Periodic Reporting for period 1 - domOS (Operating System for Smart Services in Buildings)
Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2022-02-28
In its climate and energy policy towards 2030, the European Union has set ambitious goals for its energy system. The building sector accounts for over 40% of the total final energy consumed in the EU. As a major actor of the EU energy system, it must contribute significantly to the achievement of the EU 2030 goals: buildings must become more efficient and more flexible, and host more renewable generation.
Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings can and should be achieved through major renovations. However, smart technologies can increase the efficiency and flexibility of buildings in the shorter term and with much less investment. Smart services can improve the energy performance of buildings through two processes: 1) thanks to smart services, owners and occupants get a better understanding of their buildings as an energy system, and, consequently, change their behaviour or decide to invest in a more efficient energy infrastructure, and 2) closed-loop control improve efficiency and flexibility.
Digitisation of buildings in Europe is progressing: nearly all new appliances ranging from coffee machines to heat pumps feature a data interface and an app. However, digitisation progresses in an uncoordinated way: services are offered as silo solutions usually operated by appliance / device manufacturers. This approach has two drawbacks. First, the multiplication of services degrades the user experience, as multiple systems, each with its own presentation logic and access control, must be delt with. Secondly, silo solutions are not appropriate for energy management systems, which require the coordination of multiple entities like the photovoltaic inverter, the heat pump, the electrical vehicle charging station, the electricity grid, and the energy supplier.
In this context, the domOS project elaborates an ecosystem enabling 1) the integration of multiple devices / appliances of multiple vendors within a building into an integrated platform, and 2) the decoupling of the application layer and of the infrastructure layer in buildings. domOS considers the heterogeneity of communication interfaces of digital appliances as a fact. Integration requires only that the communication interfaces are described in a machine-readable document. Such a document associates terms of the domOS nomenclature (named “domOS Common Ontology”) with concrete operations on devices / appliances. The decoupling of applications and infrastructure is enabled by the sharing of the domOS Common Ontology.
The domOS ecosystem is a specification based on established and emerging IoT standards. It has been designed so that stakeholders (application developers, IoT platforms operators, system integrators) can implement it with a limited effort.
A broad adoption of the domOS ecosystem would lead to an “industrialisation” of the smart building scene in Europe, with the advent of more specialised actors offering complementary products and services. This will promote the uptake of digital energy services in buildings first by lowering prices, and secondly by allowing a phased investment.
Improving the energy efficiency of existing buildings can and should be achieved through major renovations. However, smart technologies can increase the efficiency and flexibility of buildings in the shorter term and with much less investment. Smart services can improve the energy performance of buildings through two processes: 1) thanks to smart services, owners and occupants get a better understanding of their buildings as an energy system, and, consequently, change their behaviour or decide to invest in a more efficient energy infrastructure, and 2) closed-loop control improve efficiency and flexibility.
Digitisation of buildings in Europe is progressing: nearly all new appliances ranging from coffee machines to heat pumps feature a data interface and an app. However, digitisation progresses in an uncoordinated way: services are offered as silo solutions usually operated by appliance / device manufacturers. This approach has two drawbacks. First, the multiplication of services degrades the user experience, as multiple systems, each with its own presentation logic and access control, must be delt with. Secondly, silo solutions are not appropriate for energy management systems, which require the coordination of multiple entities like the photovoltaic inverter, the heat pump, the electrical vehicle charging station, the electricity grid, and the energy supplier.
In this context, the domOS project elaborates an ecosystem enabling 1) the integration of multiple devices / appliances of multiple vendors within a building into an integrated platform, and 2) the decoupling of the application layer and of the infrastructure layer in buildings. domOS considers the heterogeneity of communication interfaces of digital appliances as a fact. Integration requires only that the communication interfaces are described in a machine-readable document. Such a document associates terms of the domOS nomenclature (named “domOS Common Ontology”) with concrete operations on devices / appliances. The decoupling of applications and infrastructure is enabled by the sharing of the domOS Common Ontology.
The domOS ecosystem is a specification based on established and emerging IoT standards. It has been designed so that stakeholders (application developers, IoT platforms operators, system integrators) can implement it with a limited effort.
A broad adoption of the domOS ecosystem would lead to an “industrialisation” of the smart building scene in Europe, with the advent of more specialised actors offering complementary products and services. This will promote the uptake of digital energy services in buildings first by lowering prices, and secondly by allowing a phased investment.
As of February 2022, the domOS project has achieved significant results in the following domains: technology, energy, demonstration, and communication.
In the technology domain, requirements for smart buildings have been gathered, mainly from demonstration scenarios, and led to the specification of the domOS ecosystem acting as mediation layer between the applications and the smart infrastructure in buildings. The ecosystem specifications has two components: an IoT architecture and an ontology. The IoT architecture is based on the WoT (Web of Things) (https://www.w3.org/WoT/) project promoted by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Thanks to it, appliances are modelled as a set of so-called interaction affordances (concretely properties, actions, and events), independently of the specificities of their data interface. Uniform access to appliances is made possible thanks to a document mapping interaction affordances with exchanged messages. This document named TD (Thing Description) is compliant with a WoT template. In addition, domOS specifies a template for a further machine-readable document, the BD (Building Description), that provides a digital nameplate for the buildings and contains references to interaction affordances. BDs and TDs can be semantically annotated with the dCO (domOS Common Ontology) (https://w3id.org/dco/). The dCO contains all concepts needed to describe buildings from an energy standpoint. Existing elements are taken over from existing ontologies. Cyber-security and privacy management requirements have been defined; their implementation is however left to the underlying IoT platforms, to keep the threshold to enter the ecosystem low and to cope with the many possible deployment topologies. Three participating IoT platforms will be upgraded to the ecosystem specification.
In the energy domain, a wide panel of services for energy efficiency and energy flexibility, in the context of electricity and of district heating, have been further developed. The following smart services have been addressed: open-loop and closed-loop energy efficiency services, prosumer empowerment and flexibility management.
The domOS consortium members deploy and operate five demonstration sites related to electrical energy (Paris (F), Sion (CH)), district heating (Aalborg (DK)), and smart heating (Skive (DK), Neuchâtel (CH)) that are still in their deployment phase. The underlying IoT platforms will be upgraded to the ecosystem specification.
The domOS solution must be disseminated to the smart building community, to turn the domOS ecosystem into a catalyst for smart energy services for existing buildings. Key partners for dissemination have been identified and contacts are on-going.
In the technology domain, requirements for smart buildings have been gathered, mainly from demonstration scenarios, and led to the specification of the domOS ecosystem acting as mediation layer between the applications and the smart infrastructure in buildings. The ecosystem specifications has two components: an IoT architecture and an ontology. The IoT architecture is based on the WoT (Web of Things) (https://www.w3.org/WoT/) project promoted by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Thanks to it, appliances are modelled as a set of so-called interaction affordances (concretely properties, actions, and events), independently of the specificities of their data interface. Uniform access to appliances is made possible thanks to a document mapping interaction affordances with exchanged messages. This document named TD (Thing Description) is compliant with a WoT template. In addition, domOS specifies a template for a further machine-readable document, the BD (Building Description), that provides a digital nameplate for the buildings and contains references to interaction affordances. BDs and TDs can be semantically annotated with the dCO (domOS Common Ontology) (https://w3id.org/dco/). The dCO contains all concepts needed to describe buildings from an energy standpoint. Existing elements are taken over from existing ontologies. Cyber-security and privacy management requirements have been defined; their implementation is however left to the underlying IoT platforms, to keep the threshold to enter the ecosystem low and to cope with the many possible deployment topologies. Three participating IoT platforms will be upgraded to the ecosystem specification.
In the energy domain, a wide panel of services for energy efficiency and energy flexibility, in the context of electricity and of district heating, have been further developed. The following smart services have been addressed: open-loop and closed-loop energy efficiency services, prosumer empowerment and flexibility management.
The domOS consortium members deploy and operate five demonstration sites related to electrical energy (Paris (F), Sion (CH)), district heating (Aalborg (DK)), and smart heating (Skive (DK), Neuchâtel (CH)) that are still in their deployment phase. The underlying IoT platforms will be upgraded to the ecosystem specification.
The domOS solution must be disseminated to the smart building community, to turn the domOS ecosystem into a catalyst for smart energy services for existing buildings. Key partners for dissemination have been identified and contacts are on-going.
The domOS project is expected to generate significant impacts at different levels.
The domOS ecosystem together with the domOS common ontology aims to contribute to the smart building standardisation in Europe.
domOS compliant platforms should lower the cost for deploying and operating smart services and secure investment by allowing a phased deployment and by promoting long-term interoperability. If realised, these objectives would promote the uptake of smart services in buildings and, through them, increase the efficiency and flexibility of the European building stock. For example, preliminary results for the closed-loop energy efficiency services demonstrated in Neuchâtel showed a 15 % thermal energy consumption decrease (for an outdoor temperature of 5°C) compared to the baseline with a similar comfort.
The domOS architecture decouples from a technical standpoint the infrastructure in buildings, the platforms, the applications, and the services. This is a basis for a new definition of roles and a specialisation of actors leading to an “industrial” era for smart services in buildings. For example, a new role of “smart building operator” implementing a mediating function between the in-building infrastructure and applications could appear. The vision is that the business for application developers, smart service operators, system integrators, smart building operators, and gateway, device and appliance manufacturers develops in complementary ways. These actors would at the same time take profit of a broad uptake of smart services in European buildings and promote it.
The domOS ecosystem together with the domOS common ontology aims to contribute to the smart building standardisation in Europe.
domOS compliant platforms should lower the cost for deploying and operating smart services and secure investment by allowing a phased deployment and by promoting long-term interoperability. If realised, these objectives would promote the uptake of smart services in buildings and, through them, increase the efficiency and flexibility of the European building stock. For example, preliminary results for the closed-loop energy efficiency services demonstrated in Neuchâtel showed a 15 % thermal energy consumption decrease (for an outdoor temperature of 5°C) compared to the baseline with a similar comfort.
The domOS architecture decouples from a technical standpoint the infrastructure in buildings, the platforms, the applications, and the services. This is a basis for a new definition of roles and a specialisation of actors leading to an “industrial” era for smart services in buildings. For example, a new role of “smart building operator” implementing a mediating function between the in-building infrastructure and applications could appear. The vision is that the business for application developers, smart service operators, system integrators, smart building operators, and gateway, device and appliance manufacturers develops in complementary ways. These actors would at the same time take profit of a broad uptake of smart services in European buildings and promote it.