The National Opportunity for Interoperability and its Benefits for a Reliable, Robust, and Future Grid Realized Through Buildings
Today, increasing numbers of intermittent generation sources (e.g., wind and photovoltaic) and new mobile intermittent loads (e.g., electric vehicles) can significantly affect traditional utility business practices and operations. At the same time, a growing number of technologies and devices, from appliances to lighting systems, are being deployed at consumer premises that have more sophisticated controls and information that remain underused for anything beyond basic building equipment operations. The intersection of these two drivers is an untapped opportunity and underused resource that, if appropriately configured and realized in open standards, can provide significant energy efficiency and commensurate savings on utility bills, enhanced and lower cost reliability to utilities, and national economic benefits in the creation of new markets, sectors, and businesses being fueled by the seamless coordination of energy and information through device and technology interoperability. Or, as the Quadrennial Energy Review puts it, “A plethora of both consumer-level and grid-level devices are either in the market, under development, or at the conceptual stage. When tied together through the information technology that is increasingly being deployed on electric utilities’ distribution grids, they can be an important enabling part of the emerging grid of the future. However, what is missing is the ability for all of these devices to coordinate and communicate their operations with the grid, and among themselves, in a common language — an open standard.” In this paper, we define interoperability as the ability to exchange actionable information between two or more systems within a home or building, or across and within organizational boundaries. Interoperability relies on the shared meaning of the exchanged information, with agreed-upon expectations and consequences, for the response to the information exchange.
- Research Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Washington, DC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Building Technologies Office (EE-5B) (Building Technologies Office Corporate)
- OSTI ID:
- 1420233
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/EE-1341; 7862
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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