation” system. The lack of communication between different devices and platforms is a real obstacle for IoT. When devices and systems of different brands communicate with the same standard, i.e., with the same communication protocol, a very high level of customization of the system is possible where the designer can choose components from different brands without communication problems, without having to redo parts of systems or buy specific gateways. Certainly open communication protocols are more versatile and a more ethical choice. Wired and Wireless Communication Protocols The mode still most widely used to date for transmitting data packets is the wired (wired) mode in which communication takes place over a cable. This system is very reliable and stable, but more expensive. An example of this technology is the Ethernet network, built from a series of cables with a twisted pair at the end within a local area network (LAN). The cableless (wireless) mode, however, is seeing ever-growing uses and allows for better intervention on pre-built systems whose modification would require more time and cost (so-called “retrofit”). Some examples of the most widely used wireless communication protocols are WiFi (which, while certainly not born for building automation, is progressively gaining specific market share), ZIgBee , Z Wave , Bluetooth low energy , and EnOcean , which are born wireless and do not work wired (in the Outdoor/WAN domain, relevant growth is expected for LoraWan and NBIoT). The role of gateways in IoT systems Gateways act as real translators that not only have to provide translation between the different languages (communication protocols) of the sub-networks, but also have to reconcile the differences between the communication paradigms on which the two systems are based. The implementation of this type of gateway, cannot do without a thorough knowledge of systems to be connected. It should be noted, however, that the amount of languages used in a system therefore makes the creation of home automation/building automation systems more complex and expensive, especially when using multi-brand devices. For this reason, the concept of interoperability is fundamental in the choice of devices, since it allows the designer, especially when called upon to work on existing systems, to operate more easily on the system to improve it. Managing different systems and devices beyond technological differences is the real challenge: using a gateway that is an intermediary between two or more systems turns out to be the most effective and scalable solution. In this sense, the new trend, which optimizes both the interoperability typical of gateways in general, and flexibility (which can be defined as the “sum” between modularity i.e. the possibility to introduce new functions on top of previous ones , and “Scalability” , namely the possibility to add more measurement/implementation points of the same nature as existing ones), is to use “edge computers” as gateways. In such a case the advantages of gateways are added to the possibility, thanks to the presence of the open operating system (typically embedded Linux), to remotely upgrade new functions, new protocols and to allow third parties (professionals, typically system integrators, in the “do-it-yourself” sphere, directly the user himself) to perform evolutionary maintenance of the systems. Interesting additional information is provided in the following article written by Elisabetta Bracci. https://www.ingenio-web.it/34743-smart-building-protocolli-di-comunicazione-aperti-e-chiusi-e-interoperabilita
Smart building: electrification of building systems technical aspects and infrastructure issues
For those who were not able to follow the Smart Building Italia roadshow “The electrification of building systems: technical aspects and infrastructural issues” and, in particular, the speech of our CEO on “The scenarios of Digital Energy”, here is the link to the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-j9df43oTU&feature=youtu.be (in particular, at minute 1:11:50, Antonio Sacchetti speaks as a member of the Executive Committee of Smart Building Alliance Italia). Slides and recordings of the 7 appointments are available at this link .
Energy Communities: Smart Metering and Demand-Response technologies take off.
Talking about Energy Communities (RECs or Collective Self-consumption), it’ s convenient to focus on “Digital Energy”: in fact, the impacts of this new trend (which is not just “fashion”, but involves global socio-economic aspects) go well beyond the Photovoltaic System, beyond #Batteries, beyond Smart Building, merging with the electricity grids themselves (Smart Grid). As existing electricity system resources (transmission, electricity distribution, the delivery point) are evolving, often approaching the end of their useful life, and in such cases will have to be replaced, the forward-looking configurations of new electricity grids are moving towards enhanced sensing capabilities (IoT), computing capacity (or rather intrinsic intelligence as EdgeComputing, AI), communication speed (including 5G, NBIoT or LoraWan, WirelessM-Bus, or in indoor environments Zwave and ZigBee), and sharing (Blockchain, BCDL): in short, they increasingly resemble telecommunications networks. To support the digital transformation that will involve the new electricity grids, Tera srl has developed Smart Devices that read the fiscal meter and monitor and manage the bidirectional flows of Electrical Energy, communicating both with battery (or other type of storage) and PV inverters, and with service delivery platforms (such as Energy Community or Virtual Power Plant services, Grid Services, and other dispatch services). In this article we try to describe how these technologies are useful for end-use applications, use cases that impact on users’ lives and habits, distinguishing between technologies already released in the last three years and those recently released. – Smart Metering “chain2”: “already released” – “Beeta” Ecosystem • the Beeta Premium App provides meter readings