Impact of Connected Communities

Technical Report · Tue Aug 03 04:00:00 EDT 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1814286· OSTI ID:1814286

Buckberry, Heather ^[1]; Kuruganti, Teja ^[1]; Winstead, Christopher ^[1]; Munk, Jeffrey ^[1]; Zandi, Helia ^[1]; Hill, Justin M. ^[2]

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1. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
2. Southern Company Services, Inc., Atlanta, GA (United States)

Buildings account for 35% of CO₂ emissions and almost 40% of the United States’ energy use. High-performance homes and neighborhoods play an important role in supporting efforts to decarbonize the US power system by 2035. Significant reductions in CO₂ emissions within the residential sector can be realized through electrification of loads paired with the flexibility created by leveraging smart Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities to shift energy use based on grid signals, thus improving generation/distribution efficiency and maximizing the use of renewable generation capacity. All of this can be achieved while allowing smart home appliances and equipment to meet homeowner needs – including reducing power bills - while optimizing operation in conjunction with the grid using novel control techniques. The Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Roadmap by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Building Technologies Office (BTO) notes that implementing grid-interactive efficient building (GEB) technology has the potential to reduce CO₂ emissions by 80 million tons/year—roughly equivalent to 17 million cars. To achieve this vision, the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)—in collaboration with Southern Company Research & Development, Alabama Power, Georgia Power, BTO and the US DOE’s Office of Electricity (OE) —is developing and demonstrating novel connected communities at two locations. Southern Company in turn engaged with industry partners, including design firms, residential developers, and residential HVAC and appliance manufacturers because their participation would be critical to the success of the initial research project, as well as the future scaling to the Southern Company service territory and beyond. Impacts of the Connected Communities projects in Alabama and Georgia are outlined including: energy, grid services and data management learnings; homeowner feedback; vendor engagement; adoption by utilities; technical, policy and business model challenges.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1814286
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-2021/2102
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES