Energy management for real estate - Fundamentals, methods and digital tools
Energy management for real estate - Fundamentals, methods and digital tools
This MOOC will provide you with the essential skills and knowledge to address the energy management process in real estate.
Introduction to the Sustainability series
This MOOC is part of the series on “Sustainability”, which is one of the world’s major challenges of today and tomorrow and requires multidisciplinary competences. The series provides technical knowledge on a variety of topics, such as sustainable building, energy transition, water management and food waste prevention.
See the full seriesCourse description
The figure of the Energy Manager (EM), introduced in the United States in the early 1970s, during the first oil crisis, brought to light the need to get more work out of less energy. In Italy, this figure was officially introduced by Law 308/82, but had its first strong impulse thanks to Law 10/91, aimed at implementing the National Energy Plan on the rational use of energy, energy saving and the development of renewable energy sources. More in detail, an Energy Manager is a person whose task is to manage what concerns energy within a company, a public body, or more generally a structure, verifying the energy consumption, optimising it, and promoting interventions aimed at energy efficiency and the use of renewable sources.
In such respect, the course will provide the necessary information to:
- verify consumption, through ad hoc audits or, if available, through digital models or reports produced by remote management;
- optimise consumption through the correct regulation of systems and their appropriate use from an energy point of view;
- promote energy-aware behaviour by employees and/or occupants of the facility;
- propose improvement investments, possibly improving production processes or the performance of related services.
Total workload of the course: 12 hours
This MOOC is provided by Politecnico di Milano.
This MOOC is one of the outputs of the Erasmus+ EDDIE, Education for Digitalization of Energy (No.612398-EPP-1-2019-1-ES-EPPKA2-SSA-B).
Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
Intended Learning Outcomes
By actively participating in this MOOC, you will achieve different intended learning outcomes (ILOs):
Week 1
- To identify the main role and duties of the energy manager
ESCO: energy manager
Week 2
- To know the current energy framework
ESCO: energy sector policies - To understand the structure of the energy sector
ESCO: energy sector policies - To learn how energy traded on markets is delivered to and paid by final consumers
ESCO: energy market ESCO: electricity market ESCO: domestic energy assessor - To assess the main parameters that affect the buildings energy demand
ESCO: energy assessor ESCO: domestic energy assessor ESCO: analyse energy consumption
Week 3
- To assess the energy audit of the building
ESCO: conduct energy audit - To know which are the main solution to increase the energy efficiency of the building
ESCO: energy performance of buildings ESCO: electricity consumption ESCO: energy efficiency
Week 4
- To perform a proper digital energy model of the buildings
ESCO: energy efficiency - To apply the strategies of energy efficiency into building retrofit
ESCO: energy efficiency ESCO: energy performance of buildings ESCO: carry out energy management of facilities
Prerequisites
No prerequisite knowledge is required for this course.
Activities
Over and above consulting the content, in the form of videos and other web-based resources, you will have the opportunity to discuss course topics and to share ideas with your peers in the Forum of this MOOC.
Topic outline
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In Week 1 a brief introduction about the course, highlighting the main skills of the energy manager, is provided.
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In Week 2, the fundamental about energy in buildings is discussed. More in detail, the week aims to define the main energy, regulatory and market framework in which the energy manager has to deal with. In this week, the fundamentals of building physics and technical plants are also introduced.
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In Week 3, the specific methodology to carry out the energy survey and audit as well as the available solution to improve the energy efficiency of existing buildings are treated.
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In Week 4 the general approach to face with specific digital tools are also shown and, finally, all the knowledge acquired over the weeks is applied in two exemplifying case studies.
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Assessment
Your final grade for the course will be based on the results of your answers to the graded quizzes. You have unlimited attempts at each quiz, but you must wait 5 minutes before you can try again. You will have successfully completed the course if you achieve 60% (or more) of the total course score. The maximum score possible for each quiz is given at the top of the quiz. You can see your score in the quiz on your last attempt or on the 'Grades' page.
Certificate of accomplishment
You must be registered in POK through Politecnico di Milano personal account to obtain the Certificate of Accomplishment. It will be released to anyone who successfully completed the course by achieving at least 60% of the total score in the graded quizzes and filling the final survey.
You will be able to download the Certificate of Accomplishment directly from Politecnico di Milano web services.
The Certificate of Accomplishment does not confer any academic credit, grade or degree.
Information about fees and access to materials
You can access the course completely online and absolutely free of charge.
