Energy Demand Observatory and Laboratory (EDOL)

我们在家里使用能源来取暖、洗衣、清洁、做饭、照明，以及为娱乐、社交和互动的电器供电。能源的使用对我们的健康、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年内必须降至零。家庭能源使用也是冬季高峰期间需求的最大驱动因素，这意味着它决定了我们需要拥有的发电能力的数量、类型和成本，以满足这个高峰。目前，化石燃料经常用于发电，以满足高峰时期对电力的额外需求。如果英国要按照国家法律和国际承诺，到2050年实现净零排放，我们必须减少家庭能源使用，停止使用天然气。如果在全英国推广，安装热泵和隔热房屋将耗资数十亿英镑。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而重叠的变化将如何影响英国的能源系统。用最近的词汇来说，我们需要一个家庭能源使用的“跟踪和追踪”系统，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了解这些变化，但这还不足以理解在不久的将来会出现的复杂情况。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。EDOL将提供这一点。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计划将以数十亿美元的智能电表及其通信系统投资为基础，利用新兴的物联网（IoT）和人工智能创新，帮助我们了解我们如何以及为什么在家庭中使用能源。EDOL将开发一系列创新方法，不仅监测不同电器消耗的能源，还监测构成家庭日常生活的不同能源使用活动。然后，EDOL将建立一个2000个家庭的天文台，代表英国人口和建筑物。EDOL将监测居住者使用的能源、他们的电器和他们的行为。所有从人们家中收集的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，并通过安全的数据门户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。在具有不确定、无法解释或新型能源需求形式（如电动汽车的智能充电）的家庭子样本中，我们将进行有针对性的“法医”监测，以丰富我们的理解。与天文台一起，我们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一些新颖的问题：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降低而增加了衣物的滚筒干燥？”我们将建立几个实地实验室，并支持其他想要委托他们自己的学者、政府和企业。有观察站在这些实验室旁边，意味着我们可以通过比较治疗组（实验室）和对照组（观察站）来判断效果有多大。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，支持向净零能源系统迈进。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.