Experimental demonstration of a Smart Homes Network in Rome

Abstract

According to the European Strategy Energy Technology (SET) Plan, the resident-user engagement into the national energy strategy is pivotal to the project as it is considered to be one of the most important challenges. The Italian Minister of Economic Development and ENEA have entered into a Programme Agreement for the execution of the research and development lines of General Interest for the National Electricity System. In particular, as part of the “Development of an integrated model of the Urban Smart District” a Smart Home network experimentation has been carried out in the Centocelle district of Rome.

This project aims to develop a replicable model able to monitor energy consumption, the degree of comfort and safety in residential buildings and to transmit raw data to a higher level ICT platform where they are analysed and aggregated to provide the user and the community with a series of constructive and valuable feedback that can shed light on their usage patterns and what ought to be improved to increase their energy awareness. The heart of the system is the Energy Box (EB) that allows the control of the devices (sensors and actuators) and transforms each and every home into an active node of a smart network, which allows the user to share data and information with the outside world, as to increase the dwellings' sense of participation and belonging to the community by providing them with useful tools for new forms of interaction. In perspective, the system architecture developed in the project will also be able to transform each user from a simple consumer into an active participant in the energy market, allowing individual residences to control demand (demand-side management). Finally, the brand-new home digital infrastructure has paved the way to a series of additional services, such as assisted living and home security.