Preface

This book contains the proceedings of the first International Workshop on Infor-
mation Technology for Energy Applications (IT4ENERGY) held in September
6th and 7th 2012 in Lisbon, Portugal. The goal of this workshop is to establish
itself as an impacting discussion forum on the topic of Information Technology
for Energy Applications and be the first of a series of events on the subject.
    Information technology for energy applications is growing in relevance as we
assist to an upsurge of interest in energy management systems within homes, in
buildings as well as in commercial and industrial facilities. These systems will
have the ability to (i) coordinate production with consumption in scenarios of
demand variability, (ii) integrating data from multiple sources and (iii) assist-
ing users in the decision-making process as well as (iv) intelligently managing
equipment and devices on behalf of the user.
    Developing IT-based energy applications is a challenging multidisciplinary
effort that often requires bringing together distinct engineering disciplines (e.g.,
Mechanical, Electric and Computer Engineering). We believe that Computer
Science will play a critical role as catalyst toward creating a homogeneous body
of knowledge regarding information technology for Energy Management. There-
fore, this workshop brings together specialists from academia with different back-
grounds spanning Mechanical, Electrical Engineering as well as Computer Sci-
ence; Industry experts active in the fields of Energy, IT, Building Automation
and Facilities Management.
    Several topics were discussed in this event, namely: Software for energy ap-
plications; Data mining and decision support techniques for energy data; Models
and techniques for energy consumption forecasting; Descriptions and characteri-
zations of energy consumption patterns; Integration of energy data; Energy data
visualization; Sensor networks, metering and energy data acquisition; Interop-
erability solutions including middleware and protocols for energy applications;
Demand-side management; Home and building automation applications to en-
ergy; Energy-efficient control techniques; and Intelligent load control.
    This event also aims at establishing linking bonds between industry and
academia to disseminate know-how and generate economic value regarding this
highly relevant subject. Therefore, in this event researchers have an opportu-
nity to present their work and engage in stimulation discussions with peers from
different backgrounds, while industry practitioners have the opportunity to dis-
cuss relevant issues with specialists. Moreover, students have an opportunity to
collect positive and constructive feed-back from a diversified panel.
    The first IT4Energy workshop is organized by Professional Association Or-
dem dos Engenheiros. Being the first of a series of annual events, we were hon-
oured with the presence of Prof. G. Kumar Venayagamoorthy as keynote speaker,
a world renowned specialist in Smart Grids with a talk entitled: “Intelligent Scal-
able Monitoring and Control Technologies for Smart Micro-Grids and Grids”.
The event was organized and promoted by Ordem dos Engenheiros, CITI re-
search center at FCT/UNL and INESC-ID research center at IST/UTL.
    The event counted with the attendance of the successful rounded figure of
70 participants, 9 high quality full papers (out of 20 submissions) and 9 short
papers. The first day of the event was dedicated to 8 tutorial sessions and on its
second day to research papers organized into 4 presentation sessions on the sub-
jects of Smart Grids, Energy Consumption Profiling, Energy Data Management
and Intelligent Load Control.
    This workshop would not have been possible without the help of many ded-
icated people. We would like firstly to thank the authors for choosing to submit
to this workshop. Secondly, we wish to acknowledge our Programme Committee
and the additional reviewers for their diligence. Thirdly, we would like to thank
the organizing institutions whose support by several means has been crucial for
the success of this event. Our final word of thanks IEEE Student Section for
their enthusiastic support in developing the web site and the event logo.


September, 2012                                                   Paulo Carreira
Lisbon                                                             Vasco Amaral