Developing and testing an "Integrated Energy Management System" in a ski resort: The "Living Lab Madonna di Campiglio"

Nowadays, ski resorts represent an energy-intensive industry in the mountain environment. On the one hand, their energy consumptions (and costs) have greatly increased in the last 40 years, linked to growing: (I) snow production and grooming demands, facing climate change and ski season extension, (II) number of ski lifts, with a share expansion of the energy-intensive ones (e.g. gondola), (III) need of operational buildings (e.g. warehouses, workshops). On the other hand, their energy transition calls for energy efficiency improvement and renewable sources integration, to be part of cleaner energy systems with low emissions and low environmental impacts (e.g. water use). This paper describes the developing and testing of an “Integrated Energy Management System - IEMS” in the “Living Lab Madonna di Campiglio”, as part of the Interreg Alpine Space - Smart Altitude project. After a detailed characterization of the case study, this paper describes the development of the new IEMS as an integration of existing and new monitoring systems and platforms. This IEMS aims to facilitate and stimulate ski resort technicians and managers in the continuous analysis of energy, environmental and economic performance, paving the way for greater awareness and targeted interventions.