Daniel J SaitDon Dulchinos, Director at the OpenADR Alliance, argues the future of power is evolving fast in the world of smart buildings and homes.
When we think of grid-interactive buildings, large industrial and commercial buildings were the pioneers in utilising smart technologies and connected systems to optimise energy use and save operating costs by interacting with the electricity grid. These were large electrical loads that were valuable for the purposes of demand response programs.
Now we’re seeing a new generation of grid-interactive buildings that are helping transform energy management and deliver greater energy flexibility. Importantly, they actively contribute to balancing the supply and demand of energy, reducing strain on the grid, and in turn reduce energy expenses and therefor increase profitability for building managers.
These ‘intelligent’ buildings – mostly commercial but residential as well – can adapt energy use dynamically. Instead of playing a passive role in drawing down energy, they reduce demand when the grid is under stress, particularly during peak demand.
Growth in grid resources
By storing and drawing power from different distributed energy resources, buildings treat electric appliances as potential grid resources.
What we are seeing now is a new generation of building energy management companies broadening awareness of the value of grid interaction for buildings of all types and sizes. This awareness then heightens the appreciation of industry standards like OpenADR as a means of efficiently communicating the value of these buildings as distributed energy resources.
Inside the building, there can be heating, ventilation air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) appliances, lighting and water heating. Add in other energy resources such as rooftop solar panels and small-scale wind turbines, and increasingly, heat pumps. Battery storage capacity is also on the rise in the UK, with 22,000 batteries installed in the past year, together with over a million electric vehicle charging systems – and that’s just in homes and doesn’t include industrial or light commercial buildings.
All of these serve both as demand response resources, but also as sources of excess power. Together this constitutes a virtual power plant (VPP), one that offers an alternative to traditional approaches, by drawing on the capacity of the energy sources available of offer energy flexibility to both operators and customers.
Now smart buildings and connected homes are not new; we’ve been talking about them for a few years. But advances in grid connectivity and standards, and more recently, the integration of AI for smart automation, have seen these developments accelerate. What we’re now seeing are more use cases where grid-interactive buildings are enabling the localisation, generation and consumption of energy, while working around the bottlenecks in the distribution network.
Standards drive innovation
As an industry alliance promoting the adoption of communication standards like OpenADR for utilities, we are seeing innovation in action with an increase in companies developing HVAC products, EV charging systems, solar manufacturers – and building energy management systems. Several companies in this category have obtained certification in the past year.
The adoption of new technologies and new resources is driving progress with the potential to unlock other benefits. Standards play a crucial role in driving this innovation, particularly in enabling efficient demand response within energy management systems.
But governments, policymakers and regulatory bodies must support this by mandating standards. This is happening more and more in the UK, across Europe and further afield.
In the US, the CTA-2045 specification (the certified version EcoPort) enables smart appliances and devices to connect directly to building energy management systems (commercial and residential) through a universal port.
Interoperability like this promotes flexibility and adaptive energy consumption across appliances, playing a crucial role in encouraging energy users to adopt greener practices. Any EcoPort-certified control module, when plugged into an appliance or building energy management system, can reliably establish communications that meet the requirements of the CTA-2045 standard.
Installation of standards-based water heaters and other appliances is simplified, and interconnection to meet regulatory guidance will be a key factor in growing the building energy management system business.
The UK has published two standards in 2021 – PAS 1878 and PAS 1879 – setting out the requirements for energy smart appliances. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) led the development of PAS 1878, incorporating the OpenADR standard as one of the criteria that an electrical appliance must meet to perform and be classified as an ESA. PAS 1879, on the other hand, addresses the demand side response operation of these appliances.
DESNZ has also emphasised the significance of innovation in smart technologies in their ambitions to reach net zero by 2050 – and the role standards will play in driving this transformation. The government’s Flexibility Innovation Program is also contributing to this effort by supporting innovative solutions, including the development of ESA for the delivery of interoperable demand side response as part of its program.
The range of products, systems and solutions is set to be a major contributor to the next generation of grid-interactive buildings.