3SMART - project overview

Welcome to the 3rd newsletter of the project Smart Building – Smart Grid – Smart City (3Smart). Project runs for 30 months as of January 2017 and is funded by the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme. It is focussed on the energy security pillar of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region, with the main goal to create a modular software tool, and guidelines for the regulatory framework, which enables integrated real-time energy management of buildings and energy grids throughout the Danube region. The tool is piloted in buildings and electricity grids of 5 countries.

dtp.interreg-danube.eu/3smart

3Smart at international conference “Sharing the Future of Cultural Heritage – Synergies between Heritage, Tourism and Digital Culture", Dubrovnik, April 2018

Urban areas subject to cultural heritage protection regulations often have different bottlenecks in the infrastructure which can be hardly addressed by regular infrastructure reinforcement interventions. Thus smart and non-invasive integrated management of buildings and grids introduced through the project Smart Building – Smart Grid – Smart City presents a significant potential for surpassing the infrastructure bottlenecks and improvement of energy performance in these areas while leaving them visually intact. The potential of the project is recognized by the Croatian Association of Historical Cities – HUPG by giving us honour to present our work on an international conference “Sharing the Future of Cultural Heritage – Synergies between Heritage, Tourism and Digital Culture” on cultural heritage issues held in Dubrovnik from the 10th – 11th of April 2018. The conference is organized by the Croatian Association of Historical Cities – HUPG, its member towns and partners from the French association in Bordeaux –Sites & Cites. More information about the conference with detailed conference agenda can be found at the following link .

Siemens EESTEC LC Zagreb - free international workshop for students under PLC+ challenge

Company Siemens supported by student organizations EESTEC and IEEE student branch organizes a free international challenge for students under name PLC+. This is a regional competition that involves students of University of Belgrade, University of Ljubljana and University of Zagreb. The first part of the challenge provides to participants additional theoretical and practical knowledge to work with programmable logic controllers compared to standard curricula, while in the second part it gives a possibility for using that knowledge on a practical assignment such that young future engineers can well prepare for work in the environment of industry automation. The workshop is supported by a lecturing team of professors from the mentioned univeristies. From University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing leader of the 3Smart project Prof. Mario Vasak is also a part of the lecturing team. He lectured on advanced energy management in buildings and railway traffic systems. The title of his talk is Hierarchical coordinated control of large consumers with the aim of their integration into smart energy grids. More info can be found here and here.

3Smart at Sfera 2018 Mostar, 28th and 29th of March 2018

3Smart partner Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Computing and Electrical Engineering, University of Mostar, presented their activities within the 3Smart project at Sfera 2018, scientific-professional conference held in Mostar, INTERA Technology park, at 28th and 29th of March 2018. Conference topic was "Air conditioning, ventilation, cooling and heating". More information regarding the conference can be found here.

3Smart at Energy Futures II

3Smart Partner E.ON Tiszántúli Áramhálózati Zrt. held a presentation about 3Smart project at the event titled "Results of Innovation Policy in the field of Energy Innovation" organized by Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research (REKK) under Energy Futures II. The aim of the Regional Centre for Energy Policy Research (REKK) is to provide professional analysis and advice on networked energy markets that are both commercially and environmentally sustainable. They have performed comprehensive research, consulting and teaching activities in the fields of electricity, gas and carbon-dioxide markets since 2004. Their analyses range from the impact assessments of regulatory measures to the preparation of individual companies' investment decisions.

The event took place at Corvinus University Budapest, 2nd floor, E.2001, 1093 Budapest, Fővám tér 8., on the 7th of  March 2018.

More information can be found here.

DTP Capitalisation - 3Smart presented on the workshop of the Interreg Danube Energy Barge project

The 3Smart project was via a short presentation presented on the Croatian national workshop of the Interreg Danube Energy Barge project which together with 3Smart and DARLINGe forms the Thematic pole 8 Sustainable Energy within the capitalisation endeavours of the Interreg Danube Transnational Programme. The workshop was held on 18 January 2018 in Zagreb. The presentation was followed by interaction with representatives of Energy Barge's target groups from the field of biomass energy and logistics from Croatia and other parts of the Danube region.

3SMART at CEE Conference

The 3Smart project was presented by the project partner Municipality of Idrija at the transnational conference Smart towns CEE, organised by Strategic Research and Innovation Partnership for the Smart Cities and Communities topic, in cooperation with European Commission on November 29th and 30th 2018, in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Deriving from municipality’s strategic documents and plans two projects in the field of energy management were presented: 3Smart project and NEDO project. The presentation received a lot of attention among participants – many city managers expressed their interest to be included in the forthccoming pilot visit in Idrija.

