Development of an energy digital twin from a hotel supervision system using building energy modelling

In this work, the utilization of the supervision system of a five-story hotel located in Northern Italy as tool to calibrate and validate a building energy model (BEM) is evaluated. The BEM is created using the TRNSYS simulation environment with the aim to develop a digital twin, to study the energy consumption of the building-HVAC system. The procedure for the supervision system preparation and the data analysis procedure is presented. The digital twin is then used to compare two control strategies for the thermostats’ control during summer to increase the energy efficiency of the building-HVAC system, and to use the heat storage properties of the building envelope to shift and shave the peaks of power demands. Control rules that allow a better match between electrical energy demand and availability, developed, and tested using the BEM, are pursued with the final goal to prepare the inclusion of the hotel in a smart grid. The building is modelled using TRNSYS Type 56 as a multi-zone building, with 96 thermal zones while the building monitoring is performed during the summer season from June to October 2022.