London Business School joins award-winning consortium
Derek Bunn, Professor of Management Science and Operations, London Business School will be part of a Consortium Project awarded £3.4M (€4.7M) by the European Commission's Energy-Efficient Buildings Scheme.
The Consortium award is for a three-year project to research integrated energy systems for co-ordinating the consumption, production and storage of energy across networks of buildings.
London Business School is the only business school in the research team and will work with architects, planners and energy service companies. Professor Bunn’s work will focus on the business and economic models for linking local-level energy operations to the wholesale market.
Professor Bunn says: “With more than 40% of overall energy consumption in Europe related to the building sector and more than 70% of the building stock built before the 1970s, it is easy to understand why the EU has identified this as a priority area for innovation.
“Buildings can now be operated as active energy facilities - with advanced monitoring and control as well as renewable technologies, they can produce and store energy as well as consume. With the roll-out of smart meters and European harmonisation of intra day energy trading, the benefits for medium and large scale consumers are potentially substantial. In fact, several of our alumni are already engaged in new companies seeking to be innovative energy service providers in this area."
This competitive award was made under the European Commission's Horizon 2020's Energy-Efficient Buildings Scheme, as part of a wide EU research programme on Industrial Technologies, which emphasises areas of research and innovation with a strong industrial element. The objective is to achieve the EU Industrial policy goals, in order to boost competitiveness, create jobs and support growth in Europe. This is Professor Bunn’s second major EU Consortium Grant on this theme in the past three years.
