This study provides a detailed exploration of how innovation management and digital entrepreneurship models can help transform technical use cases in smart grid contexts into viable business cases, thereby bridging the gap between technical potential and market application in the field of energy informatics. It focuses on the I-GReta project Use Cases (UCs). The study employs methodologies like Use Case Analysis, Portfolio Mapping of Innovation Level, Innovation Readiness Level, and the Tech Solution Business Model Canvas (TSBMC) to analyse and transition from technical use cases to viable business cases. This approach aligns technological solutions with market demands and regulatory frameworks, leveraging digital entrepreneurship models to navigate market challenges and foster energy management, sustainability, and digitalization.

This study tests a novel contribution model inspired by "From Business Model to Contribution Model" through four industry cases to transition towards a sustainable contribution model fostering value co-creation within ecosystems. The framework includes triple-bottom-line value propositions, networked collaboration, comprehensive value-capturing, and clear organizational purpose. Diverse sectors (food, buildings, manufacturing, automotive) are analyzed within this contribution model framework. Applying the contribution model to real-world cases yields empirical data and practical insights, highlighting its potential for positive industry change and ecosystem resilience enhancement. This research advances comprehension of sustainable business models, urging organizations to prioritize sustainable practices, value co-creation, and ecosystem resilience. It establishes a basis for further exploration, encouraging organizations to prioritize sustainable business practices, value co-creation, and ecosystem resilience.

This research focuses on the development of a digital twin for a residential building using a synthesised data approach. The methodology involves five stages, with three of them dedicated to simulating different energy scenarios: actual energy consumption, passive house level consumption, and consumption after the implementation of smart building technology. The selected building is located at the Chalmers Technical University campus in Sweden. Synthesised data is used to simulate the energy demand of the building before and after renovation, as well as after the implementation of smart building technology. A custom agent-based simulation model is developed to simulate the impact of residents’ behaviours on the building’s energy consumption, and high-resolution data was analysed and synthesised to create a new dataset that was applied to the selected buildings. Finally, the results of the simulations were analysed and compared to assess the potential energy savings and improved energy performance achieved through the implementation of different scenarios. The study provides insights into the energy-efficiency of different measures for reducing energy consumption in residential buildings. The study provides insights into the energy-efficiency of different measures for reducing energy consumption in residential buildings. This research shows the potential of using synthesised data to assess and forecast changes in building stock transformation, even when real data are not available.

Energy Management Systems (EMSs) play a vital role in managing energy consumption for both utilities and consumers. By using EMSs, utilities can influence on energy usage and ensure a more reliable and efficient grid operation, while consumers can make informed decisions about their energy consumption, leading to significant cost savings and reduced environmental impact. In this paper, a real-time rolling-horizon model is developed for managing energy consumption in public laundries aiming at minimizing energy costs, peak demand, and CO2 emission under the traditional Energy-Based Tariff (EBT) and the Power-Based Tariff (PBT). The developed model can not only reduce energy costs, peak demand, and CO2 emission by optimal task scheduling for washing machines and tumble dryers but also ensure users' preferences for a comfortable lifestyle. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed EMS, several simulations were performed under different scenarios using real data and by a realistic case study in HSB living lab demonstration site. The simulation results reveal that implementing the proposed EMS can significantly decrease energy costs and peak demand in public laundries by 13.59% and 39.40%, respectively, when using the PBT tariff. However, the reduction in energy costs and peak demand is negligible when using the EBT tariff. Likewise, the results indicate that using the EMS and changing tariffs have a minimal impact on CO2 emissions reduction.

A successful business is increasingly concerned with comprehending the challenges and opportunities associated with society's shift towards sustainability. However, current business model innovation fails to embrace the sustainability dimensions sufficiently. Many organizations lack a process that allows them generate entirely new and viable alternatives for business models. Sustainable development and its three-dimensional framework significantly impact most businesses' re-organization. The complexity of balancing the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of sustainable development signals the need for a new business model. In this conceptual paper, the authors discuss possible transitioning from the business model to the contribution model, where the value ecosystem and value exchange plays a defining role.

This chapter summarizes the important knowledge of open innovation (OI), Design Thinking (DT), and living labs (LL). It highlights the need for collaboration and co-creation among stakeholders from different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to co-generate new business opportunities. The role of users in the innovation process is emphasized, with the concept of user-driven innovation and participatory design being crucial. The authors also introduce two case studies, iHomeLab and KTH Live-in-Lab, as examples of living labs and field tests that enable testing of innovative technologies and methods in real environments. The feasibility of innovation in human, technical, and economic domains is highlighted, and the potential of technology, data security, ethics, and new processes for enhancing innovation capabilities is mentioned. Overall, the chapter sets the stage for discussing the importance of openness, collaboration, and user-centric approaches in the future of innovation.

