Development of an innovative energy management system for university campuses

Universities’ campuses can be viewed as small communities considering their size, users and mixed complex activities. The energy and environmental impact caused by universities due to activities and operations in teaching and research could be considerably reduced by an effective choice of organizational and managerial measures. In addition, there is considerable room for improvement and research potential in energy management, when leaving from the single building aspect and moving towards a “district” approach, where a set of different buildings and outdoor spaces are considered. The aim of this paper is to present an integrated and holistic indoor - outdoor Web-based Energy Management System for Campuses, which is developed, tested and validated through the accurate modeling of two Campus buildings and their outdoor spaces, as well as the corresponding expert systems and control algorithms. Thus, the load demand in real-time can be predicted, giving the capability of providing optimal or nearly-optimal demand balance, while maintaining the users’ safety, health and comfort. The overall concept is estimated to contribute at least a 25% reduction of the primary energy consumption, due to reduction of energy waste. The proposed system will create the basis for a future Smart Grid community.  
The system will be developed under the Project CAMP_IT, financed by General Secretariat for Research and Technology.