Page 123 - IJES Special Issues for AIEC2016

International Journal of Environment and Sustainability, 2016, 5(2): 18-29 23
Figure 2: eHub simulation platform. (Koene, 2015)
3. Energy-Hub for Residential and
Commercial Districts and Transport
Project (eHUB)
The challenge in the future for energy
management systems is to be able to efficiently
control low/neutral/positive energy districts
and increase the share of renewable energy by
utilizing smart energy management systems
together with energy storage. An Energy Hub is
a physical cross-point in which energy and
information streams are coordinated and where
different forms of energy (heat, electricity,
chemical, biological) are converted between
each other or stored for later use. The objective
of the eHub project is to develop a district
system for multi-resource input, conversion,
storage, and distribution of energy for
maximum utilization of the renewable energy
potential. Energy hub systems will optimise the
use of renewable energy and facilitate the
exchange of information at district level (Koene, shifting and real time pricing, and will also be
2015).
Simulation as a Tool for Matching of Energy
Supply and Demand
The project developed the eHub simulation tool
for overall analysis of energy concepts, includ-
ing models for energy consumption and produc-
tion and energy management systems (Figure
2). Smart control algorithms implemented in
the simulation environment will control smart
house appliances, indoor temperatures, district
energy production, and energy storage. The
management system is aimed at matching the
supply and demand of heat and electricity using
a multi-commodity matcher (MCM) developed
during the project. The project has developed
storage solutions for improving the matching of
supply and demand of thermal energy. The
thermo-active foundations, thermo-chemical
materials, and control strategies associated with
these applications have been studied.
User’s Involvement
The role of consumers is changing from passive
users of energy to active participators in energy
management. Consumers will be actively in-
volved in energy management, including load
producers of renewable energy. The consumer
acceptance is a key success factor for the dif-
fusion of the new energy management solu-
tions. For this reason, it is important that new
technological solutions are developed from the
end-user perspective. The user study was
performed to discover occupant’s attitudes
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