Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Technical Report Series: Lighting and Electronics

Abstract

These definitions are for the purposes of the Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings Technical Report Series. They may be defined differently or more generally in other contexts. Grid services Services that support the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity and provide value through avoided electricity system costs (generation and/or delivery costs); this report focuses on grid services that can be provided by grid-interactive efficient buildings. Distributed energy resource (DER) A resource sited close to customers that can provide all or some of their immediate power needs and/or can be used by the utility system to either reduce demand or provide supply to satisfy the energy, capacity, or ancillary service needs of the grid. Load profile A building's load profile describes when-time of day or hour of the year-the building is consuming energy (typically used to refer to electricity consumption but can also describe on-site fuel use); load shape and load curve are often used interchangeably, but all refer to the timing of energy use. Energy efficiency Ongoing reduction in energy use to provide the same or improved level of function. Demand flexibility Capability of DERs to adjust a building's load profile across different timescales; energy flexibility and load flexibility are often used interchangeably with demand flexibility. Demand response Change in the rate of electricity consumption in response to price signals or specific requests of a grid operator. Demand-side management The modification of energy demand by customers through strategies, including energy efficiency, demand response, distributed generation, energy storage, electric vehicles, and/or time-of-use pricing structures. Grid-interactive efficient building (GEB) An energy-efficient building that uses smart technologies and on-site DERs to provide demand flexibility while co-optimizing for energy cost, grid services, and occupant needs and preferences in a continuous and integrated way. Smart technologies for energy management Advanced controls, sensors, models, and analytics used to manage DERs. GEBs are characterized by their use of these technologies. This report analyzes connected lighting systems and consumer electronics/IT equipment technologies, as outlined in Table ES-1. All lighting technologies are assumed to be lighting-emitting diode (LED) or organic LED (OLED) technologies. These technologies are analyzed in two separate sections and the evaluations are not meant to be comparable to each other or other building technologies. Table ES-1. Connected Lighting and Consumer Electronics/IT Equipment Technologies Technologies Description Connected Lighting Advanced Sensors and Controls Connected lighting systems utilizing advanced controls and algorithms to automatically modulate lighting levels or potentially other power-consuming lighting features (e.g., spectrum, reduced sensor or network communication interface power) in response to external grid/pricing signals. Hybrid Daylight Solid-State Lighting (SSL) Systems Connecte...

Towards active buildings: Rating grid-servicing buildings

“…In the US, the Department of Energy is supporting the research of “Grid-interactive Efficient Buildings” to explore opportunities and identify potential market sizes (Table 1 and Supplemental Material). 14 , 64 , 66–68 These are but illustrative estimates because the local features of networks, policy, regulations and economic schemes will ultimately influence value streams.…”

Opaque Envelopes: Pathway to Building Energy Efficiency and Demand Flexibility: Key to a Low-Carbon, Sustainable Future

“…To help inform the building research community, BTO has published a series of technical reports that discuss its GEB strategy and evaluate opportunities for demand flexibility from buildings [4,86,87,88,89]. The Overview of Research Challenges and Gaps report [86] serves as an introduction to these technical reports and is intended to provide background on core concepts related to the GEB strategy.…”

Assessing the performance of global thermostat adjustment in commercial buildings for load shifting demand response

“…In recent years, considerable research effort has been devoted to investigating the potential of commercial building heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for providing flexibility in the form of a variety of grid services [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. The United States Department of Energy Building Technologies Office released a series of reports in 2019-2021 [11][12][13][14][15][16] on the development of grid-interactive efficient buildings (GEBs), laying a roadmap for improving connectivity and communication capabilities of buildings to better manage building comfort, while simultaneously providing grid services. Commercial buildings consume nearly 37% of electricity generated in the United States [17] and, while traditionally passive consumers of energy, they offer great potential to provide flexibility to the power grid through demand response (DR), which is defined as a change in electricity consumption by the consumer in response to a price signal or a command by the grid operator [11].…”