SMARTGREENS 2023 Abstracts

Area 1 - Smart and Digital Services

Full Papers

Paper Nr:	5
Title:	The CommYOUnity Data Project: Exploring Novice Evaluations of Urban Spaces
Authors:	Sarah Cooney and Barath Raghavan
Abstract:	This paper presents the CommYOUnity Data project, which was designed to explore how people describe their urban surrounds. This project is part of a research agenda that aims to develop technological planning tools that can be used by grassroots community groups in revitalization and repair efforts. The project contains two parts: a photo-elicitation study called the CommYOUnity Data Site and a follow-up, the CommYOUnity Data Survey. Through the site we collected 37 images depicting local scenes with associated captions in response to a prompt asking residents to describe elements of the submitted scene they would like to see improved. We then followed up with the survey to dig deeper into the difference between description (of the elements of a scene) and prescription (of changes to be made). By analyzing both the photo submissions and survey responses we identified a set of themes, which we use to describe a set of possible technological tools for grassroots urban design.
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Area 2 - Smart Infrastructures and Smart Buildings

Short Papers

Paper Nr:	1
Title:	HMMs Recursive Parameters Estimation for Semi-Bounded Data Modeling: Application to Occupancy Estimation in Smart Buildings
Authors:	Fatemeh R. Nikroo, Manar Amayri and Nizar Bouguila
Abstract:	Optimizing energy consumption is one of the key factors in smart buildings developments. It is crucial to estimate the number of occupants and detect their presence when it comes to energy saving in smart buildings. In this paper, we propose a Hidden Markov Models (HMM)-based approach to estimate and detect the occupancy status in smart buildings. In order to dynamically estimate the occupancy level, we develop a recursive estimation algorithm. The developed models are evaluated using two different real data sets.
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Area 3 - Sustainable Computing and Systems

Full Papers

Paper Nr:	6
Title:	A Carbon-Neutral, Community-Based, Reactive and Scalable Ride-Sharing Service
Authors:	Avinash Nagarajan, Alan McGibney, Pio Fenton and Ignacio Castiñeiras
Abstract:	This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a community-based, reactive ride-sharing service that promotes carbon-neutral management of city commutes using autonomous vehicles. The problem is formulated as a variant of the classical Dynamic Vehicle Routing problem with Time Windows, considering both dynamic resources and requests over a simulated time horizon. A solution approach is provided, based on an algorithm following a reactive-based simulation on top of a greedy decision-making process. A parameterised instance generator is developed to align existing benchmarks (i.e. Google HashCode) and public datasets (i.e. NYC taxis) to the proposed problem formulation and to enable testing of the solution under various configurations. The ride-sharing service is proven to scale well, when applied to very large instances, it provides fast and competitive results, both in terms of trip petitions satisfied and overall distance traversed.
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Paper Nr:	15
Title:	Towards e-Cities: An Atlas to Enhance the Public Realm Through Interactive Urban Cyber-Physical Devices
Authors:	Paulo Cruz, Ivo Oliveira, Bruno Figueiredo, João V. Lopes and Paulo Freitas
Abstract:	Cyber-physical devices are the backbone of a postdigital society in which the virtual and real spaces are seamlessly integrated by ubiquitous computing and networking. The incorporation of such devices in public space is a central subject of a strategic Research Project that gathers a multidisciplinary team from architecture, product design, polymer science and ICT R&D units. This paper frames the key roles of public space and ICTs for UN Sustainable Development Goals and sustainable smart cities. It also reports the architecture R&D unit review on the relations between public space, community, environment and digital interfaces. This review was materialized in an Atlas that collects, classifies and relates a corpus of heterogeneous urban cyber-physical projects case studies. We expand on three main framing concepts (Digital Twin, Interface, Awareness) and identify trends on the devices’ design and deployment strategies to counteract digitally hostile environments and early obsolescence. We also suggest the rising of new types of urban devices aiming at expanding the liveliness of urban places, the knowledge of urban life and the users’ environmental consciousness. The lessons learned from the Atlas fed the design guidelines for a developing demonstrator of a new breed of environmentally sensible interactive urban devices.
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Short Papers

