Short project description

As Member States look to apply the European Union's Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) to plan upgrades of their building stock, regional differences in regulation and markets hinder the roll out and stress inequalities. SRI2MARKET will use lessons learned by countries that are well advanced in rolling out SRI to support and inspire action among those that are not early movers.

 

Project objectives

Objective 1: Support the targeted EU Member States (Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Portugal, Spain) on introducing the SRI into their national regulation
SRI2MARKET will produce recommendations for each of the targeted Member States on: (a) integrating the SRI into the current national regulatory framework for buildings (including performance requirements and building certification schemes), (b) evaluating whether the default SRI calculation methodology is appropriate or whether adaptations are required, and (c) using the SRI as an effective policy instrument to achieve the national energy and climate policy goals.

Objective 2: Propose public funding schemes to finance SRI upgrades in buildings
The project will set up and fuel – through evidence-based proposals – a stakeholder dialogue process with key national power market stakeholders (regulatory agencies, energy agencies, system operators) so as to jointly define how improvements in SRI rating should be compensated in order to provide the appropriate incentives to the building renovation market. The goal is to incentive energy efficiency measures that can help phase out old polluting power generation plants that exist only for serving peak demand, and/or mitigate the need for additional power generation capacity that is non-economically viable.

Objective 3: Develop tools to guide SRI assessors and streamline building assessments.
The tools are collectively referred to as the “SRI2MARKET Tool Suite”, and they will all be accessible through a unifying, multilingual web portal.

Objective 4: Provide training to on the SRI and the methodology of its calculation.
The SRI2MARKET will offer e-learning lessons on the SRI and its assessment methodology. The learning materials will be developed originally in the English language and, then, translated into native project partner languages by each project partner.

Objective 5: Establish pilot projects of SRI assessment at the national level in order to identify examples of good practice.
The strategy of SRI2MARKET is to connect the users of the e-learning service with building owners that want indicative buildings of their portfolio assessed.

Objective 6: Provide recommendations to building owners and facility managers on cost-effective SRI upgrades

SRI2MARKET will develop and disseminate recommendations to guide building owners in selecting automation capabilities that best fit their buildings.

The recommendations will be based on a series of use cases that will: (a) present practical examples of how specific technology upgrades in different types of technical in-building systems are translated into improvements in the SRI rating, and (b) what can be achieved, in terms of energy savings and demand flexibility, by upgrading the SRI of different technology packages.

 

Funding disclaimer

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

 

Consortium

IEECP has rich experience in managing EU-funded climate action and energy transition projects, producing science-based outputs for energy and climate policy, leading communication and dissemination activities.

REHVA has technical expertise in the field of energy efficiency in buildings, and particularly on the building related EU and national level policies; has acquired insights and know-how via its involvement as key stakeholder in the studies on the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) for buildings and as chair of the SRI Topical Group C.

UPRC is mainly involved in modelling energy systems, from buildings to national markets, and in carrying out policy evaluation.

HEBES is active on modelling technical building systems, devising optimal control algorithms for their operation, developing methods for measurement and verification of energy savings, and developing energy performance contracts that utilize data-driven applications.

ADENE is the responsible authority in Portugal for the Energy Performance Certification (EPC) scheme and will play a pivotal role in the design of the national SRI rollout.

AEE INTEC has good technical understanding of the interface between energy efficiency and demand flexibility, and a strong network of contacts in the energy efficiency market.

CENER has many-year experience in evaluation of building energy performance, including the methods used in practice for energy performance certification.

EIHP is involved in the strategic planning in the energy sector – development of regional, national, subnational and local strategies and action plans.

CEA combines technical expertise in the field of building energy efficiency and experience in dissemination activities.

BOKU brings technical expertise in evaluating packages of energy efficiency measures and of demand flexibility (the project team is involved in the IEA EBC Annex 82 on Flexible Buildings).

The main competences of R2M include market analysis, business model development and innovation management activities, applied in the energy and building sectors. R2M has been supporting the roll out of the SRI through a service contract with DG ENER.

EFINOVATIC is a company specialised in energy efficiency and software development.

 

Pilot projects

1200 pilots will be implemented in liaison with the relevant authorities and organisations at National level in Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Portugal, and Spain.

SRI2MARKET pilots serve three objectives:
- to test the SRI assessment process under real life conditions
- to evaluate how well the e-learning material supports SRI assessments in practice and collect practical information on the possible needs of the SRI assessors
- to fuel the interest of the national market actors in the SRI instrument