3Smart coordinator held an invited lecture at Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts

3Smart project leader prof. Mario Vašak held a lecture titled "Control-based Hierarchical Consolidation of Large Consumers for Integration in Smart Grids" on November 13th, 2017 at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. During the lecture, 3Smart project methodology, as well as results and future research plans, were presented.

Invitation and lecture outline (in Croatian) can be found here, and presentation can be found here.

3Smart representatives participated at the 6th Annual Forum of the European Strategy for the Danube Region

Under the title “A secure, connected and prospering Danube Region”, the 6th Annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region held in Budapest on the 18th and 19th October 2017 put a strong emphasis on discussing the challenges and perspectives of energy security, clean connectivity and infrastructure development. Furthermore, it also aimed to find ways to better integrate the non-EU countries participating in the Strategy so that they have greater access to the Strategy’s funding opportunities and benefit further from its implementation.

During the Forum Prof. Mario Vašak (3Smart project manager) presented the 3Smart project in the course of the Danube Transnational Programme capitalization session related to Thematic pole 8 Sustainable Energy. Some 30 representatives of national and local public authorities were present and it was a unique opportunity for the Thematic Poles to get to know relevant initiatives and stakeholders that could be involved in their capitalisation activities in the future.

Here main highlights of the talk are provided which put a bit different accent compared to the Forum’s mainstream regarding short-term concerns on energy supply security. Awareness of the need for decarbonization of the energy systems was stressed. Some countries, e.g. Germany, have already performed a techno-economic analyses how this can be done in optimal way in terms of total operation and maintenance costs with the end-constraint of 100% de-carbonized system by 2050 (REMod-D developed by Fraunhofer ISE). In this long-term process four phases are identified:

1. Individual renewable energy systems and energy efficiency mesures development;

2. System integration (exploitation of flexibilities in demand, demand side management, coupling of different energy sectors);

3. Synthetic fuels;

4. Renewable fuels import.

With the exception of some emerging technologies, phase 1 enters a mature stage now through industry research and competition. Different EU/regional funding mechanisms for R&D and cooperation should focus on technical and regulatory developments that will enable to realize in full the remaining phases starting from phase 2 – system integration.

It was emphasized that the 3Smart project is fully focussed on it – specifically on software tools for inducing coordination within major energy systems in buildings (HVAC, renewable energy, storages) in real time for optimal unlocking of their flexibility potential, and for alignment of energy grids and market operations for best possible exploitation of this flexibility. It is piloted in five countries and identifies regulatory challenges for mass deployments across the Danube region.

From the energy grids side it was stressed that the project is currently very much focussed on electricity distribution network and electricity market since it is the most developed, but it will shed the light on possibilities hindered also in other sectors and distribution grids, and for their coupling on both ends – markets and end-use in buildings.

Taking into consideration the capitalization nature of the session, it was also stressed that spreading of integration towards the smart city level is a natural next step, and also consideration of other technologies being developed in TP8 – biomass and geothermal sources, offering many opportunities in the coming years for cooperation.

3Smart paper at the SST 2017 Conference, Osijek, Croati

SST 2017 – the International Conference on Smart Systems and Technologies took place in Osijek, Croatia from 18th – 20th October 2017.

Within the conference session Smart Power Systems, 3Smart research team represented by Prof. Mario Vašak, 3Smart project manager, presented a paper titled „Upgrade of a typical office building automation system for enabling open energy management services” authored by M. Vašak, A. Starčić, V. Lešić and A. Martinčević. The session was also co-chaired by Prof. Vašak.

Presentation can be found here.

3Smart paper: "Electricity Market Design in Croatia within the European Electricity Market —Recommendations for Further Development" in Energies - Open Access Energy Research, Engineering and Policy Journal

The 3Smart team from University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (Lead Partner) and Hrvatska elektroprivreda d.d. (Project partner) published the article "Electricity Market Design in Croatia within the European Electricity Market—Recommendations for Further Development" in Energies - Open Access Energy Research, Engineering and Policy Journal. The paper gives a comprehensive overview of the electricity market design according to laws related to the electricity sector that are in force in Croatia. Additionally, the paper identifies key obstacles that hamper the development of a well-functioning electricity market in Croatia towards its further integration into the Integrated Energy Market. Since Croatian Power Exchange (CROPEX) is not coupled with any other power exchange, special attention was given to necessary prerequisites for market coupling with the Slovenian Power Exchange (BSP SouthPool) and with the Hungarian Power Exchange (HUPX). You can take a look here.

3Smart paper: "A Battery Management System for Efficient Adherence to Energy Exchange Commands under Longevity Constraints" in a renowned scientific journal IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.