In the scientific literature and in practice, quite a lot of attention is paid to the actors’ network analysis in living labs. Still, there is a lack of studies on value exchange between different actors in living laboratories. This study selected the distributed structure of the actors’ network in living lab since most European residential laboratories function according to this model. In the course of this exploratory study, we conducted two workshops: the first with participants from several European residential laboratories to discuss and co-design a framework for analyzing the exchange of value between different stakeholders, and the second workshop—case study, where the proposed framework was applied on the actors network of the existed living laboratory—KTH Live-in-Lab. As a result, we got a detailed picture of the network of actors and value exchange within the value co-creation model for KTH Live-in-Lab (Smart Home Services project).

This exploratory study analyses the daily activities of the end-user in terms of assessing the potential for conserving direct and indirect energy. In the course of the study, a socio-technological system approach was applied, which made it possible to combine the methods of analysis and interaction of the social group (students) and technical infrastructure (living laboratory). The method of creating personas was also applied to segregate a large group of the population within one segment. This approach allowed us to consider in more detail the different types of behavior in the same segment. As a result, we got more personalized strategies for changing a behavior tailored for each individual persona. In conclusion, a recommendation was given on which policies implications and to which organizations to address.

The purpose of this study is to synthesize the widely used theories about co-creation from two main perspectives: co-creation as an innovation process and co-creation as a design process applied to the service concept design in the built environment context. The architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry do not have much application of end-user-oriented service design in general, especially with intensive co-creation processes. To facilitate such a process, we are using a living lab environment as a laboratorial model of the real built environment, but with the opportunity to have access to the end-users and different types of stakeholders. Using the KTH Live-in-Lab explorative case study, we were able to discuss the concept of co-creation by distinguishing between co-creation as innovation and co-creation as a design process, facilitating the process of co-creation of service concepts for the proposed built environment including methods from both perspectives: innovation and design, and evaluating the process of service concepts co-creation for the built environment from the point of innovation, knowledge transfer, sustainability, and user experience.

Today’s commercially-off-the-shelf (COST) wearable devices can unobtrusively capture several important parameters that may be used to measure the indoor comfort of building occupants, including ambient air temperature, relative humidity, skin temperature, perspiration rate, and heart rate. These data could be used not only for improving personal wellbeing, but for adjusting a better indoor environment condition. In this study, we have focused specifically on the sleeping phase. The main purpose of this work was to use the data from wearable devices and smart meters to improve the sleep quality of residents living at KTH Live-in-Lab. The wearable device we used was the OURA ring which specializes in sleep monitoring. In general, the data quality showed good potential for the modelling phase. For the modelling phase, we had to make some choices, such as the programming language and the AI algorithm, that was the best fit for our project. First, it aims to make personal physiological data related studies more transparent. Secondly, the tenants will have a better sleep quality in their everyday life if they have an accurate prediction of the sleeping scores and ability to adjust the built environment. Additionally, using knowledge about end users can help the building owners to design better building systems and services related to the end-user’s wellbeing.

The building use stage offers the opportunity to provide valuable and sustainable product-service systems (PSS) that enhance the buildings' value for the end-users. Many of them are delivered by networks of stakeholders that actively involve small and medium enterprises (SMEs). We have combined an existing literature review with the multiple stakeholders' feedback to identify several problems and define the main hypothesis: diverse and presented in a structural way information about PSS can contribute to a better understanding of the added value by multiple stakeholders. We have co-created a list of criteria, which were formed into the sustainability multi-criteria framework. The proposed framework also supplements PSS-specific criteria, such as PSS type, PSS collaborative partnership networks type, and PSS integration type. A list of findings related to the topic was declared to help further develop the study, such as the correlations between PSS-related and PSS sustainability-oriented criteria.

End use energy services have an important role in the ongoing energy transition process by improving the value proposition to the customer through better needs fulfillment and experience and providing system value to the energy system. This study presents a framework for end use energy services, developed as a result of co-creation with multiple stakeholders for a case study in a living lab context. The framework has been co-created using the principles of systems thinking to identify and map both existing and emerging elements and interactions within the energy system and customers. The framework is organized to include aspects from energy system and human system perspectives and divides the energy services development process into three distinct stages. The development stages comprise the strategic planning stage, service design stage, and solution stage. Key considerations are provided for each stage to develop a clearer understanding of the overall end use energy service process.

The concept of sustainable buildings includes not only technological aspects related to energy efficiency and resources usage optimization, but also aspects related to end-users' comfort, wellbeing, and everyday needs support. To understand the end-users' life activities in general and their preferences in particular, is necessary to enrich standard Building Management Systems (BMS) with human-generated and personal data. In this conceptual paper, we present an end-user context information management framework, which includes a reasoning layer, an acquisition layer, and a dissemination layer. The proposed framework is currently implemented in the KTH Live-in-Lab - a fully equipped testbed for research and innovation in the build environment.