Case study report for monitoring project – Aalto University New Campus Complex, Otaniemi (Espoo)

This report is part of the work within IEA HPT Annex 52 - Long-term performance monitoring of GSHP systems for commercial, institutional and multi-family buildings, with project period January 1st 2018 to December 31st 2021. Annex 52 Operating Agent is Sweden.
Annex 52 aims to survey and create a library of quality long-term measurements of GSHP system performance for commercial, institutional and multi-family buildings. While previous work will be surveyed, the emphasis of the annex is on recent and current measurements. The annex also aims to refine and extend current methodology to better characterize GSHP system performance serving commercial, institutional and multi-family buildings with the full range of features shown on the market, and to provide a set of benchmarks for comparisons of such GSHP systems around the world.
The results from the annex will help building owners, designers and technicians evaluate, compare and optimize GSHP systems. It will also provide useful guidance to manufacturers of instrumentation and GSHP system components, and developers of tools for monitoring, controlling and fault detection/ diagnosis. This will lead to energy and cost savings.
Aalto New Campus Complex (ANCC) was selected as a Finnish case study. It is a large-scale application of GSHP-BTES in Espoo, in Southern Finland, comprising roughly 23 kilometers of boreholes and around 4 million m3 of energy storage. The heating installations of ANCC operate at low temperature between 25 and 45 °C, thus taking advantage of higher GSHP efficiency. In cooling installations space cooling is provided at higher temperatures close to 20 °C by radiant ceiling panels, thus enhancing the potential of BTES free cooling.
ANCC, operated by Aalto University Campus Real Estates (ACRE), was taken into full use in June 2019. The use of BTES field was activated already during the construction phase of ANCC in March 2018. It is noteworthy to notice that the case study property has been in abnormal use due to warranty period of construction until the end of 2020 and due to ongoing COVID 19 pandemic situation. The above factors have undeniable impact on the performance of the system and the results obtained. Despite the challenges, the case study has provided valuable new expertise in analyzing the operation of a complex system.
The research was done in collaboration with Aalto University and Geological Survey of Finland (GTK). Research team greatly appreciates ACRE for making it possible to conduct this monitoring study and its staff for assistance received during the study. Thanks are also given to the ANCC automation system supplier Assemblin Ltd. for the expert support related to measurement arrangements and measurement data transmission.
The work that has led to this report has been partly funded by Business Finland, through Smart Otaniemi innovation ecosystem project.