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DECODER: Digitalization for Energy-Efficiency Through Commissioning and Decarbonization Retrofits

Summary

Buildings account for 53% of Canada's electrical energy use, and decarbonizing them at scale requires innovative solutions. While many building owners have set ambitious decarbonization goals, they need roadmaps that consider both operational and retrofit constraints from economic and carbon life-cycle perspectives.

This project aims to create an integrated tool to support and monitor decarbonization planning across building portfolios. The DECODER (Digitalization for Energy efficiency through COmmissioning and DEcarbonization Retrofits) platform will use cognitive digital twin (CDT) technology to acquire and process building data, supporting decision-making at both building and portfolio scales.

The platform will include two components: Building DECODER, which uses predictive models to optimize energy use and identify promising retrofits, and Portfolio DECODER, which evaluates multiple buildings and retrofit scenarios to prioritize measures. This scalable tool will reduce the effort needed to implement decarbonization strategies, driving significant energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions across large building portfolios.

Key details

Principal investigator Jenn McArthur, Toronto Metropolitan University
Co-principal investigators Manar Amayri, Concordia University 
Nizar Bouguila, Concordia University  
Ursula Eicker, Concordia University  
Yann-Gaël Guéhéneuc, Concordia University  
Mazdak Nik-Bakht, Concordia University  
Sumin Song, Concordia University
Research collaborators Seungjae Lee, University of Toronto  
Marin Litoiu, York University  
Manos Papagelis, York University  
John Simpson-Porco, University of Toronto 
Areas of Research Modelling and Design Technologies, Monitoring Technologies, Control, Systems, and Access Technologies, Construction-related Technologies, Building and Building Envelope Technologies, Digital Twins, Smart & Ongoing Commissioning, Public Policy and Governance of Energy or Energy-related Technologies, Knowledge Mobilization of Decarbonization and Electrification Processes, Organizational technology adoption and digital system socialization
Non-academic partners NRC, NRCan, Service de la gestion et la planification des immeubles (SGPI), Concordia University - PLAN/NET ZERO, NextGen Cities Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University, Sustainability Office, University of Toronto, Unity Health Toronto (UHT), RYCOM/Ainsworth, Schneider Electric

Get in touch with the Volt-Age team

volt-age@concordia.ca

Volt-Age is funded by the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF)

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