As part of the ongoing European initiative to evaluate and improve the smart readiness of buildings, Spain has recently completed its initial phase of Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) assessments. The evaluations, carried out by internal staff from Veolia Spain, focused on four buildings in the Valladolid region, providing valuable insights into the current state of smart technology integration in Spanish buildings.

The assessed buildings and their respective SRI scores are as follows:

Avenida de la Libertad 24, Laguna de Duero: 26.8% F

Paseo Arco de Ladrillo 91, Valladolid: 29.1% F

Paseo Arco de Ladrillo 89, Valladolid: 29.1% F

Calle de San Quirce 10, Valladolid: 48.9% E

These initial assessments reveal a range of smart readiness levels among the evaluated buildings. While three of the buildings scored in the 26–29% range, indicating significant room for improvement in smart technologies and systems, the building at Calle de San Quirce 10 in Valladolid achieved a notably higher score of 48.9%, reflecting more advanced smart features.

The variation in scores highlights the diverse state of smart technology adoption in Spanish buildings and underscores the potential for improvement across the building stock, particularly in areas such as energy efficiency, automation, and user comfort.

Veolia Spain’s role in conducting these assessments demonstrates the growing importance of smart building technologies in advancing sustainable urban development. As more buildings are evaluated and the data analyzed, valuable insights will emerge to guide future investments and policies in smart building technologies.

The SRI assessment initiative is set to continue, with plans to evaluate additional buildings across Spain. These efforts align with broader European goals to enhance building energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and improve overall building performance through smart technologies.

As the project progresses, it will be crucial to analyze the specific factors contributing to higher SRI scores and identify common areas for improvement across Spanish buildings. This information will be invaluable for building owners, policymakers, and technology providers in shaping the future of smart buildings in Spain.

A highly successful workshop focusing on the Smart Readiness Indicator took place recently in Thessaloniki, hosted by the Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) and organized by IsZEB Cluster. The event brought together key experts from the fields of energy, construction, and technology, highlighting the pilot phase of SRI implementation in Greece.

The workshop, attended by researchers, academics, energy inspectors, and market representatives, provided valuable insights into how smart buildings can leverage innovative technologies to enhance sustainability and energy efficiency. Presentations covered a range of building types and their smart readiness potential.

Keynote speaker Robert Sylvain, coordinator of the LIFE CET Cluster of CINEA, discussed smart building policies, while real-time SRI assessments and collaborative efforts across four European projects—SRI-ENACT, easySRI, Smart Square Project, and SRI2MARKET—were showcased.

The workshop’s success marked another important step in advancing smart and sustainable building practices in Greece and beyond.

Read the press release: here

The SRI-ENACT project consortium held a productive plenary meeting on 13 September in Riga, marking a key milestone as the project enters its final phase, set for completion by May 2025. Hosted by the Riga Planning Region, the meeting brought together project partners to discuss critical upcoming steps aimed at enhancing the implementation of the Smart Readiness Indicator across Europe.

Key Upcoming Activities:

• Information events across the 8 pilot countries to raise awareness and promote SRI adoption.
• Further SRI assessments of buildings using the SRI-ENACT toolkit.
• A series of training webinars for the public and future SRI Auditors.
• Two final conferences to share outcomes and project achievements.
• The second release of the SRI-ENACT decision support tool, enhancing the ability of stakeholders to apply SRI effectively.
• The training of 120 new SRI Auditors to expand expertise in smart building readiness.

As the project moves forward, it aims to bolster the adoption of sustainable and energy-efficient technologies in buildings, reinforcing the importance of smart building solutions across Europe.

Preliminary results of the SRI assessment of the first buildings in the Czech Republic

SEVEn is member of consortium of SRI-ENACT project, funded by LIFE programme. Overall objective of the project is to promote, train experts and gain experience of smart readiness indicator. One of subtasks were development of SRI Toolkit was to assess first several buildings in pilot project countries.

The first SRI assessments using project SRI Toolkit was carried by our SEVEn’s internal auditors during spring 2024. The SRI auditors assessed 5 buildings, various types, sizes, construction year and building typology: hospital building, 2 schools, family house and renovated office building.

Hospital České Budějovice, building T13 – total score 22 %, class F

The SRI assessment is the state of the hospital after the planned modernisation and reconstruction. There is central hospital heating system, there is no general AC, no cooling system. The forced ventilation system works for about 80% of building.

Family House in Trhové Sviny – total score 3.4 %, class G

The original state of family house built in 70s provided useful information on SRI assessment of the building without specific “smart” systems. Heating system uses solid fuel boiler and there is electric water heater.

