Towards an integrated approach to building energy efficiency: Drivers and enablers

While electricity, gas and water can be treated as natural resources individually, they are often heavily interdependent on each other; during the stages of generation, distribution and consumption. On this basis, the paper presents the case for an integrated approach to energy management in buildings, combining water, gas and electricity. The paper discusses the rationale and drivers for such an approach and describes a generic architecture for integrated energy management in buildings. Finally, it presents a state of the art review of present and recent EU research projects, aiming to identify ICT enablers that can realise this vision.