Project Description
Buildings manage urban energy
The student residence complex GreenHouse in the Seestadt Aspern district of Vienna, with 313 apartments covering 7,000 sqm, consumes, controls and trades its energy requirements completely automatically, and also plays a flexible role in stabilising the power grid. This student residence has been built according to the passive house standard. The building’s electricity comes from photovoltaic panels mounted on the roof. The heating and hot water requirements are sourced from district heating. If 20% of the buildings in Vienna were equipped with the same energy management system used here, this could result in annual profits of EUR 30 million.
Project details
An intelligent building energy management system (BEMS) was developed in the course of the Aspern Smart City Research ASCR research project. This energy-based innovation is now being tested at the GreenHouse development. The first successful energy transactions performed using the energy pool manager highlight the market potential of this concept for Vienna.

“The solutions tested during the ASCR project are the key to our future energy system and offer enormous potential. If 20 percent of buildings in Vienna were equipped with ASCR technology, annual profits of EUR 30 million could be generated. That’s what our initial calculations predict. This would allow energy to be used efficiently, CO2-neutrally and profitably in the interests of climate protection, the city and its inhabitants.”
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