BEYOND project developed a reference Big Data Management Platform on an advanced AI Analytics Toolkit. This allowed the acquisition and utilisation of derivative data mixed with real-life building data and with external data sources.
Objective
The BEYOND project aimed to promote an innovative data-sharing ecosystem in the building energy sector for the provision of enabling transition to Smart Sustainable Cities and Energy Systems.
The analysis of Big Data that derives out of interlinked and semantically enriched data in the BEYOND platform improved intelligence on building performance-related optimisation functions and could significantly reduce energy costs. This was done through advanced and personalised energy analytics, innovative building digital twin applications for energy efficient and human-centric smart home and building automation, enhanced predictive maintenance on building assets, as well as facilitation of the compliance of electricity retailers to strict Energy Efficiency Obligations through portfolio Analytics and Performance monitoring applications.
In addition to the Big Data Management Platform and AI Analytics Toolkit, BEYOND offered public authorities and energy market players tools for optimising urban monitoring and energy policy planning.
Duration, partners and funding
- Project duration: 1.12.2020-30.11.2023
- Coordinator: Ubitech
- Consortium: 13 partners from seven countries
- Partners: Ubitech, Artelys, VTT Technical Research Center of Finland, Suite5, Circe, the IGM group, Končar DG, Forum Virium Helsinki, Mytilineos, Beolek, Urbener, Cuerva, Belit
- Funding: the project received approximately EUR 4 million funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program. The budget for the entire project was approximately EUR 5.2 million, of which Forum Virium’s share was EUR 346 875.
The role of Forum Virium Helsinki
Forum Virium Helsinki represented the Finnish demo partner that facilitated the roll-out and implementation of four demonstration use cases in Helsinki. This involved data collection of smart metering devices, installed and existings IoT sensors, building energy management (BEM) systems, and demographic data from hundreds of buildings in order to support urban planning via the application of:
- Building Digital Twin and AI Analytics for energy performance optimisation and predictive maintenance improvement
- Crystal City Simulation Tool for informed, evident, and optimised energy policy-making by providing higher accuracy demand forecasts to the impact assessment tool
- Renovation Decision Support Tool for optimised investments planning of renovation projects by Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) and reduction of risks associated with Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) models.
Forum Virium Helsinki established BEYOND Living Lab activities in order to incorporate user-driven innovation methodology and agile development alongside the technical developments. The Living Lab activities were oriented to obtain feedback from major stakeholders and to create opportunities for further exploitation and replication of the project results.
Read the 13th October 2023 press release: New tools help save in building energy costs
Benefits for Helsinki
Improved accessibility and sharing of the building-generated data in higher granularity comprise key factors towards realisation of Decarbonisation, Decentralisation, and Digitalisation of the buildings energy ecosystem.
By enabling informed evaluation, monitoring, and planning of energy systems, BEYOND supported cities’ Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) which in terms of the Finnish demo meant the City Of Helsinki’s Carbon-neutral Helsinki 2035 Action Plan. The latter benefits of BEYOND are however in line with the City of Helsinki Data Strategy which aims at enhancing the utilisation of data and analytics to identify users’ service needs, optimising the City’s operations and resources by fully harnessing the potential of digitalisation and stimulating business opportunities by sharing data.
More info
Photo: Andy Ngo, Helsinki Partners