Course faculty
Rajendra Adhikari
Teacher
Rajendra S. Adhikari is currently working as Associate Professor at the Dept. of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano. Over the years, he has been participating in various National and International research projects. His research work is mainly focused on renewable energy, energy efficiency in buildings, energy conservation and low energy technologies. He is the author and co-author of more than 90 publications including two books and scientific papers in various International/National Journals of repute and conferences/seminars. He has been the member of the editorial board of the international journal ISRN Renewable Energy (The International Scholarly Research Network Publishing). Currently he is the member of the editorial board of Energy and Power (Scientific & Academic Publishing) and Current Advances in Energy Research (American V-King Scientific Publishing).
Niccolò Aste
Teacher
Niccolò Aste, is a Full Professor of the Dept. of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering. He has been actively engaged in several National and International research activities related to energy efficiency of the built environment and to the exploitation of renewable energy sources, with particular reference to the topics of PV technology and its building integration. Over the years, he has significantly contributed to energy research and has more than 100 scientific publications including three books on the aforementioned issues and research themes. Most relevant publications and research activities deal with the building integration of innovative LSC, PV and PV/T components a well as sustainable buildings technology.
Marco Beccali
Teacher
Marco Beccali, PhD is full Professor on Building energetics and Renewable Energy Systems at the University of Palermo (Italy) and Politecnico di Milano (Dept. ABC). He received a PhD in Energy Planning in 1993. He has worked mainly on innovative systems and renewable energy applications for the built environment. In particular: solar heating and cooling systems, smart lighting systems and technologies for energy efficiency and indoor comfort in the residential sector. He also participated in and coordinated research activities of the Solar Heating and Cooling Programme of the International Energy Agency. He is the author of four books and about 250 papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings.
Filippo Bovera
Teacher
Filippo Bovera is a Researcher of the Energy Department. He is currently serving as Energy Manager of Politecnico di Milano and representing Politecnico di Milano within the Energy Working Group of RUS (Rete Università Sostenibili). He took part to several research projects dealing with the energy community paradigm, the diffusion of smart grids solutions and the management of multi-energy systems. He holds a specific expertise on policy and regulatory actions concerning electricity networks and markets.
Davide Chiaroni
Teacher
Davide Chiaroni is Full Professor of Strategy & Marketing at Politecnico di Milano, where he also chair the Circular Business Models course. His research interest is in the management of innovation, with a particular focus on circular economy, sustainability, energy management and smart ecosystems (grid, buildings, communities, cities). The results of his research are documented by an intense scientific production. Davide Chiaroni is author of two books with international editors, one with an Italian publisher and more than 200 contributions on international and national journals, edited books, and conference proceedings. He is co-founder of Energy & Strategy at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano. Energy & Strategy manages permanent observatories on renewable energies, energy efficiency and smart ecosystems to identify, analyze and discuss business models of top players in Italy.
Claudio Del Pero
Teacher
Claudio Del Pero is an Associate Professor of the Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering Department. He is actively involved in research and advisory activities related to energy efficiency of the built environment and to the exploitation of renewable energy sources, with particular reference to the topics of PV technology and distributed energy generation. Over the years he has been involved in various National and International research projects related to the exploitation of renewable energy sources, energy efficiency in the built environment and energy management. Since 2009 he cooperates with the VISPE association (Italian Volunteers for Solidarity in Emerging Countries) for the design and the construction of stand-alone photovoltaic systems for off-grid users and a field hospital in Burundi.
Dario Di Santo
Teacher
Graduated in mechanical engineering in 1998, since then Dario Di Santo has been dealing with energy efficiency and sustainability. After two years spent as a researcher at ENEA, in 2002 he joined FIRE, the Italian Federation for the Rational use of Energy, being appointed as managing director in 2007. Dario Di Santo has coordinated and worked on many projects and studies dealing with energy efficiency and renewables. Among the covered topics: energy policies, ESCOs, EPC and energy efficiency projects' financing, cogeneration, electricity supply and power quality. Over the years he also worked as consultant for many primary organisations. Dario Di Santo has also acted as expert or consultant for many primary organisations both at Italian and international level.
Fabrizio Leonforte
Teacher
Fabrizio Leonforte is an Associate Professor fellow at Department of Architecture, Built environment and Construction engineering. Starting from 2010 he has been actively involved in the field of renewable energy applications in buildings, low energy architecture and sustainable urban development, with a special focus on virtual simulation models. He has been involved in national and international research programs related to energy efficiency in new and historical buildings as well as to sustainable building design for tropical climates. He is contributor of the handbook “Sustainable building design for tropical climates – Principles and applications for eastern Africa” edited in the international program: United Nations Human Settlements (UN-HABITAT) and Guidelines for Sustainable Energy Technologies for Food utilization by EU DG ECHO. He is also co-author of several relevant publications in scientific journal on the aforementioned issues.
Contact details
If you have any enquiries about the course or if you need technical assistance please contact pok@polimi.it. For further information, see FAQ page.