The second stakeholder meeting on SRI implementation organized by the European Commission to support the set up of a Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) for buildings and related impact assessment has taken place on the 9th October 2019 in Brussels. This meeting was a follow-up of the first stakeholders meeting (26 March 2019) set up to analyse the second technical study on SRI for buildings. Presentations are publicly available here.
The main objectives of the meeting were to present the defined calculation methodology and consolidated results on the evaluation of quantitative impacts as presented in the interim report, and to discuss ongoing work regarding the format of the SRI and its potential implementation pathways.
SRI for buildings under the new European Commission
The SRI, as meant in the revised EPBD dating back from May 2018, intends to indicate how well the building systems for HVAC and other services are capable to interact with the local energy grid and energy storage capabilities, considering buildings both as energy users and energy producers. The establishment of SRI for buildings will be crucial in the upcoming months as it fits two priority objectives of the newly installed European Commission: the New Green Deal and the EU fit for digital age. For these reasons -and also because the integration of the SRI as a nominator of the Energy Performance Certificate of buildings was expected to be set up by the end of 2019- the EC shall swiftly promote the implementation of the SRI in 2020. The implementing act, that will be discussed with the EPBD committee, shall be voted in few months, around mid-2020.
SRI for consumers
Why smart buildings are so important for consumers? Smartness has a relevant role for shaping energy system of the future. Smart buildings can benefit consumers not only ensuring a lower energy consumption -and then, lower bills-, but they are also designed for meeting the needs of occupants and to reduce carbon impact. The SRI methodology considers features such as smart meters, building automation and control systems, self-regulating devices for indoor temperature, built-in home appliances, recharging points for electric vehicles.
SRI and HVAC products
Once it will have been implemented SRI won’t just influence consumers behaviours in the near future, but also HVAC manufacture trends. HVAC systems can contribute to the building’s capability of managing its own energy demand and its potential energy production.
Buildings flexibility and energy flexibility of buildings will become extremely important to comply with the SRI. Buildings have the potential to drive the flexibility of the energy systems, as they can both use and consume energy, and as they can be easily connected with other tools (ex. electric vehicles).
This energy flexibility of buildings reflects on HVAC manufacture requiring the development of interconnected systems that can use renewable energy sources, (e.g. solar thermal, biomass, heat pumps, photovoltaics), that have energy storage capacity (heat, cold or electricity storage) and that integrate advanced controls.