In Reporting Period 1 (RP1) (M1 – M18), UtilitEE fulfilled its work plan objectives and delivered all deliverables planned. UtilitEE also reached the majority of the planned milestones. The UtilitEE implementation methodology adopts an iterative research and development approach. The activities performed in RP1 within the project included: a) definition of the solution requirements, b) design (architecture, specifications and novel business models), c) configuration (configuration, prototyping and fine-tuning, training documentation), and d) initiation of pilot deployment.
The first round of UtilitEE's research and development activities were a core phase of the project and delivered key scientific and technical results namely: a) the Measurement & Verification specifications, defining key performance indicators for detailed evaluation, b) the BCF methodological approach, c) the system architecture spanning from real-time data and energy use capture and processing, to the user interfaces for consumers and utilities.
In RP2 (M19-M32), the UtilitEE consortium fulfilled its work plan obligations, meeting all relevant project objectives and delivering all required deliverables. The milestones planned for the period were reached.
During RP2, the development and deployment phases of the project were in progress and the system validation activities were also initiated. In RP1 UtilitEE achieved Milestone 11 on “UtilitEE Components initial configuration” in M22, by releasing the functional first version of the UtilitEE individual components, addressing all project stakeholders. In M24, Milestone 6 on “Pilot roll-out and full deployment of the UtilitEE system” was accomplished, combining efforts of both WP3 and WP4, by releasing the UtilitEE system to the project participants ensuring that the pilot sites were prepared for the initiation of the validation phase. Milestone 9 was also reached in M24, concerning the dissemination activities of the project and a report was submitted describing the latest achievements on the project’s communication and dissemination activities, addressing the feedback received at the first review meeting.
In RP3 (M33-M42), all project obligations & objectives were fulfilled, reaching the milestones planned for the final reporting period.
All development activities were successfully completed in M36 with the release of the final version of the UtilitEE integrated system, reaching Milestone 12 and joining efforts of both WP3 and WP4. The solution validation was completed in M42 accomplishing Milestone 7. The UtilitEE Business Innovation Plan, defined in WP6, incorporated validation & market analysis outcomes along with feedback from end-users and business stakeholders and was related with the achievement of Milestone 10 in M42.
The UtilitEE validation activities revealed a significant energy saving potential with energy savings ranging from 5-10% at the pilots with lower performance and reaching up to 40% at the highest performing pilot sites. User acceptance was evaluated through explicit ratings on the received recommendations and living labs outcomes and was generally high. Additionally, high persistence was observed in relation to the end user's energy-related behavioural change achieved through the UtilitEE solution, in average reaching 75%. To disseminate the project's results to a larger audiance, a Final Handbook was published offering an overview of the project concept and implementation, and presenting its outcomes.