Paper Nr:	11
Title:	A Green and Energy-Efficient Smart Building Driven by Photovoltaic Thermal Panels Connected to the Grid
Authors:	Amirmohammad Behzadi and Sasan Sadrizadeh
Abstract:	The present paper introduces a new smart building system driven by photovoltaic thermal panels. The concept is to improve the contribution of renewable energy in the local matrix for peak load shaving by having a two-way connection with the local electricity network via a rule-based energy monitoring control design. Besides, the feasibility of removing the electrical storage unit with high investment cost is studied by establishing a dynamic interaction between the energy production and usage components to reduce the energy costs over the year. The system has intelligent thermal energy storage integrated with an electrically-driven coil, heat exchanger, pumps, and several smart valves and control units. The transient system simulation (TRNSYS) package is implemented to assess the practicality of the suggested intelligent model for a building complex in Malmo, Sweden. According to the parametric outcomes, by raising the panel area, while the generated electricity increases, the solar utilization factor falls, indicating conflictive changes among performance metrics. The results also show that the renewable resource covers the building’s heating and electricity demands for the majority of the year and that a significant amount of energy is sold to the neighbourhood electricity grid, demonstrating the viability of the introduced intelligent model.
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Area 4 - Energy-Aware Systems and Technologies

Full Papers

Paper Nr:	9
Title:	Digital Models for Power Flow Analysis and Calculation of Electromagnetic Interference Effects of Long-Distance Ultrahigh-Voltage Transmission Lines
Authors:	Andrey Kryukov, Konstantin Suslov and Alexandr Kryukov
Abstract:	The goal of the research presented in this article was to develop computer models of long-distance ultra-high voltage (UHV) power transmission lines to provide comprehensive modeling of power flows and calculating electromagnetic interference effects on extended steel structures. In developing the models, we employed the methods based on the use of the phase frame of reference and equivalent lattice circuits with a fully connected topology. The simulations were carried out for a 1,150 kV UHV transmission line with a length of 900 km, each phase of which was formed by eight AC-330 wires . Simulations were performed using the software package Fazonord. Along with power flow calculations and determination of the voltages created by the 1,150 kV long-distance transmission line on the pipeline, we simulated electromagnetic fields, taking into account the impact exerted by the grounded steel structure. The results of modeling a long-distance 1,150 kV transmission line with receiving end loads of 300 + j 200 MVA per phase led to the following conclusions: in the case of a normal power flow with balanced loads at individual points of the structure the levels of induced voltages did not exceed the allowable limit of 60 V; in the case of two-phase and single-phase short-circuit power flows the maximum induced voltages also did not exceed the 1,000 V limit set by the regulatory document. The models presented in the paper can be put into practice when planning the measures to ensure the electrical safety of technicians working at the pipeline sections located in the areas that are subject to electromagnetic interference effects of transmission lines. The application scope of the technique developed covers the cases where a transmission line and a pipeline run in close proximity following a complex trajectory that includes parallel and oblique segments.
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Paper Nr:	10
Title:	Marginal Emission Factors in Power Systems: The Case of the Netherlands
Authors:	Parnian Alikhani, Nico Brinkel, Wouter Schram, Ioannis Lampropoulos and Wilfried van Sark
Abstract:	The Marginal Emission Factor (MEF) is a consistent metric with increased accuracy, compared to the average emission factor, to evaluate the avoided emissions as a result of changes in electricity consumption caused by new technologies and policies. In this study, a method is developed to model MEFs by constructing merit order profiles in interconnected power systems. The proposed method is applied in a case study of the Netherlands for the years 2018 to 2022. This method, in contrast to previous studies that developed marginal emission profiles, does not neglect the share of the electricity demand which is met by countries in neighboring bidding zones. In this study, the results suggest that ignoring electricity trading significantly underestimates the marginal emission factors. It is found that the key factors resulting in clear temporal shifts in the marginal emission profiles are fuel and CO 2 prices. Even though the installed capacity of fossil-fueled electricity generation has declined over time, these are mainly the power plants that operate at the margin and often set electricity prices at the wholesale level. Overall, the MEF profiles obtained using the proposed method could be readily employed in detailed evaluations of the emission optimization of distributed power systems to support decarbonization.
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Paper Nr:	18
Title:	Optimal Control Strategy for Mixed Fuel Use in a Renewable Polygeneration System
Authors:	Luca Cimmino, Jimmy B. Burgos and Ursula Eicker
Abstract:	The proposed work aims to analyse an optimal control strategy applied to a polygeneration system based on a gasification unit, an anaerobic digester and an alkaline electrolyzer to meet the fuel demand of an internal combustion engine. The purpose of the studied system is to meet the electricity and thermal energy demand of several end-users. The focus of this paper is on the fuel management strategy for a 2 MW cogenerator used to meet both these demands for a hospital. In the proposed model, the fuel injected into the internal combustion engine is a mixture of gaseous flows produced by renewable energy systems. The mixture is first composed of biogas, produced by an anaerobic digester fed by organic urban wastes. Secondarily, hydrogen obtained from the electrolysis of water through a 2 MW alkaline cell is considered. In addition, syngas produced by a 1.7 MW allothermal downstream gasification unit is adopted with different gasifying agents considered, including oxygen produced by the alkaline electrolyzer. Results show that with the adopted strategy, the fuel energy demand is met by 15% by biogas, 3% by hydrogen, 45% by syngas using oxygen as gasifying agent and 37% by syngas using steam as gasifying agent.
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Short Papers

