Data Clearing House

About the project

This project aims to
integrate the Exergenics exOptima central HVAC plant optimisation solution with
the Data Clearing House and use it to demonstrate energy savings and renewable
energy demand profile matching, in at least one CSIRO building.

This will help validate the efficacy of the Data Clearing House as a tool for Exergenics to rapidly onboard buildings. It will also provide a rigorous case-study of the exOptima software that can be used to develop the market for Exergenics services.


Project title DCH8 – Exergenics Chiller Staging App
Project number DCH8
Project location Melbourne
Lead partner Exergenics
Project partners CSIRO, Exergenics
Project participants CSIRO
Start date 09/2021
End date 05/2022
ARENA/i-Hub funding $12,400
Total project cost $37,060


Need

Black box solutions for
optimising building cooling are costly to set up and operate, require new
hardware and technicians, lack transparency over what’s happening in the
system, and cannot project potential energy savings before implementation based
on historical data.

The i-Hub Data Clearing House provides access to the necessary building HVAC data, and to weather and solar energy data.

This project is required to improve exOptima functionality by accounting for renewable energy self-consumption in the algorithms, validating the efficacy of the exOptima technology in more diversified scenarios, and accelerating commercialisation by integration with the i-Hub Data Clearing House.


Action

There are five key stages in the project:

  • Adapt exOptima to perform plant optimisation utilising data through the DCH
  • Deploy exOptima in case study building
  • Develop widgets (Apps) in the Data Clearing House that display different visualisations from the exOptima results
  • Benchmark impact using the DCH M&V App
  • Train building Facility Management staff to use the PlantScore results.


Outcome

The project helps the i-Hub Data Clearing House Activity demonstrate successful industry uptake by supporting delivery of Apps. In particular it will contribute to one of i-Hubs main KPIs by contributing one new Application (exOptima) on the i-Hub Data Clearing House platform.

In addition, this project should demonstrate energy savings from the exOptima App in at least one CSIRO building.


Additional impact

By enhancing the scalability of the exOptima solution, the developments of this project will increase the accessibility to essential energy saving technology to a large number of buildings in Australia and around the world, putting a dent in the significant cost of HVAC on our environment.


Project reports

DCH8 Final performance outcomes report (CSIRO)
DCH8 Knowledge sharing collateral (Exergenics)
DCH8 Lessons learnt report
DCH8 Sub – project knowledge sharing report
Exergenics Case Study CSIRO Synergy
Exergenics University of Melbourne Case Study


Evaluation Framework

All sub-projects within i-Hub are evaluated as part of the ongoing i-Hub project management process. Evaluation is completed by the project manager and reviewed by the Activity Leaders Group and i-Hub Steering Committee. Please click here to read the Evaluation Framework.


Created 14/10/21