Energy Demand Observatory and Laboratory (EDOL)

我们在家中使用能源来加热，洗涤，清洁，烹饪，照明，并为娱乐，社交和互动的电器供电。能源使用对我们的健康，幸福和舒适至关重要。然而，国内能源使用也占英国碳排放量的近五分之一，在未来30年内必须降为零。家庭能源使用也是冬季高峰期需求的最大驱动力，这意味着它决定了我们需要满足这一高峰的发电容量的数量，类型和成本。目前，化石燃料经常被用来发电，以满足高峰期对电力的额外需求。如果英国要在2050年达到净零排放，符合国家法律和我们的国际承诺，我们必须减少家庭能源使用，停止使用天然气。安装热泵和隔热房屋将花费数十亿英镑，如果在英国扩大规模。与此同时，越来越多的电动汽车将在家中充电，越来越多的家庭将自己发电和储存能源。我们必须了解这些复杂和重叠的变化将如何影响英国的能源系统。使用最近的词汇，我们需要一个“跟踪和跟踪”系统来跟踪我们家中的能源使用，使我们能够了解家庭活动如何，为什么以及何时影响能源需求和相关的碳排放。来自智能电表的数据帮助我们理解这些变化，但它不足以理解不久的将来将出现的复杂情况。为了理解不断出现的新技术、政策和商业模式，我们需要更高分辨率的数据资源。英国在获取高质量能源数据及其分析方面处于世界领先地位。EDOL计划将建立在对智能电表及其通信系统的数十亿投资的基础上，并利用新兴的物联网（IoT）和人工智能创新来帮助我们了解如何以及为什么我们在家中使用能源。EDOL将开发一系列创新方法，不仅用于监测不同电器的能源消耗，还用于监测构成家庭日常生活的不同能源使用活动。然后，EDOL将建造一个2,000个家庭的天文台，代表GB人口和建筑物。EDOL将监测居住者使用的能源，他们的电器和他们的行为。从人们家中收集的所有数据都将在居住者知情同意的情况下进行。然后，数据将被匿名化，并在安全的数据门户中提供给研究人员进行分析，以帮助了解和建立更好的家庭能源需求模型。我们将对那些存在不确定、无法解释或新形式能源需求（如电动汽车智能充电）的家庭进行有针对性的“取证”监测，以丰富我们的理解。除了观察站，我们还将招募可以试用新技术、商业模式、政策和监测方法的家庭。这些EDOL现场实验室将使我们能够回答新的问题：例如，人们给电动汽车充电的时间有多灵活？或者“安装热泵是否会产生意想不到的后果，比如由于散热器温度较低而增加了衣物的滚筒干燥？”'.我们将建立几个现场实验室，并支持其他学者，政府和企业谁可能想要委托自己的。在这些实验室旁边有观测站意味着我们可以通过比较处理组（实验室）和对照组（观测站）来判断影响有多大。我们将与政府密切合作，最大限度地利用我们的数据和分析，以支持朝着净零能源系统的方向发展。我们还将通过促进安全访问我们收集的数据和我们开发的方法来支持其他研究人员。

We use energy in our homes for heating, washing, cleaning, cooking, lighting, and powering our appliances for entertaining, socialising and interacting. Energy use is essential for our health, wellbeing, and comfort. However, domestic energy use is also responsible for almost a fifth of UK carbon emissions which have to come down to zero in the next 30 years. Energy use in homes is also the biggest driver of demand during the peak winter period which means it determines the amount, type, and cost of power generation capacity we need to have available to meet this peak. Currently, fossil fuels are often used to generate electricity to meet the extra demand for electricity during peak periods.If the UK is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 in line with national laws and our international commitments, we must reduce energy use in homes and stop using natural gas. Installing heat pumps and insulating homes will cost many billions of pounds when scaled up across the UK . This will happen at the same time as more electric vehicles are being charged at home, and more homes are generating and storing their own energy. It's essential we understand how these complex and overlapping changes will affect the UK's energy system. To use recent vocabulary, we need a 'track and trace' system for energy use in our homes, enabling us to understand how, why, and when domestic activity is impacting energy demand and associated carbon emissions. The data from smart meters help us understand these changes but it isn't enough to understand the complex picture that will be emerging in the near future. To understand new technologies, policies and business models that are appearing all the time, we need a much higher resolution data resource. EDOL will provide this.The UK has led the world in access to high quality energy data and its analytics. The EDOL programme will build on the multi-billion investment in smart meters and their communication system and utilise emerging Internet of Things (IoT) and AI innovations to help us understand how and why we are using energy in the home. EDOL will develop a range of innovative methods for monitoring not only the energy consumed by different appliances, but also the different energy-using activities that make up daily life at home. EDOL will then build a 2,000-home Observatory that is representative of the GB population of people and buildings. EDOL will monitor the energy used by occupants, their appliances and their behaviours. All data collected from people's homes will be done so with the occupants' informed consent. Data will then be anonymised and provided to researchers in a secure data portal for analysis to help understand and build better models of energy demand in our homes. In sub-samples of homes with uncertain, unexplained, or novel forms of energy demand (like smart charging of electric vehicles), we will undertake targeted 'forensic' monitoring to enrich our understanding.Alongside the Observatory, we will recruit homes where new technologies, business models, policies and monitoring approaches can be trialled. These EDOL field Laboratories will allow us to answer novel questions: e.g., 'How flexible is time when people charge their electric vehicles?', or 'Does installing a heat pump have unintended consequences such as increased tumble drying of cloths due to lower radiator temperatures?'. We will build several field Laboratories and support other academics, government and business who may want to commission their own. Having the Observatory alongside these Laboratories means that we can tell how big the effects are by comparing the treatment group (Laboratory) with our control group (Observatory).We will work closely with government to maximise the benefit of our data and analysis to support progress towards a net-zero energy system. We will also support other researchers by facilitating secure access to the data we collect and the methods we have developed.