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The objective of this paper is to present a generic middleware conceived to operate as the linking element in platforms hosting smart energy management services to reduce energy consumption in buildings. This kind of solution presents specific requirements related to the need of accessing and managing different sources of information, internal and external to the building, and related to its structure, geometry, or energy consumption. This information is then processed by the system to determine how to improve the energy behavior of the building. In this context, different elements, communicating in a different way and speaking different languages, have to inter-operate with each other to reach the common objective of reducing the energy consumption by executing integrated energy management actions. With the aim of making this system interoperable, coherent, easily expandable, and transparent, the proposed middleware provides a homogeneous level of abstraction in this heterogeneous scenario.

Designing energy retrofitting actions poses an elevated number of problems, as the definition of the baseline, selection of indicators to measure performance, modelling, setting objectives, etc. This is time-consuming and it can result in a number of inaccuracies, leading to inadequate decisions. While these problems are present at building level, they are multiplied at district level, where there are complex interactions to analyse, simulate and improve. OptEEmAL proposes a solution as a decision-support tool for the design of energy retrofitting projects at district level. Based on specific input data (IFC(s), CityGML, etc.), the platform will automatically simulate the baseline scenario and launch an optimisation process where a series of Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) will be applied to this scenario. Its performance will be evaluated through a holistic set of indicators to obtain the best combination of ECMs that complies with user’s objectives. A great reduction in time and higher accuracy in the models are experienced, since they are automatically created and checked. A subjective problem is transformed into a mathematical problem; it simplifies it and ensures a more robust decision-making. This paper will present a case where the platform has been tested.

The EU strategies to reduce the carbon emissions highlight the importance of renovating the existing building stock as one of the major contributing sectors to these undesired emissions to the atmosphere. The existing practices to design energy efficient retrofitting projects are still too time consuming, unprecise and provoke, therefore, a lack of trust within the sector; especially to investors. There is a need to improve these practices through reducing the errors and the time required to evaluate retrofitting alternatives in order to select those most appropriate according to the stakeholders' priorities. In order to give an answer to this challenge, the EU funded project OptEEmAL has designed and deployed an integrated platform that delivers automatically some of the steps that belong to this process reducing thus time, errors and therefore costs, which will lead to increasing efficiency and creating confidence among the stakeholders.

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