Cloud-based platform to bridge the performance gap between design and operation

Tool which transfers design energy models into Digital Twins to optimise operational performance over a building’s lifetime

Climate Change Mitigation Health, Wellbeing and Social Value Resource Use

Problem Addressed

With 80% of the 2050 building stock already standing, one of the greatest challenges in the race to decarbonise is understanding how we can get our existing buildings to net-zero. Building owners and operators increasingly require support from AECO consultants to deliver retrofit, net-zero auditing/planning and operational optimisation services to help improve the performance of their existing buildings, define decarbonisation pathways and verify the impact of any measures implemented. However, to ensure these initiatives are successful, they need solutions that are investment and business case ready, based on accurate predictions and data they can trust.

Increasingly, there is also a need to ensure that building performance is locked in across the whole building lifecycle, to avoid the ‘performance gap’ between design intent and operation and help deliver the energy, cost and carbon reductions that many AECO clients want to see. There is also a need for solutions that can help balance the trade-offs between energy, carbon and cost reductions, against the comfort and wellbeing requirements of building occupants.

These challenges are exacerbated by the innate complexity of buildings, which are all essentially unique, with key performance impact factors that change daily and numerous complex interdependencies. IES Live provides a solution to help navigate all of these complex challenges, leveraging the value of energy modelling predictions and near real-time data, within a single intuitive platform.

Solution Overview

IES Live is a cloud-based platform, designed to be delivered by engineering consultants as part of a whole-life building performance approach. It allows for better handover and ongoing management of buildings, focused on improving energy/carbon evaluation and performance, and better enables building performance consultants to deliver operational performance services. Building sustainability, energy and facilities teams can also use the tool to take control of their building’s operation and deliver healthy, comfortable spaces.

IES Live connects near real-time operational building data with daily simulations from IES Digital Twins hosted online. The platform delivers a single pane view across key data, highlighting when the building moves away from optimal performance as predicted by physics-based simulations, and delivering daily insights on the cost, comfort and carbon impacts of customised operational improvement strategies, identified by the consultant and displayed through intuitive front-end dashboards.

Near real-time energy/carbon emission performance data from utility meters, BMS and IOT sensors are displayed against a predicted ‘ideal’ energy benchmark and, if available, occupancy data. The performance of implemented retrofits can also be tracked, to verify expected savings. Meanwhile, information on how spaces are performing against indoor air quality metrics (CO2 levels, temperature, humidity) are also included.

The Digital Twin that powers IES Live is created from an IESVE energy model, which is used within many global energy compliance routes. Once upgraded and calibrated as per CIBSE’s TM63 operational performance framework, using in-use operational building data, these digital twins respond and behave like the real building. Engineering consultants will likely have already delivered such models through a current/previous consulting project, therefore IES Live allows them to maximise the value of these existing energy models to bridge the performance gap. With IES Live they can deliver client-side sustainability and facilities/energy management teams with a tool to keep their building on track day-to-day, minimising the operational drift that can take new or newly improved buildings away from running optimally.

Company name

IES

UK availability

Yes

Solution launch date

Feb 2024

Solutions submitted by

Integrated Environmental Solutions Ltd

Case Study

The University of Liverpool’s Foundation Building was the first project to use the IES Live energy and carbon management platform to verify the impact of a recent HVAC refurbishment and optimise its energy and carbon performance.

Having initially used an IESVE energy model, calibrated with historic monthly measured data to test the impact of different refurbishment scenarios, prior to implementation, IES Live enabled the university to connect live data from their BMS, energy meters and sensors to a performance digital twin following the refurbishment, to provide the facilities management team with a single pane view of operational performance metrics via the cloud.

Over an initial 9-month period, following the refurbishment, the project verified:

23% energy savings
£25k operational cost savings

These savings continue to increase over time.

The university’s facilities management team is continuing to use IES Live to monitor and improve the building’s performance, as well as identify and plan further interventions to help move towards decarbonisation. Benchmarking against the simulated baseline, they can track performance and gain improvement insights for energy, carbon, and comfort, while continuing to measure and verify the ongoing impact of the HVAC refurbishment. IES Live is also helping to prevent operational drift on the building, by ensuring any issues are flagged and can be fixed before they begin to have an impact.

The University is now implementing IES Live on three more buildings across the campus.

20-35 %

6-12 month

Addresses

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