Papers by Mohammad Royapoor
Axiomatic design of smart local energy systems
2021 12th International Renewable Engineering Conference (IREC)
This paper proposes a method for applying engineering design principles to a type of energy syste... more This paper proposes a method for applying engineering design principles to a type of energy system called a smart local energy system. Axiomatic design theory is used to develop a series of knowledge domains about a demonstrator energy system, the knowledge domains describing the different facets of customer, functional, solution and construction elements that make up the system as a whole. An aspect of axiomatic design theory called large flexible system theory is applied to a small subset of the demonstrator system to create a knowledge base about the operational modes of the system. The knowledge base ensures that an operational schedule for the system can be produced that maintains the integrity of the system design.
A Community-Based Building-to-Building Strategy for Multi-Objective Energy Management of Residential Microgrids
2021 12th International Renewable Engineering Conference (IREC)
With increasing the efforts towards modernization of residential buildings and changing their fun... more With increasing the efforts towards modernization of residential buildings and changing their functionality towards more proactive players in the networks, energy management systems can be regarded as an important contributing solution. Although several approaches have been developed in the literature for energy scheduling of buildings, the effect of occupants comfort as an objective function on the decision making process and its influence on the energy exchange between dwelling units requires more investigations. This study proposes a multi-objective energy management strategy for a group of active buildings (ABs) that form a residential microgrid (RMG), making a trade-off between operational cost of community and comfort level of its occupants. A building-to-building strategy is developed which benefits from rooftop photovoltaic output to supply the RMG loads. Also, the significance of electric vehicles in helping the community to achieve its techno-economic goals is investigated, taking into account the driving behaviour of users. A mixed integer linear programming model is introduced, benefiting from lower computation time and achieving a global optimal solution. The simulation results show the necessity of considering the cost and comfort simultaneously. Besides, the effect of building collaboration and electric vehicles in achieving the community’s goal is observed.
Pervasive sensing as a mechanicsm for the effective control of CHP plant in commerical buildings
A recently completed, EPSRC-funded project researched the use of low cost, pervasive sensing to m... more A recently completed, EPSRC-funded project researched the use of low cost, pervasive sensing to monitor building environmental conditions and occupant interactions as a means to reduce the uncertainties associated with the creation of a building model for refurbishment options and smarter control appraisal. This paper gives a brief introduction to the pervasive sensing system as established within the project and describes its use to enable simulations of the multi-input, multi-output (MIMO) control of a combined heat and power (CHP) unit in a commercial building context. Within the project, data from pervasive sensing was used to calibrate a simulation model of an office building and impose occupant-related inputs at the time step level as a means to reduce modelling uncertainty. The MIMO input parameters considered include space temperatures, heat store temperatures, electricity demand and electricity tariff, while the output parameters include space heat supply, heat stored, elec...
Building Simulation Conference proceedings
Rapid global urbanisation in 21 st century results in cities consuming vast resources but also of... more Rapid global urbanisation in 21 st century results in cities consuming vast resources but also offering unique opportunities for more integrated and circular resource management. This work investigates potential benefits of urban agriculture and buildings integration through a demonstrator building (ICTA). Actual building and integrated Rooftop Greenhouse (iRTG) data demonstrate wide thermal profiles across ICTA six levels and the potential for heat exchange within the building. Calibrated model monthly results indicate reduced building heating needs resulting from iRTG inclusion. However, more modest GSHP electrical cooling reductions resulting from plant transpiration showed reversing potential which requires more in-depth analysis of underlying principles.