The 3Smart team from University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing (Lead Partner) published an article titled "A Battery Management System for Efficient Adherence to Energy Exchange Commands under Longevity Constraints" in a renowned scientific journal IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications.The paper is focussed on the problem of controlling the energy storage such that the energy exchange between the storage and the remaining system is performed in the required amount with maximum efficiency and that all the constraints for the storage system longevity are adhered to.

You can take a look or download the article preprint here or take a look at it on the journal web.

3Smart paper: "Approximate method for the estimation of energy performance of heat pumps connected to the system of energy management of facilities" at the Third International Symposium on Agricultural Engineering ISAE 2017

The 3Smart team from University of Belgrade Faculty of Mechanical Engineering published an article titled "Approximate method for the estimation of energy performance of heat pumps connected to the system of energy management of facilities", at the Third International Symposium on Agricultural Engineering ISAE 2017. A relatively simple mathematical model of a heat pump, with which it is possible to get values for the Coefficient of performance (COP) at any given time and under given conditions is presented in the article.

You can take a look or download the article here.

3Smart paper: "With the energy efficient buildings management towards advanced city" at the Klima Forum 2017

3Smart partner HEP d.d. published an article titled „With the energy efficient buildings management towards advanced city“ at the Klima Forum 2017, central place for the exchange of knowledge, experiences and opinions in the field of refrigeration, ventilation and air-conditioning and all the related fields. Klima Forum gathers all those for which the heating, cooling, ventilation and air-conditioning are parts of their everyday work or who come with these fields in connection such as designers, installers and repairmen of the cooling, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, managers and owners of the refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment, consultants, developers and investors in the projects, representatives of the producers and traders of cooling, ventilation and air-conditioning equipment, scientists and researchers and students from higher education institutions, representatives of the relevant state and inspection authorities and institutions from the field of the construction and environmental protection and many others. The abstract can be found here, and the presentation can be found here.

 Energy transition as an opportunity for the Slovenian economy conference – Ljubljana, April 26th 2018

3Smart partner, Idrija Municipality will present the 3smart project at the conference "Energy transition as an opportunity for the Slovenian economy", which will be organized by Ministry of infrastructure, ministry of economy and Slovenian chamber of commerce on April 26th in Ljubljana . The mayor of Idrija will participate in discussion (panel) on smart grids, smart cities and smart communities together with the representatives from ELES d.o.o., ETI Elektroelement d.o.o., University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana Municipality, Kolektor Group d.o.o., Elaphe d.o.o.. The discussion will be moderated by dr. Romana Jordan from Jožef Stefan Institute.

6th (12th) session of Croatian liason commitee for CIRED Opatija, 13 – 16 May 2018

Croatian liason commitee for the International Conference on Electricity Distribution CIRED, an association that brings together those involved in the electricity distribution business: a wide circle of specialists from distribution companies, institutes and faculties, equipment manufacturers and service providers, suppliers and consumers, regulators invites prospective participants to the 6th (12th) Session of the CIRED Croatian National Committee to be held in Opatija, 13 – 16 May 2018. Members of the 3Smart team from project partner HEP d.d. are the authors of the article titled „A Concept of smart building management as a precondition for a smart city“, that will be presented at the Session. The paper gives an overview of transformation of the HEP office building into a smart building through planned interventions enabling thus functioning of the 3Smart modular tool.  You can download the article here.

Process automation challenge on MED 2018 powered by 3Smart – Zadar 19-22 June 2018

The project 3Smart provides the case study problem for the Process automation challenge on the 26th Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation (MED 2018) to be held in Zadar, Croatia in period 19-22 June 2018. The case study problem consists in cooling a three-rooms exemplary building and is motivated by 3Smart pilots.  Students from all over the world are challenged to participate and compete with their control algorithms, and the authors of best control solutions will be hosted in Zadar during the conference for the finals of the competition. The UNIZGFER team on 3Smart are the authors of the task and will perform evaluation of the received solutions. The 3Smart hierarchical approach to integrated management of buildings and distribution grids applied to this particular problem will also be presented at the conference (outside the competition). More info on this particular event of MED 2018 can be found here. Currently the challenge is in stage 2 where selected competition student teams develop their solutions for the evaluation and selection of finalists in Zadar. The Process automation challenge is supported by companies Siemens and Mathworks who provide software and hardware support for the challenge.

contact us

Prof. Mario Vašak, Ph.D.E.E., 3Smart project manager

Department of Control and Computer Engineering

University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing

Unska 3, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia

e-mail: mario.vasak@fer.hr

tel. +385-1-6129-821

fax. +385-1-6129-809

Kristina Radoš Cvišić, 3Smart financial and communication manager

University of Zagreb Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing

Unska 3, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia

tel. +385-1-6129-665

kristina.rados-cvisic@fer.hr

dtp.interreg-danube.eu/3smart