The BEYOND project proposes solutions based on data and data intelligence to facilitate the transition to smarter and more energy-efficient buildings. In addition, it contemplates an important objective, such as the transition to a sustainable and fossil fuel-free energy system. To this end, different energy applications and services have been developed to improve the efficiency and performance of buildings.

For this purpose, solutions are studied in different demonstration sites including Spain, Finland, Serbia and Greece. Each demonstrator has several different characteristics, with the main scope to collect data from different types of buildings involving the different actors in the energy market: ESCOs, distributors, retailers, facility managers and developers.

This article focuses on the Spanish demonstrator, which has two partners, Cuerva and Urbener.

CUERVA Headquarters is the retailer for the building consumption and they can install any device that could be interesting for the purposes of the project. The company has a PV plant and Five EV Chargers. 

Urbener Headquarters has a system for measuring the consumption of the air conditioning system in real-time. Energy uses in Urbener's offices are for lighting, air conditioning and for the use of computers and devices necessary for work. Urbener has installed different devices in four areas of the office to study Beyond's solutions.

As part of the Spanish demo, Smart metering data provided by local prosumers, together with distributed generation data have been collected. Such flexibility requirements can be communicated to the local aggregator, together with smart metering, distributed generation and local storage information, allowing for analysis of the flexibility that can be provided by each type of DER at different spatio-temporal granularity, segmentation and classification. The different kinds of flexibility according to their characteristics and capability can provide alternative services to the grid operator, optimal clustering of local flexibility sources and formulation of dynamic VPPs to address evolving distribution grid needs and requirements.

Dynamic VPP schedules for flexibility activation will be communicated back to the DSO, allowing for the optimal scheduling of the distribution network operation with these additional flexibility amounts in hand. In turn, the DSO will generate the appropriate signals towards local prosumers and DERs to enable the provision of the available flexibility with the ultimate target of increasing network resilience and operational efficiency, maximizing RES integration, minimizing power losses, increasing power quality and safeguarding network availability against anticipated congestions, imbalances or voltage violations.

The Spanish Demonstration's Business Function Targets enable energy retailers to sell electricity, gas and energy services to residential and business customers. ESCOs can be involved to guarantee energy savings and/or the provision of the same level of energy service at lower cost. A performance guarantee can take several forms. It can revolve around the actual flow of energy savings from a project, stipulating that the energy savings will be sufficient to repay monthly debt service costs, or that the same level of energy service is provided for less money. ESCO remuneration is directly linked to the energy savings achieved.

ESCOs can finance or help raise financing for the operation of an energy system by offering a savings guarantee. These and other actors can capitalize on the energy data coming from buildings and be part of the flexibility services.