Paper Nr:	12
Title:	Duck Box: Sensor-Based Material Flow Optimization for Economically and Energy-Efficient Intralogistics
Authors:	Christoph Ecker, Martin Riester and Sebastian Schlund
Abstract:	Small batch sizes, increasing variant diversity and short delivery times raise the complexity of intralogistics in manufacturing companies. As a result, these challenges lead to economically- and energy-inefficient material flows. To address this issue, companies conduct material flow optimization. The decisive factor is that the planning often cannot be data driven. This is because there is no or insufficient data on internal material flows and optimization potentials cannot be fully exploited. The aim of this paper is to create economically- and energy-efficient material flows in manufacturing companies. The focus is on the development of a sensor prototype for the localization and utilization measurement of forklifts to close the current data gaps. Based on the current state of the art, the sensor prototype Duck Box is developed. This Indoor Positioning System (IPS) uses LoRa to determine the position of forklifts and an ultrasonic sensor to identify the utilization. The recorded and in real time analysed data is transmitted to a database via Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN). Finally, the developed prototype is applied and evaluated in a case study. The results of this sensor-based approach show the significant added value for the economically- and energy-efficient optimization of material flows.
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Paper Nr:	13
Title:	X-AMINOR: A Mobile Multi-Sensor Platform for Lifecycle-Monitoring of Transformers
Authors:	Ferdinand Fuhrmann, Konrad Diwold, Jakub Waikat, Jakob Gaugl, Fredi Belavic and Franz Graf
Abstract:	The current developments in the energy system especially the increased integration of renewable and the introduction of dynamic loads lead to a decoupling of consumption and production. Digitalization is one of the major tools for grid operators to tackle these challenges, as it allows them to implement flexible and advanced operation and planning strategies, which reduce costs while increasing service security. In the context of operation, transformers represent one of the most important assets in the transmission grid. Their optimal utilization is of utmost importance to ensure the optimal operation for dependable feed-in. The article presents the project X-AMINOR, which aims for the development of novel minimal invasive transformer monitoring solutions designed to complement existing monitoring strategies to enable continuous monitoring over a transformer’s entire life cycle to improve its operation.
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Paper Nr:	19
Title:	Dynamic Simulation and Energy, Economic and Environmental Analysis of a Greenhouse Supplied by Renewable Energy Sources
Authors:	Francesco Calise, Francesco L. Cappiello, Luca Cimmino and Maria Vicidomini
Abstract:	This paper presents the design and dynamic modelling of a greenhouse coupled with renewable energy technologies, such as PV panels, solar thermal collectors, biomass auxiliary heater. The system is also coupled with a pyrogasifier, supplied by wood and agricultural wastes in the framework of a biocircular economic approach. In order to match the real load of power and heat of the investigated user, a “green farm” located in Naples (South of Italy) reducing the energy consumption and operating cost, all the main components of the plant were suitably designed. The operation of the designed components was simulated by a dynamic simulation model developed in TRNSYS environment and validated by means literature results. A comprehensive energy, economic and environmental analysis of the greenhouse was presented. Main results suggest that the proposed renewable system is able to reduce the total equivalent CO2 emissions of 148,66 t/y. Considering the high current increase of the energy prices due to energy crisis due to the war, the system shows a very significant profitability with a simple payback of only 1.7 years.
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Paper Nr:	7
