Energy efficiency has established itself as one of the key pillars for business competitiveness, sustainability and the transition to a low-carbon economic model. However, in many cases, the true potential for improvement remains unused. The reason is not usually a lack of technology, but rather the difficulty of transforming large volumes of heterogeneous data into useful knowledge for decision-making.
In this context, at CARTIF we are developing a tool aimed at facilitating the deployment of smart energy services, capable of responding to one of today´s major challenges: interporability between energy systems, data and applications.
Today´s challenge: many energy data, little actionable knowledge
Terciary buildings, industrial installations, thermal grids, urban infrastructures or productive processes has today multiple sensors, control systems, monitoring platforms and digital tools. Sectors such as:
- Manufacturing industry
- Agrifood sector
- Buildings and heritage management
- Nergy and thermal infrastructures
- Municipal and urban services
already generate a huge amount of information related to energy consumption, asset status and operating conditions.
The problem is that this data is often fragmented, stored in silos, with different data models, and without a common layer that allows it to be exploited jointly. As a result, many companies remain stuck in mere monitoring, without making the leap to advanced evaluation, prediction or optimization.
A platform to habilitate smart energy services
Our tool, INTER-SEI, was created with a clear purpose: not to be just another energy management platform, but rather an interpoerable and replicable environment that relies on standards tobuild a unique and reliable model for accessing energy information. In this way, the platform explicitly avoids dependence on imposed building management systems (BMS) or fixed supplier ecosystems, ensuring its applicability in various types of buildings and ownership models.
Its main objective is to act as a enabling platform, capable of:
- Collect data on energy assets and systems in buildings, factories or networks.
- Integrate information from external sources, both static and dynamic (weather, energy prices, network signals, etc.).
- Process and refine information to generate high-quality “unique data.”
- Store data in a contextualized and semantically enriched manner.
- Make this information universally and securely available to different services and applications.
On this common basis, advanced energy services can be deployed, supported by both traditional artificial intelligence algorithms and more recent approaches, aimed at covering the entire M.E.P.O. cycle:
- Monitoring
- Evaluation
- Prediction
- Optimization
Innovation in energy efficiency: a driver of business competitiveness
Beyond specific technological solutions, innovation in energy efficiency has become a strategic factor for companies that want to be more competitive in increasingly demanding markets. In a world where energy represents a significant proportion of operating costs and where sustainability is part of the expectations of customers, investors, and regulators, adopting innovative approaches can make the difference between leading or falling behind.
A recent example of how innovation in energy efficiency can have a real impact on buildings can be found in the projects we are developing together with VEOLIA Servicios LECAM, aimed at improving energy performance through digitization and the deployment of smart services based on the SRI (Smart Readiness Indicator).
¿? Did you know….
SRI (Smart Readiness Indicator): is a European measurement system that assesses the capacity of a building or its technical systems to optimize energy efficiency, adapt to user needs, and adjust to the characteristics of the electrical grid.
These projects focus on addressing one of the major challenges facing the building sector: how to improve the energy efficiency and decarbonization of existing buildings without necessarily resorting to large investments in equipment renovation, relying instead on the advanced use of data, smart control, and digital models. These actions are fully aligned with the objectives of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), which promotes increasingly smart, connected, and adaptive buildings.
The solution implemented is based on the development and validation of a repository of smart energy services that are highly replicable and supported by cyber-physical systems (IoT), digital twins, and artificial intelligence. These services optimize the operation of the building’s energy systems, such as air conditioning, renewable generation, storage, and demand management, anticipating the real needs of users and the behavior of the building itself.
By integrating data from existing systems, IoT platforms, and digital building models, it is possible to deploy advanced energy control and management strategies without altering the physical infrastructure, acting primarily on the building’s digital layer. The use of digital twins also makes it possible to simulate scenarios, validate decisions, and adjust algorithms before applying them in the real environment, reducing risks and improving the effectiveness of actions.
The expected results confirm the potential of this approach. In residential buildings, an average improvement in the SRI of more than 35% is expected, reflecting a significant increase in the building’s intelligence level. In terms of energy, primary energy savings of 140.4 MWh per year are estimated, along with a 13% increase in the use of renewable energies. These improvements will translate into a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of around 25.8 tons of CO₂ equivalent per year and an average annual saving of €14,000 on energy bills.
140.4MWh savings per year
+13% use of renewable energies
-25.8 tons of CO2
Saving 14,000€/year
This success story aims to demonstrate that the combination of digitization, artificial intelligence, and data-driven energy services can transform building energy management, turning technological innovation into measurable results. Experiences such as the one being developed with VEOLIA Servicios LECAM show that energy efficiency, when supported by interoperable platforms and smart approaches, becomes a real lever for competitiveness, sustainability, and resilience in the building sector.
Borja Fernández and Susana Martín
Borja Fernández, Director of Business Development for Energy and Susana Martín, head of Energy Efficiency area.
More about energy efficiency…
- Energy efficiency based on data: interoperable platforms for buildings and industry - 6 February 2026
- Overcoming the Digital Tower of Babel: Interoperability, a key element for the obtention of Intelligent and Connected Buildings - 4 October 2024
- SOS Planet eart: challenges and solutions through the decarbonization of the construction sector - 19 November 2021