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Politecnico di Milano

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.

If you are a PoliMI student or staff member you have to log in using your Person Code. This is the only way to prove your participation in this course for official recognition.

Course 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).

Eddie Logo

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.

Information about fees and access to materials

The course is delivered in online mode and is available free of charge.

Course materials will remain available to all enrolled users after the end of the current edition, so they can return to content later. The current course edition will be followed by a new one just after its end.

Learning schedule

The course is structured into 4 Weeks:

  • Week 1 – Introduction to the course
  • Week 2 – Energy framework and Buildings foundamentals
  • Week 3 – Energy management in buildings
  • Week 4 – Practical applications

In the first week a brief introduction about the course, highlighting the main skills of the energy manager, is provided. After that, the fundamental about energy in buildings is discussed in the second week. More in detail, the week aims to define the main energy, regulatory and market framework in which the energy manager has to deal with. Within the same week, the fundamentals of building physics and technical plants are also introduced. During 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. In the last week, 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.

Intended Learning Outcomes

By actively participating in this MOOC, you will achieve different intended learning outcomes (ILOs):

Week 1

  1. To identify the main role and duties of the energy manager
    ESCO: energy manager

Week 2

  1. To know the current energy framework
    ESCO: energy sector policies
  2. To understand the structure of the energy sector
    ESCO: energy sector policies
  3. 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
  4. To assess the main parameters that affect the buildings energy demand
    ESCO: energy assessor ESCO: domestic energy assessor ESCO: analyse energy consumption

Week 3

  1. To assess the energy audit of the building
    ESCO: conduct energy audit
  2. 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

  1. To perform a proper digital energy model of the buildings
    ESCO: energy efficiency
  2. 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.

Assessment

The final grade for the course is based on results from your responses to the quizzes you will find at the end of each week (weekly quizzes). You will successfully complete the course if you reach 60% (or more) of the total score by the end of the edition. The course’s total score will be calculated by averaging the scores of the assessed quizzes for each individual week.

Certificate of Accomplishment

The Certificate of Accomplishment will be released to anyone who successfully completed the course by achieving at least 60% of the total score in the assessed quizzes. You will be able to download the Certificate of Accomplishment directly from the website.

Once you have successfully passed the course, you can request the Certificate of Accomplishment without waiting for the end of the edition.

The Certificate of Accomplishment does not confer any academic credit, grade or degree.

European Qualifications Framework Level

EQF Level 7

Thematic area (ISCED-F classification)

07 Engineering, manufacturing and construction

Discussion forum

The forum of this MOOC is freely accessible and participation is not guided; you can use it to compare yourself with other participants, or to discuss course contents with them.

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.

Course Faculty

Rajendra Adhikari

Rajendra Adhikari

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

Niccolò Aste

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

Marco Beccali

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

Filippo Bovera

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

Davide Chiaroni

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

Claudio Del Pero

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

Dario Di Santo

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

Fabrizio Leonforte

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.

Creative Commons License
This course is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License except where otherwise specified.

  1. Classes Start

    Oct 16, 2023
  2. Classes End

    Apr 07, 2024
  3. Length

    4 weeks
  4. Estimated Effort

    2-3 hours/week
  5. Language

    English
  6. Course Number

    EMRE101
  7. MOOCs For Professionals
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