Elementary school in České Budějovice – total score 47.6 %, class E

The elementary school in České Budějovice (Bezdrevská street) gained very high SRI score. The assessment covers the state of the school after the planned modernisation and reconstruction. The new system will have individual room control, ventilation system with control based on CO2 levels and automatic lighting system. The smart monitoring system will control the heating and hot water production, based on the load of the building and predictive system in the central heating system.

Elementary school Tupolevova in Prague – total score 27.1 %, class F

The elementary school in Prague 9 district (aka Tupolevka) gained “average” rating according to SEVEn’s team assessments experiences. The building does not have several modern systems, such as cooling or ventilation and lacks then the high score. The heating system has individual room control system and covers advanced predictions.

Elementary school in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm – total score 16.2 %, class G

The current state of the elementary school in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm got the rating 16.2%. The building has central heating system with natural gas boiler. There is no forced ventilation, AC or dynamic building envelope.

The first experience showed that smart readiness indicator gives added value especially for new or newly upgraded buildings. The assessments and energy audits of building in the Czech Republic were focused generally on energy consumption and renewables. The SRI adds several more domains and views on the building stock in general. The first SRI assessments showed some challenging areas where Czech buildings have low scores: the energy flexibility and energy demand services, indoor air quality reporting, maintenance planning and benchmarking and energy storage. The SRI pilot phase is however ongoing and dozens of buildings will be assessed during upcoming months.

SRI-ENACT partner in Latvia – Riga Planning Region – has started the practical assessment of smart readiness in various types of buildings

In June, the SRI-ENACT partner in Latvia – the Riga Planning Region – started the first smart readiness assessments. The assessment of the smart readiness of buildings is carried out within the framework of Work Package 4 of the Project “Pilot Evaluation of the SRI-ENACT methodology and platform,”  where it is planned to gather the practical experience of the project partners in the field of smart readiness assessment of buildings. In order to achieve it, piloting activities are carried out in the partner countries of the project, including Latvia, which mainly include practical assessments of the smart readiness of buildings.

This task includes the application of Method A for the assessment of smart readiness of buildings, using the smart readiness assessment and decision-making tools developed within the framework of the SRI-ENACT project. In total, it is planned to carry out assessments in 120 different types of buildings, both public and commercial. The assessments will be conducted by twelve trained energy specialists, who will each conduct assessments of the smart readiness of ten buildings.

In order to ensure that the activities carried out within the project are synchronized with potential investments in the future, the Riga Planning Region cooperates with the Riga Energy Agency during the development of assessments, which provides access to the buildings selected for audits and will develop a proposal for making investments in the future based on the results of the smart readiness assessments.

The energy auditors of the Riga Planning Region have determined the following basic criteria for conducting assessments:

The assessment of the smart readiness of buildings is carried out with the aim of assessing the level of automation of building engineering systems and their elements and the possibilities of effectively managing the building’s energy supply and climate control equipment. Method A is used to perform the tasks. It includes 27 smart readiness assessment services and applies to existing residential buildings and small non-residential buildings. The first 5 assessments of the smart readiness of buildings were completed in June, and recommendations were prepared for improving the smart readiness of the respective buildings. Please see below.

Building 1. Oskara Kalpaka Riga Crafts Elementary School
Address	1 Skrindu iela, Rīga, Latvia
Type of building / function	educational facility
Year of construction	1900
Floor area	4, 565 sq m
Energy efficiency class	F
SRI assessment / score	Here

Building 2. Riga Preschool Educational Facility No 11.
Address	3 Raņķa dambis, Riga, Latvia
Type of building / function	educational facility
Year of construction	1977
Floor area	2, 292 sq m
Energy efficiency class	E
SRI assessment / score	Here

Building 3. Sports arena “Arkadija”
Address	9 Kojusalas iela, Rīga, Latvia
Type of building / function	Sports facility
Year of construction	1965
Floor area	7, 213 sq m
Energy efficiency class	B
SRI assessment / score	Here

Building 4. Ostvalda Secondary School
Address	20 Dammes iela, Riga, Latvia
Type of building / function	Educational  facility
Year of construction	1974
Floor area	10, 078 sq m
Energy efficiency class	C
SRI assessment / score	Here

Building 5. Ilguciems Culture Centre
Address	27 Lidoņu iela, Riga, Latvia
Type of building / function	Cultural  facility
Year of construction	1974
Floor area	3, 441 sq m
Energy efficiency class	E
SRI assessment / score	Here

Detailed information and recommendations for each building available upon request.

Compiled by Ilgvars Francis, SRI-ENACT expert at Riga Planning region

Ilgvars.francis@rpr.gov.lv

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