Two-Stage Multi-Objective Meta-Heuristics for Environmental and Cost-Optimal Energy Refurbishment at District Level

Energy efficiency and environmental performance optimization at the district level are following an upward trend mostly triggered by minimizing the Global Warming Potential (GWP) to 20% by 2020 and 40% by 2030 settled by the European Union (EU) compared with 1990 levels. This paper advances over the state of the art by proposing two novel multi-objective algorithms, named Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II) and Multi-Objective Harmony Search (MOHS), aimed at achieving cost-effective energy refurbishment scenarios and allowing at district level the decision-making procedure. This challenge is not trivial since the optimisation process must provide feasible solutions for a simultaneous environmental and economic assessment at district scale taking into consideration highly demanding real-based constraints regarding district and buildings’ specific requirements. Consequently, in this paper, a two-stage optimization methodology is proposed in order to reduce the energy demand and fossil fuel consumption with an affordable investment cost at building level and minimize the total payback time while minimizing the GWP at district level. Aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed two-stage multi-objective approaches, this work presents simulation results at two real district case studies in Donostia-San Sebastian (Spain) for which up to a 30% of reduction of GWP at district level is obtained for a Payback Time (PT) of 2–3 years.Part of this work has been developed from results obtained during the H2020 “Optimised Energy Efficient Design Platform for Refurbishment at District Level” (OptEEmAL) project, Grant No. 680676

El proceso de recuperación del euskera a través de la enseñanza : 1976-1988

A través del artículo se analiza el proceso de recuperación del euskera a través del estudio de dos fuentes de información: la euskaldunización y alfabetización mediante la escolarización (ikastolas) y la euskaldunización y alfabetización de adultos (AEK y HABE). Las conclusiones nos indican que Iparralde presenta mayor número de euskaldunes en las capas adultas y menos porcentaje de chavales. Navarra señala un ligero ascenso en las capas bajas, mientras que Euskadi presenta un mayor número de euskaldunes en las capas extremas. El movimiento de las ikastolas nace en Donostia-San Sebastián, en el curso de 1960-1961. En diez años, la población escolarizada pasa de 22.846 a 51.364 en el curso 1988-1989. Analiza a continuación la evolución de los puestos escolares en la enseñanza en Euskal Herri

Stream Learning in Energy IoT Systems: A Case Study in Combined Cycle Power Plants

The prediction of electrical power produced in combined cycle power plants is a key challenge in the electrical power and energy systems field. This power production can vary depending on environmental variables, such as temperature, pressure, and humidity. Thus, the business problem is how to predict the power production as a function of these environmental conditions, in order to maximize the profit. The research community has solved this problem by applying Machine Learning techniques, and has managed to reduce the computational and time costs in comparison with the traditional thermodynamical analysis. Until now, this challenge has been tackled from a batch learning perspective, in which data is assumed to be at rest, and where models do not continuously integrate new information into already constructed models. We present an approach closer to the Big Data and Internet of Things paradigms, in which data are continuously arriving and where models learn incrementally, achieving significant enhancements in terms of data processing (time, memory and computational costs), and obtaining competitive performances. This work compares and examines the hourly electrical power prediction of several streaming regressors, and discusses about the best technique in terms of time processing and predictive performance to be applied on this streaming scenario.This work has been partially supported by the EU project iDev40. This project has received funding from the ECSEL Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 783163. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and Austria, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Romania. It has also been supported by the Basque Government (Spain) through the project VIRTUAL (KK-2018/00096), and by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (Grant Ref. TIN2017-85887-C2-2-P)

Evaluating the Effect of Different Base Temperatures to Calculate Degree-Days

Degree-days are used as a forecasting tool to predict energy demand and for normalizing energy consumption to be able to compare between different properties across different years. The base temperature is the main aspect to accurately calculate degree-days. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of different base temperatures and their impact on the correlation between energy consumption and degree-days. The base temperature was selected as the standard 15 °C for the region, the balance temperature calculated with dynamic building simulations and the thermostat temperature setting as collected by questionnaires. The methodology followed is based on the analysis of 20 properties located in the cities of Bilbao, San Sebastian and Vitoria in northern Spain. The properties are a combination of flats and houses, from different construction periods, tenancies, occupancy and sizes. This study had highlighted the effect and impact of selecting different base temperatures for the calculation of degree-days and the correlation between energy consumption and degree-days. While the use of the balance temperature as base temperature could generate very good correlation, they were not so dissimilar from using the standard 15 °C base temperature to justify the amount of extra work required to generate the balance temperature. The use of the thermostat setting as an indication of the base temperature was not as reliable as the other base temperature methods in generating a good correlation to explain the energy consumption on the 20 properties investigated in this study

Positive Energy District (PED) Selected Projects Assessment, Study towards the Development of Further PEDs

Positive Energy District (PED) is a relatively new concept from which many projects are planned, however, only a few cases are currently close to be materialized, therefore, in this study the PED projects in operation and in implementation process in existing districts are gathered in order to serve as a base for future PEDs. In this sense, certain points of each selected project are highlighted due to their relevance within the project development and their replicability potential. Furthermore, intending to learn from the experience of the assessed case-studies, this paper aims to understand the current situation regarding PED implementation to simplify the development of further PEDs.The authors thank the Department of Architecture and the Vicerrectorate for Research of the University of the Basque County UPV/EHU for the financial support given for this researc

