An Open Architecture IoT Platform for a Sustainable Smart City
| An Open Architecture IoT Platform for a Sustainable Smart City | |
|---|---|
| |
 Sustainable Smart City Arlington | |
| Team Organizations | Virginia Tech BEM Controls |
| Team Leaders | Saifur Rahman |
| Participating Municipalities | Arlington County VA |
| Status | Launched |
| Document | None |
Description
BEMOSS®-Plus is an open-architecture platform that allows integration of IoT devices for energy savings, security, solar PV and storage in buildings. Its versatility will allow the management of energy usage (e.g., electricity and gas) for the entire city, including traffic and security monitoring. The project involves piloting BEMOSS®-Plus in Arlington County, the City of Alexandria and Virginia Tech university campus.
Challenges
Commercially available Building Energy Management (BEM) products are designed for large buildings, and such solutions cost upwards of $500,000 plus annual maintenance fee. This is not affordable for small/medium-sized commercial buildings, which constitute around 95% of all buildings in the U.S.
Solutions
BEMOSS®-Plus aims to address this market by offering a BEM solution (at 10% of the current commercial systems cost) for the underserved, yet the largest segment of the market.
Major Requirements
- Further develop the BEMOSS®-Plus platform for city-wide application
- Identify pilots/demonstration projects with local government(s) and state university(s)
- Deploy BEMOSS®-Plus in selected buildings
- Quantify energy savings and peak demand reduction potentials
Performance Targets
| Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) | Measurement Methods |
|---|---|
|
At least 10% savings in energy consumption; At least 20% reduction in peak electrical demand |
To quantify energy savings/peak demand reduction potentials, several days with similar outdoor temperature profiles are identified. These days are used to quantify the kWh/kW reductions by changing thermostat set-points. |
Standards, Replicability, Scalability, and Sustainability
- The proposed project demonstrates the interoperability of various IoT devices for energy savings and peak demand reduction in commercial buildings.
- Two pilot projects have been initiated with Arlington County and Virginia Tech. These demonstrations have helped to validate energy savings achievable by BEMOSS®-Plus. Negotiation is on-going with the City of Alexandria to identify a pilot project. This will serve as the guideline for replicating the project elsewhere.
Cybersecurity and Privacy
Impacts
If proven to be successful for city-wide application, this project will result in a new product that has potential to provide energy savings for small and medium-sized commercial buildings at low cost. It will open up more building energy management work opportunities for new businesses employing more people. In addition, such a platform has global market because it is low cost, but is a powerful hardware agnostic tool-kit for broad applications in buildings, traffic management, security monitoring, etc. in smart cities.
Demonstration/Deployment
The team will demonstrate the result of two pilot projects. One is the 5,000 sqft building located in Arlington County. The other is the 25,000 sqft academic building located in Alexandria, VA. Discussion will include how these buildings can be made interoperable and smart, as well as how much energy savings can be achieved by deploying BEMOSS®-Plus.