Data underpinning article Performance Gaps of Sustainability Features in Green Award-Winning University Buildings
The repository contains data underpinning the publication Performance Gaps of Sustainability Feat... more The repository contains data underpinning the publication Performance Gaps of Sustainability Features in Green Award-Winning University Buildings
Active Building Data
Files included in this data repository are the input of a mixed integer linear programming approa... more Files included in this data repository are the input of a mixed integer linear programming approach that is utilised to investigate the role of active building in a paper entitled ''Optimising Building-to-Building and Buildings-for-Grid Services in Residential Microgrids: A Robust Rolling Horizon Approach''<br>
Data for: A Comparative Assessment of Imputation Techniques on Measured Building Energy Data
Data in summary: 1- Building total B side: This is metered data from one of two mains busbars tha... more Data in summary: 1- Building total B side: This is metered data from one of two mains busbars that supplies all none-emergency services and HVAC equipment 2- Building total A side: This is metered data from the second of two mains busbars that supplies all emergency services including fire safety, comm rooms, emergency lighting and public announcement. It also is connected to a PV array with peak electrical supply of around 33kWe. 3-Lighting: Half hourly lighting energy consumption dataset 4- Circulating Pumps: Pump 1 is significantly influenced by the occupants. Pump 2 is independent from occupancy influence. 5- AHU: Half hourly AHU dataset 6- Lift- Half hourly lift dataset
The Role of Distributed Multi-vector Energy Assets in Economic Decarbonisation: Early Findings of a UK Demonstrator
Whole Energy Systems, 2022
Optimising Building-to-Building and Building-for-Grid Services Under Uncertainty: A Robust Rolling Horizon Approach
IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 2021
Energy systems are undergoing radical changes that have resulted in buildings being regarded as p... more Energy systems are undergoing radical changes that have resulted in buildings being regarded as proactive players with the potential to contribute positively to energy networks. This study investigates the role of active buildings (ABs) as prosumers in energy systems by introducing a building-to-building (B2B) strategy for energy exchange between residential units, as well as a building-for-grid (B4G) model by exploiting the demand flexibility of residential microgrids (RMGs). The mid-market rate mechanism is adopted to produce local market price signals at RMG level. A robust rolling horizon controller is developed for real-time energy management of a community of ABs. This control philosophy can improve the robustness of the RMG in face of real-time weather and energy price prediction errors. The proposed method is a multi-level optimisation which pursues multiple goals while making a trade-off between operational cost and occupant comfort. Finally, the repercussions of COVID-19 induced power consumption resulting from changing lifestyle and building occupancy profile is analysed by the proposed method as a case study. The results show that the proposed B2B and B4G strategy can reduce energy bills by 18.45%, while notable robust real-time control and computational efficiencies are achieved when benchmarked against conventional methods.
The decreasing cost of sensing equipment and developments in the field of data science are provid... more The decreasing cost of sensing equipment and developments in the field of data science are providing increased opportunities for the validation and enhancement of existing knowledge and solutions across many fields. With the primary aim of supporting the optimisation of domestic thermal energy use, this paper documents the early stages of the application of a data centric approach to extend the understanding of energy use at an individual property level. To facilitate this, a Semantic Web platform is designed, providing the foundation on which factors influencing thermal energy use are inferred using data reasoning techniques.
In Northern European climates, passive decarbonisation of building design has predominantly been ... more In Northern European climates, passive decarbonisation of building design has predominantly been concerned with limiting fabric U-values. Within a well-insulated fabric however the contribution of internal thermal mass and the dynamics of fabric to air heat exchange become more instrumental in achieving thermal equilibrium. Where high internal gains can also lead to overheating, energy intensive cooling retrofits can become necessary in well-insulated buildings originally designed for natural ventilation. Therefore adequate fabric insulation and internal mass are critical and if more flexible climate controls such as adaptive comfort bands are used, it is be possible to maintain thermal comfort with minimal heating and cooling duties. This work offers a set of indices on the level of insulation and internal mass that can counteract high internal gains (average and maximum aggregated gains of 29.6 W/m2 and 46.4 W/m2) in a well-insulated 5-storey office (designed to 2006 UK part L gui...
家庭用空気熱源ヒートポンプのパラメトリックモデリング【Powered by NICT】
Energy and Buildings, 2017
The decreasing cost of sensing equipment and developments in the field of data science are provid... more The decreasing cost of sensing equipment and developments in the field of data science are providing increased opportunities for the validation and enhancement of existing knowledge and solutions across many fields. With the primary aim of supporting the optimisation of domestic thermal energy use, this paper documents the early stages of the application of a data centric approach to extend the understanding of energy use at an individual property level. To facilitate this, a Semantic Web platform is designed, providing the foundation on which factors influencing thermal energy use are inferred using data reasoning techniques.