and a summary balance between the energy produced, fed in, withdrawn and consumed/self-consumed; • the BeetaBox control unit extends SmartHome functionality (smartplug, CO2, T and Ur, brightness, etc.); • the BeetaGame App (gamification) provides suggestions to users to improve their consumption habits (according to the Design and Copyright deposited, a non-speculative virtual currency is also foreseen as a stimulus to user engagement for better awareness/awareness; NEW : The new Beeta Reader, User Device approved for both chain1 and chain2, has the following characteristics (totally or partially distinct from those of other products). It has: • Linux on board and, with different approaches (Socket.IO library, configuration middleware with frontend, APIs), it allows third parties to develop applications, distributing in an ‘arbitrary’ way the different modules constituting the SW solution (part on board, part on local server or on cloud: ‘orchestrated’ solution); • ARM dual core A7, clock 800 MHz, RAM up to 1 GB and eMMC up to 8 GB, WIFI (+BT optional), Ethernet, USB (for 3G/4G/NBIoT pendrives): the possibility of interacting with third party devices and systems is therefore very high; in particular: – remote update anytime – ability to run MQTT tools , BlockChain Distributed Ledger and third-party AI tools; Due to its flexibility of use and high degree of interoperability with third-party devices and SW, this device is of particular interest for innovative solutions (requiring experimentation and PoC) and, in any case, whenever the integration of functions is essential, also in the “Energy Community” segment with active energy flow management logics, e.g. dedicated to the provision of Network Services/MSD. These are always and in any case “IoT edge computing” solutions (Made in Italy, not with Raspberry or similar). On these important issues, Tera is supported by valuable technical and scientific collaborations, like the one with the Polytechnic University of Bari.
Energy Communities – technological and social evolution
Behind the concise statements made by our AU Antonio Sacchetti , reported in the article on l’Edicola del SUD , lie enormous implications. We have learned, from the lot of news about the PNRR (with the funds of the NGEU – Next Generation Europe), that the digital transition (alias digitization) is the first “mission”, the ecological transition (i.e. green revolution) is the second and, together, already absorb more than half of the funds allocated to Italy (thus over 100 billion euros, including loans and grants); moreover, part of the third mission (Sustainable Mobility) concerns however “energy” aspects (such as e-mobility, for example). We also know that this structuring of funds is substantially based on what has been established by the EU in the “European Green Deal” (EUGreenDeal) and in the Clean Energy Package, in turn both linked in unison to the 2030 Agenda of the Paris Agreement (adoption of United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/70/1, “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”). The many acronyms and technicalities let these programs appear fundamentally “technological”, but this is not the case, or not at all. Social implications in the broadest sense are enormous (this is evidenced by the fact that the mission 4 of the National Reform Programme is called “Cohesion and Inclusion”). Well, the essence of the presence of TERA in the Local Energy Community referred to in the press article is just that: energy communities are made not only of technology (this would be enough for Tera, since it produces Iot Edge COmputing solutions for applications in VPP – UVAM and Energy Communities, where Smart Metering, Photovoltaic and BESS (storage systems) in unison with the Smart Building converge in the so-called Digital Energy), but of behavioral and economic-social changes. For this reason we emphasize the concepts that affect the habits of life of people and businesses: it is about sharing the energy produced cleanly in small plants in buildings, which requires, before technologies, a mental approach devoted to sharing, to the management of common goods and values. So, we start with information, we meet, we establish the rules, we constitute with a minimum of formalism the energy community (possibly with the support of ESCOs, Energy Players – operators “on the bill” – , Consultants) and only then we proceed with the technologies (involving suppliers and electrical designers). We hope that Italians know how to seize these opportunities for socio-economic progress before technological ones! The complete news is on the newspaper l ‘Edicola del Sud at this link: https://www.terasrl.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/tera-edicola-sud-comunità-energetiche.pdf
The water poor flies to Dubai
A student of Industrial Design at the Polytechnic of Bari presents himself, on the recommendation of an entrepreneur passionate about Design (and active in the world of associations.. for a lifetime..), with an interesting idea, on the theme of AgeAssistantLiving, which he developed during the workshop “Materials for Design”, supported by professors Paolo Ferrari and Giovanni Pappalettera. The idea was supported by Tera, that supported the young designer in the realization phase, starting from the prototype. What’s more, there is the possibility of coming together, accepting the invitation of the RegionePuglia, to exhibit the working prototype at ExpoDubai, as part of the exhibition “DesignPuglia: Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu”. We are talking about a story that includes the values we trust: collaboration, Research and Development, electronic technologies, applications with social implications: the game is done, collaboration is born and… fairs have to be made! Congratulations to Luca Chieco (and to the professors Paolo Ferrari and Giovanni Pappalettera) for his brilliant idea, the WaterPourer project, developed also with the support of Tera and… above all… Luca … #stayinpuglia ! 👉🏻 Interview at TeleBari 👉🏻 News on La Repubblica Bari