A Systematic Literature Review of Quantum Computing for Routing Problems

Quantum Computing is drawing a significant attention from the current scientific community. The potential advantages offered by this revolutionary paradigm has led to an upsurge of scientific production in different fields such as economics, industry, or logistics. The main purpose of this paper is to collect, organize and systematically examine the literature published so far on the application of Quantum Computing to routing problems. To do this, we embrace the well-established procedure named as Systematic Literature Review. Specifically, we provide a unified, self-contained, and end-to-end review of 18 years of research (from 2004 to 2021) in the intersection of Quantum Computing and routing problems through the analysis of 53 different papers. Several interesting conclusions have been drawn from this analysis, which has been formulated to give a comprehensive summary of the current state of the art by providing answers related to the most recurrent type of study (practical or theoretical), preferred solving approaches (dedicated or hybrid), detected open challenges or most used Quantum Computing device, among others

Environmental and Economic Prioritization of Building Energy Refurbishment Strategies with Life-Cycle Approach

An increasing number of studies apply life-cycle assessment methodology to assess the impact of a new building or to prioritize between different building refurbishment strategies. Among the different hypotheses to consider during the application of this methodology, the selection of the impact indicator is critical, as this choice will completely change the interpretation of the results. This article proposes applying four indicators that allow analysing the results of a refurbishment project of a residential building with the life-cycle approach: non-renewable primary energy use reduction (NRPER), net energy ratio (NER), internal rate of return (IRR), and life-cycle payback (LC-PB). The combination of environmental and economic indicators when evaluating the results has allowed to prioritize among the different strategies defined for this case study. Furthermore, an extensive sensitivity assessment reflects the high uncertainty of some of the parameters and their high influence on the final results. To this end, new hypotheses related to the following parameters have been considered: reference service life of the building, estimated service life of material, operational energy use, conversion factor, energy price, and inflation rate. The results show that the NRPE use reduction value could vary up to −44%. The variation of the other indicators is also very relevant, reaching variation rates such as 100% in the NER, 450% in the IRR, and 300% in the LC-PB. Finally, the results allow to define the type of input or hypothesis that influences each indicator the most, which is relevant when calibrating the prioritization process for the refurbishment strategy

Geroa EPSV: una experiencia única en previsión social sectorial

La previsión complementaria debe generalizarse y alcanzar a todos los segmentos de población, no sólo a aquellos que tienen capacidad de ahorro. La generalización es posible por la implementación en los convenios colectivos sectoriales de la previsión complementaria. Es necesario el apoyo gubernamental en el proceso y en el diseño de una previsión complementaría adecuada a las necesidades y fines de la población.En 1996 se constituye en Gípuzkoa, de común acuerdo entre patronal y sindicatos, GERQA EPSV un instrumento que en base a la negociación colectiva, permitirá en un futuro complementar las pensiones públicas hasta un 2000. En la actualidad, mas de 140.000 trabajadores y 8.000 empresas de Gípuzkoa realizan aportaciones a GEROA EPSV Desde Enero de 2001, GEROA EPSI' complementa en mayor medida las prestaciones de invalidez y las derivadas del fallecimiento del socio en activo

Status of implementation of emerging techniques for the measurement of soil moisture and hydrological processes (SHP)

Este trabajo revisa las técnicas para la estimación de la humedad del suelo (HS) y los procesos hidrológicos del suelo (PHS), poniendo el énfasis en la implantación de las técnicas emergentes tales como, los sensores remotos, las redes de observación, la ciencia ciudadana y las ciberinfraestructuras. Se discuten tres aspectos clave para mejorar el modelado hidrológico a escala de cuenca: (a) mejorar la compresión de los PHS de la Zona No Saturada (ZNS) a escala de pedón y su transferencia a modelos de cuenca, (b) la generación de dato de calidad a través de las técnicas emergentes y la integración de la información a diferentes escalas y (c) mejorar la accesibilidad a la información, capacidad de procesamiento e integración de la información en las plataformas de gestión de los recursos hídricos (RRHH). Está demostrado que las propiedades del suelo a escala de pedón tienen su impacto en las sequías severas y las inundaciones a escala cuenca, así como, en la retroalimentación climática a escala regional. En este trabajo se revisan las herramientas que actualmente son utilizadas para la mejor caracterización de los PHS a escala local, tales como, las funciones de pedotransferencia, la modelización inversa y la evaluación de los modelos de flujo mediante datos observados reales. También se analizan diferentes métodos que han sido utilizados empleando el modelado inverso para la validación de los modelos hidrológicos a escala cuenca. Se revisan las limitaciones temporales y espaciales de las redes de monitoreo y sensores remotos para la estimación de la HS, así como las desviaciones de los resultados de las mediciones de la HS según la geomorfología del terreno, las propiedades del suelo y la cobertura vegetal. Aunque actualmente la ciencia ciudadana es una técnica incipiente para la estimación de la HS, se mencionan los retos y las debilidades aportadas por el proyecto GROW de la Unión Europea (UE) y otros en curso. En este trabajo se mencionan los centros de adquisición de datos hidrológicos y las redes de observación actuales, se discute la necesidad de realizar esfuerzos para aumentar e integrar las redes de monitoreo in situ y facilitar el acceso a una información fiable y de calidad. Por último, se discute sobre el horizonte de la gestión de los RRHH a escala cuenca basada en los modelos que generan pronósticos hidrológicos y los llamados gemelos digitales orientados a los modelos hidrológicos. Estos últimos están experimentando un gran desarrollo que actualmente tienen como objetivo integrar las técnicas emergentes, el modelado del sistema terrestre de alta resolución, el modelado hidrológico, la inteligencia artificial y las tecnologías de la información.Máster Universitario en Hidrología y Gestión de los Recursos Hídricos (M174