Thermo-chemical potential of absorption and desorption is highly promising to capture and use res... more Thermo-chemical potential of absorption and desorption is highly promising to capture and use residual heat at low-temperature ranges. Due to loss-free transport and storage of the captured energy potential, mediumto long distance transport and medium-term storage offer interesting potentials to utilise residual heat. As such, there is an opportunity to develop networks at scales up to district heating level which utilises thermo-chemical fluids rather than water as the main working medium. This paper will give an introduction to the technology that can provide heating, cooling and drying in one multiservice network and examine its economic dimension. The humidification/dehumidification properties of liquid desiccants and how they can be applied to the heating and cooling of residential and commercial buildings are described. In addition, the characterisation of the free-loss storage capacity of this technology is undertaken and presented in terms of how this system can employ the u...
The preliminary findings of the energy and indoor environmental performance of a Passive House dw... more The preliminary findings of the energy and indoor environmental performance of a Passive House dwelling in North East of England is presented in this paper. This dwelling is designed to comply with the Passive House Standard (certified by the International Passive House Association) which aims to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. The property benefits from advanced building fabric design and materials, PV array, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery system (MVHR) and high efficiency domestic hot water storage vessel to minimise operational carbon emissions. Power generated by the PV panel, imported grid electricity and mains gas consumption of this house are monitored by a proprietary monitoring package; and data of indoor temperature, relative humidity and resident occupancy at several different locations in the dwelling are also recorded. A computational model of this property was developed using DesignBuilder software. The model was validated using the data moni...
Building-integrated greenhouses raise energy co-benefits through active ventilation systems
Building and Environment, 2021
Performance gaps of sustainability features in green award-winning university buildings
Building and Environment, 2021
Abstract Sustainability certifications like BREEAM, LEED, and China's sustainable green build... more Abstract Sustainability certifications like BREEAM, LEED, and China's sustainable green building award certification scheme encourage installation of technologies that save mains water and grid electricity. Among these are rainwater harvesting systems, ultralow water use appliances, photovoltaic panel systems, and intelligent building management systems. In reviewing the performance of two award-winning university buildings over respective periods of sixteen and four years, we found that such systems delivered only 28–71% of their potential resource savings. These performance gaps arose from various technical and social issues (pump failures, tank leakages, poor alignment of demand and supply with limited storage, low photovoltaic panel efficiency, poor user acceptance, etc.), but the consequences were exacerbated by inadequate asset management that resulted in long system downtimes, in some cases for 2–5 years. Repair, maintenance, and upgrading expenses then combined with lower than anticipated water and electricity bill savings that ultimately meant that, for the most part, there was no prospect of earning a return on capital expenditures. Continuous monitoring of building water consumption by an external service provider was the most effective resource and cost saving solution in this study, as it required no capital expenditure, and revealed a 1640 l/h leakage, without putting high demands on the building management. In contrast, little value was obtained from 25 water-related sensors installed as part of a “building-as-a-lab” project because of inadequate post hand-over support. Robust post-commissioning operation should become a key criterion for sustainable building innovation, and this should be reflected in green awards and rating systems.
Renewable Energy, 2020
This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
Energy and Buildings, 2020
This work uses high resolution data from 130 electricity sub-meters to characterise a 12,500m 2 c... more This work uses high resolution data from 130 electricity sub-meters to characterise a 12,500m 2 commercial building as a virtual power plant (VPP) by assessing magnitude and duration of electrical loads suitable for demand response (DR). In 2018, the building had a peak hourly demand of 48 W/m 2 and its electricity consumption (183.2 kWh/m 2 /yr.) was within low to medium range of air-conditioned UK portfolio. Deferrable loads from heat pumps, air handling units, lifts, lighting, circulating pumps and dry air coolers were used to illustrate building's DR capability over a maximum duration of 4 h per DR cycle. On average, deferrable loads form 46.4% of total building electricity consumption and across a 4-hour DR cycle can be characterised as having an initial power (and stored energies) of 28 kW (401 ± 117 kWh); 109 kW (571 ±82 kWh); and finally 138 kW (625 ±18 kWh) for 100%, 41.5% and 24.6% of time respectively. Following a DR event, the HVAC ability to restore original indoor climate was found to be at least twice as fast as climatic drift during the event. A linear regression model was found to be weak in using external temperature to predict the magnitude of aggregated deferrable loads.
Energy and Buildings, 2018
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Newcastle Un... more This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Newcastle University ePrints-eprint.ncl.ac.uk Royapoor M, Antony A, Roskilly T. A review of building climate and plant controls, and a survey of industry perspectives.
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Papers by Mohammad Royapoor