Brick Schema Standardized Plug Load Control Strategies for Load Reduction: Preprint

Conference · Thu Sep 12 00:00:00 EDT 2024

OSTI ID:2446843

Chia, Keaton; Ben-Ayed, Melek; Eshwar, Suhas Hebbur; Zhang, Chi; Chen, Eric; Gu, Yizhan; Kleissl, Jan; Khurram, Adil; Wolf, Jesse; Van Sant, Amy; Trenbath, Kim

Plug loads comprise a significant percentage of commercial building energy consumption. Applying intelligent controls to turn off plug loads when unused can provide dynamic load reduction and flexibility, which are key traits of grid-interactive efficient buildings. This capability is important for equitable decarbonization as it can enable disadvantaged communities to electrify buildings without costly upgrades to electrical infrastructure. In this work, we present the effectiveness of various control strategies along with the operational lessons that informed their design. During a three-year period, we operated over 600 smart outlets in 12 university office buildings. The attached plug loads consisted primarily of printers, TVs, water dispensers, and copiers. After recording baseline power measurements for one year, we designed plug load control (PLC) strategies for each plug load type, use, and for different risk tolerance levels because PLC can potentially be disruptive to daily work. We used the Brick Schema to facilitate the management of plug load locations and other metadata. For advanced controls, we integrated the smart plugs with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems through the campus building automation system. We found static schedules to be the least disruptive and most predictable for occupants, resulting in 38% and 66% energy savings in two studies. For printers, print server-triggered PLC produced 86% savings, the highest of all strategies with minimal occupant impact. Scheduling of water dispensers and digital signage TVs produced 49% and 70% savings respectively with opportunities to improve performance with the use of HVAC occupancy data.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: University of California, San Diego
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 2446843
• Report Number(s): NREL/CP-5500-90954; MainId:92732; UUID:efc170c1-adff-4d62-b428-a2f3121c751a; MainAdminId:73699
• Conference Information: Presented at the 2024 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, 4-9 August 2024, Pacific Grove, California
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
grid interactive building
higher education
interactivity
plug load control
plug loads
smart outlet