Improving Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) adoption by using smart contracts and Blockchain technologies

This research activity will be focused on the creation of novel tools and services through a High Energy Performance approach. The main goal is to develop an AI service for optimal control of energy considering behind the meter resources (management of energy sources at user level), with local (building or district) overall efficiency.

Faced with the current global challenges of sustainable development and the mitigation of climate change, there is an urgent need for a transition from the currently dominant linear economy towards a circular economy (CE). here exists a lack of consensus regarding what constitutes a “circular city”, and also the need to determine yet further the rationales and the ways forward how to transform cities towards circular models. With the aim of helping to meet this need, our research will precisely explore these issues by conducting research at three different but interconnected areas: 1. Field Research. The project involves the need to gather new data from relevant public urban institutions and corporate stakeholders by means of a field survey, meetings and interviews. 2. Modelling and Analysis. Upon gathering the data from the field research, our team of researchers will conduct a comprehensive analysis and diagnosis of the inputs. 3. Guidelines and Decision Support. Findings of the field research, modelling and analysis are brought to the scrutiny of the representatives of public and private organizations.

Ours is a connected world. Technological (power, communications and transportation) networks play a leading role in our daily lives. To cope with the technological challenges posed by the modern society, contemporary networked systems have became more flexible, involved and autonomous. Power and transportation networks are now equipped with batteries and have access to renewable sources of energy. This evolution has opened the door to more energy efficient operation schemes and to better user’s experience. However, it has also made the design, management and operation of the networks more difficult. Successful execution of those tasks requires a detailed modeling and analysis of the network and its terminals.

The research proposed line aims to enhance the flight control systems onboard of unmanned aerial systems (drones) to develop new intelligent technological capabilities that meet with the most ambitious requirements reagarding smaart cities (energy saving and efficiency in specific societal services). Thanks to the innovative technique CACM-RL developed by SOTICOL RS, drones can perform optimal missions considering optimal criteria, such as, energy minimum consumption or minimum time. In addition, by using this technique, drones can perform special missions in a swarm configuration, if ncessary.