Buildings constitute a vast, yet currently untapped, source of energy demand flexibility that can provide invaluable services to the energy system. This flexibility currently remains unattainable due to the lack of a technological framework that can connect the multitude of buildings and building systems with the energy system in a cost-effective manner as well as the reluctance of energy consumers to enroll in demand response programs. DRIMPAC offers a comprehensive solution to empower consumer to become active participants in the energy markets. It comprises three main pillars: a) A legacy and Standards-compliant interoperability framework to interconnect building energy loads/appliances and expose their demand flexibility as price-responsive demand to the grid or for market actors to aggregate and bid in ancillary service markets. b) A human-centric, intelligent building energy management system that will lift the burden of demand response from the consumers shoulders and reduce reluctance and fear of participation in DR programs. It will infer user comfort preferences and dynamically control building loads to minimize energy cost and use for the building occupant leveraging dynamic prices, while always preserving comfortable and healthy indoor conditions. c) Innovative business models and service offering for energy retailers in order to facilitate their transformation from commodity suppliers to digital energy service suppliers and kick-start the deployment of the DRIMPAC solution in the market. The DRIMPAC technological framework and business models will be validated by four retailers supplying three energy carriers – electricity, natural gas and district heating – in four different national markets across the EU - France, Cyprus, Germany and Spain. Pilot demonstrations will take place in a range of building types, including residential, office, educational and others, in order to validate the DRIMPAC benefits across most building typologies.

Utilities are facing political pressure to reduce the energy end use by their customers and GHG emissions. Consumers, on the other hand, are empowered by the proliferation of IT interfaces and multiplication of channels. Their expectations for everything-anytime-anywhere interaction are redefining the nature of (energy) services. The advent of smart building technologies for energy efficiency reveal a mega-trend on the evolution of consumer choices and highlight the need for addressing their requirements for user-friendly, meaningful and actionable communication. Faced with these realities, business as usual is no longer an option for energy utilities. They must seek new sources of revenues by introducing bundled building energy management service packages including energy efficiency, smart controls and automation. The UtilitEE project will provide a customer-oriented Behavioural Change Framework (Energy-as-a-Service delivery approach via an open ICT ecosystem integrated into the building with off-the-shelf sensors). It focuses on discovering, quantifying and revealing energy-hungry activities and conveys meaningful feedback to engage users into a continuous process of learning and improvement. UtilitEE will leverage well-known behavioural models/ theories and standardized operational rating/ certification methods. It will also incorporate human-centric intelligent control features that use occupant comfort profiles and supportively control HVAC and lights so as to minimize energy waste, while always keeping occupants comfortable and preserving a healthy indoor environment. The framework will be validated in real-life conditions by a large population of residential and commercial consumers and aims to reduce energy use by ~30%. Validation activities will also explore future business models and go-to-market strategies for utilities. A holistic roadmap and business plan for the exploitation and replication of project results will be delivered.