Title:	Discrete-Time MDP Policy for Energy-Aware Data Center
Authors:	Léa Bayati
Abstract:	This paper presents a stochastic model for Dynamic Power Management (DPM) that consists in dynamically switching-on/off servers in the data center to ensure a reasonable energy consumption with a good Quality of Services (QoS). In this work, arrival jobs are specified with histograms which are discrete identically independently distributions obtained from real traces, empirical data, or incoming traffic measurements. We model a data center by a queue, then we formulate the optimization problem by a discrete time Markov Decision Process (MDP) to find the optimal policy. We prove also some structural properties of the optimal policy. Our approach was applied and tested for several data center parameters with arrivals modeled by histograms obtained from real Google traffic traces.
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Paper Nr:	8
Title:	Energy Consumption Optimization in Data Center with Latency Based on Histograms and Discrete-Time MDP
Authors:	Léa Bayati
Abstract:	This article introduces a probabilistic model for managing power dynamically (DPM) in a data center. The model involves switching servers on and off, while considering both the time it takes for the machines to be-come active and the amount of energy they consume. The goal of DPM is to balance energy consumption with Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. To construct the model, job arrivals and service rates are represented using histograms, which are discrete distributions derived from actual traces, empirical data, or measurements of incoming traffic. The data center is modeled as a queue, and the optimization problem is formulated as a discrete-time Markov decision process (MDP) in order to identify the optimal policy. The proposed approach is evaluated using real traffic traces from Google, and different levels of latency are compared.
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Paper Nr:	20
Title:	Dynamic Numerical Model for a Geothermal Well
Authors:	Francesco Calise, Francesco L. Cappiello, Luca Cimmino and Maria Vicidomini
Abstract:	The paper proposed a detailed mathematical model that uses the TRNSYS environment to dynamically assess the thermodynamic performance of a geothermal well. This research aims to provide a fast and reliable dynamic mathematical model able to mimic the real-time operation of a geothermal well, given the depth of the well and the temperature of the surrounding soil. In addition, this model can simulate the energy performance of the downhole heat exchangers installed into the geothermal well. The results of the model indicate that the proposed model can accurately assess and simulate the performance of the geothermal well also including the energy performance of the downhole heat exchangers. In addition, this model may be exploited for dimensioning proper control strategies able to manage the temperature of the downhole heat exchanger.
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Area 5 - Smart Cities

Short Papers

Paper Nr:	14
Title:	The Best of both Worlds: Social and Technical Challenges of Creating Energy Islands
Authors:	Sonja Klingert, Michael Niederkofler, Hermann de Meer, Mona Bielig, Stepan Gagin, Celina Kacperski and Matthias Strobbe
Abstract:	Creating so-called “energy islands” with a high level of energetic self-sufficiency is one strategy to fight climate crisis. To become a realistic goal, such a concept needs trans-disciplinary research that defines promising transformation paths towards reaching this vision. The presented paper introduces a conceptual framework that provides approaches for technical optimization across all energy vectors, socio-technical optimization of the usage of energy demand flexibility, socio-psychological interventions, and a replication strategy that considers all these different aspects. The focus lies on the architecture of a management system that answers requirements also from social sciences, on engagement strategies and on defining a cross-vector, cross-disciplinary design for flexibility in terms of demand-response schemes.
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