Chairholders

Profile

Andreas Athienitis

Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
Concordia University

Chair title

NSERC/Hydro-Québec Industrial Research Chair in Optimized Operation and Energy Efficiency: Towards High Performance Buildings

Chair program

Industrial Research Chairs program

Role

Senior Industrial Research Chairholder since 2013

Summary

Buildings consume over half of Canada's electricity production, making the optimized operation and improvement of energy efficiency in buildings an important step towards reducing our use of carbon-based energy sources. Hydro-Québec and Concordia University have joined forces to establish a comprehensive research program in Optimized Building Operation and Energy Efficiency. With two additional key partners – Régulvar in integration of automation systems and CanmetENERGY in energy efficiency – the program is expected to result in significant benefits to Canada. Building on the Chairholder's recent efforts in the fields of energy efficiency, smart building operating strategies and solar buildings, new knowledge and innovative solutions will be developed to substantially enhance building performance.

The research will focus primarily on existing commercial and institutional buildings. Predictive control methodologies and strategies will be developed to reduce peak demand for electricity in conjunction with building-integrated and isolated thermal storage measures while maintaining a comfortable indoor environment. An integrated approach to building operation and energy efficiency will be followed, including building-integrated solar energy systems. The work will include application case studies that demonstrate the techniques and methodologies developed under the research program.

Dr. Athienitis is an internationally recognized researcher in solar energy and building energy systems as well as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He has led the establishment of two NSERC strategic research networks. He is currently the Scientific Director of the NSERC Smart Net-Zero Energy Buildings Strategic Network. He has received numerous awards, including an NSERC-ADRIQ (Association pour le développement de la recherche et de l'innovation du Québec) Celebrate Partnerships! Award with Hydro-Québec, Régulvar and CanmetENERGY.

Partners

• Hydro-Québec
• Régulvar
• CanmetENERGY

Contact information

Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science
Concordia University
1455 Boul. de Maisonneuve O.
Montréal, Québec
H3G1M8

Tel.: 514-8482, ext. 8791
Fax: 514-5148482424
Email: aathieni@encs.concordia.ca