Estimating the Smart Readiness Indicator in the Italian Residential Building Stock in Different Scenarios

Laura Canale,Marco Dell’Isola,Ilaria Bertini,Marianna De Monaco,Giovanni Puglisi,Biagio Di Pietra,Giorgio Ficco

doi:10.3390/en14206442

Abstract

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2018/844/EU introduced the smart readiness indicator (SRI) to provide a framework to evaluate and promote building smartness in Europe. In order to establish a methodological framework for the SRI calculation, two technical studies were launched, at the end of which a consolidated methodology to calculate the SRI of a building basing on a flexible and modular multicriteria assessment has been proposed. In this paper the authors applied the above-mentioned methodology to estimate the SRI of the Italian residential building stock in different scenarios. To this end, eight “smart building typologies”, representative of the Italian residential building stock, have been identified. For each smart building typology, the SRI was calculated in three scenarios: (a) base scenario (building stock as it is); (b) an “energy scenario” (simple energy retrofit) and (c) a “smart energy scenario” (energy retrofit from a smart perspective). It was therefore possible to estimate a national average SRI value of 5.0%, 15.7%, and 27.5% in the three above defined scenarios, respectively.

Highlights

In the European Union (EU) the building sector is responsible for around 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions [1]
The smart building concept presents a series of improvement factors with respect to an nearly zero energy building (nZEB) [13] such as: (i) the possibility for occupants and operators to interact with the building [14]; (ii) the collection of useful information from and for the occupants; (iii) integration with the electricity network [15]; (iv) the applicability of load control systems on the electricity network [16]; (v) a greater security [17,18]; (vi) a greater comfort [14,19]; (vii) the reduction of CO2 emissions [20]; (viii) the reduction of operating costs of heating, cooling, and lighting [21]
The present paper presents a number of innovative aspects compared to the existing literature: (i) unlike precedent studies [29,30,31], the focus of this work is on residential buildings which, expected to have a limited impact on the smart readiness indicator (SRI) implementation, in Italy represent the majority on existing buildings; (ii) the proposed approach is not focused on single case studies, but presents a more general framework useful for defining reference building typologies for SRI calculation; (iii) it provides a quantitative estimate of the SRI potential in a series of statistically representative buildings; and (iv) it highlights the actions required for the optimal implementation of SRI in the residential sector

Summary

Introduction

In the European Union (EU) the building sector is responsible for around 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions [1]. Increasing importance is being given to buildings that meet stringent energy performance requirements (i.e., nZEB) and associate this feature with the ability to interact actively with both end-users and energy grids. In this sense, the smart building concept presents a series of improvement factors with respect to an nZEB [13] such as: (i) the possibility for occupants and operators to interact with the building [14]; (ii) the collection of useful information from and for the occupants; (iii) integration with the electricity network [15];

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion