The EBENTO project aims at improving the energy efficiency of buildings in cities through performance assurance tools, focusing on citizens as key actors of the energy transition, helping them in their decision making to invest in efficiency in their homes. To this end, it develops an integrated place working as a one-stop-shop platform for all actors involved in the construction and renovation sector to better coordinate and manage energy performance contracts and energy saving measures.
Through EBENTO, citizens will increase their implication in building energy efficiency enhancement, and both public institutions and energy communities will be able to identify potential energy efficiency improvements in residential housing stock, with SMEs and ESCOs support. Furthermore, with EBENTO platform, new business models for optimizing the financial (and, indirectly, other) resources available will be validated:
•EBENTO will explore the best financing and collaboration schemes to set up energy services.
•EBENTO will study how to enhance current Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) for Demand Side Mechanism (DSM) services and what kind of investment options (grants, loans…) can be implemented to increase the number and impact of energy efficiency projects in the city/region
•By using digital tools, EBENTO will gather data from EPCs, financial schemes and energy savings to give to the citizens the required trust for investing in new solutions, and to companies the relevant information to reduce costs and easily replicate the work developed.
EBENTO will ensure the exchange of relevant information between the different actors, making the renovation process cost-efficient and easy to operate and replicate. The platform will collect data related to performance contracts and guarantees, devices monitoring, energy savings, building information modelling, users’ opinions and comfort levels, among others.
Regarding the innovative tools to be developed in EBENTO, all of them will be enclosed in the One-Stop-Shop to better manage and interact between them. In a nutshell, the platform will cover the management of performance guarantees and contracts by using the Building Performance and Guarantees (BPG) module. The monitoring of relevant inputs for energy efficiency and comfort evaluation is done though the Efficiency, Comfort and Environment (ECE) module. The platform also allows technology management by the Building Information Technology (BIT) module as well as the physical and economical simulation of renovations thanks to the Building Renovation module and the building economical simulation module.
EBENTO project will be tested in 4 countries around Europe, including different weathers, culture, and legal framework. Spain, Greece, UK and Estonia are the 4 sites where the EBENTO tool and renovations will be made, all in residential buildings with different characteristic
