Dr. Alessandro Lorenzo Palma (p), Dr. Luca La Notte

The Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI), introduced under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) III, assesses a building’s capability to use smart technologies by evaluating three key functionalities: optimising energy efficiency and operational performance, adapting to occupants’ needs, and interacting with the electricity grid to enable energy flexibility. Article 8 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/2156 allows Member States to conduct a voluntary national testing phase of the SRI. In Italy, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE), with technical support from ENEA, launched a 12-month national test phase in March 2025. This study reports the first results from selected case studies evaluated within this new technical framework developed by European Commission.
The assessments applied the official European SRI calculation sheet (version 4.5), using Method B for a full evaluation of 54 smart services across nine technical domains: Heating, Cooling, Domestic Hot Water, Ventilation, Lighting, Dynamic Building Envelope, Electricity, Electric Vehicle Charging, and Monitoring and Control. Seven impact criteria were considered, including energy efficiency, comfort, occupant information, and energy flexibility and storage. All domains were treated as mandatory to ensure comparability with other Member States’ test phases. Case studies focused on non-residential buildings (offices, educational, and healthcare facilities) with nominal thermal power above 290 kW, equipped with medium- to high-level Building Management Systems (BMS).
Results show average SRI values of around 40% for office and educational buildings, with maximum values near 45%. Performance is mainly limited by the “Grid” key functionality, which remains low due to the absence of active grid-related services despite the technical readiness of BMSs. High scores were observed in lighting and mechanical ventilation, particularly when occupancy-based controls were used. More recent buildings, constructed after 2010, achieved higher SRI scores, highlighting the positive effect of regulatory requirements for advanced building automation and control systems. These findings suggest that future improvements will rely primarily on regulatory and market developments enabling building–grid interaction.

Prof. Raffaele Miniaci, Dr. Alessio Pirola, Prof. Nicola Pontarollo, Dr. Massimiliano Carlo Pietro Rizzati (p)

The ecological transition and decarbonization agenda have brought energy poverty into sharp focus. However, despite growing policy and academic attention, consensus on its definition or measurement remains elusive. This paper proposes a novel multidimensional energy poverty index based on a fuzzy set approach (fMEPI), addressing three key principles: the multifactorial nature of energy poverty, the limitations of binary classifications, and the need for indicators computable at local scales. Drawing on administrative, census, and modelled data, the index integrates five dimensions: housing conditions and energy efficiency, residential energy consumption, financial capacity, climate conditions, and energy-related needs. Applied to the Lombardy region (Italy), results reveal that vulnerability is concentrated in mountainous and hilly areas, and that large municipalities exhibit significant intra-urban heterogeneity. The proposed methodology offers a practical tool for regional and local authorities to design and target policies against energy poverty.

Dr. Alessandro Lorenzo Palma (p)

In the recent past, new frontiers have opened up in the field of district-level energy generation and utilization, due to the promulgation of the European Renewable Energy Directive. In this work, carried out under the MASE - ENEA program agreement on Electrical System Research, we introduce the new expanded composition and operation logics of the experimental test facility S.A.P.I.EN.T.E. installed at the ENEA Casaccia Research Centre (north of Rome), in a state of continuous plant evolution. Then, we demonstrate, through initial experimental activities, and a sequent extensive experimental campaign, the advantages in terms of energy self-consumption and self-sufficiency that the use of supercapacitors can bring in the context of Renewable Energy Communities and Jointly Acting Renewable Self-Consumers.