Public Power - November/December 2007 - (Page 37)

Power requirements on the electric grid are in constant flux, based on the demand of the devices connected to it. Demand varies, based on time of day, weather and other factors. note that these modifications are both temporary and dynamic (changing from hour to hour in response to pricing and reliability information). On the technology side, there are three types of demand-response programs. One is manual demand-response. This is performed manually by facilities staff, who physically adjust or shut down electric equipment after receiving notifications of an upcoming demand-response event. These notifications can come by phone, fax, pagers, text messages, and e-mail messages. LBNL’s Demand Response Research Center is not a fan of manual demand-response, due to its cost, inefficiency and slow response. “Historically, people have been doing demand-response manually, but research shows that this typically is not consistent or cost-effective,” said Piette. “You actually send people walking around turning off light switches, or a building operator has to go to a certain location to hit a control system button.” The second type, semi-automated demand-response, reduces the facilities staff labor by using a centralized control system with pre-programmed demand-response www.APPAnet.org strategies. The third, fully automated demand-response, enables event initiation signals, which are remotely generated via Internet communication, to control loads directly or to initiate pre-programmed demand-response strategies at the site. Fully automated demand-response facilitates the quick, automatic reduction of energy use in commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and homes in response to a rising cost of power, or an emergency on the electric grid. “This is where our focus is,” said Piette. Many electric utilities across the United States have implemented programs that offer financial incentives to customers who agree to make their electric loads more responsive to pricing and/or reliability information. These sometimes informal, less structured demand-response programs are most prevalent for commercial and industrial customers in regions with known capacity or transmission constraints. But implementing formal demand-response faces at least two challenges. First, according to the Demand Response Research Center, recent studies have shown that customers have limited knowledge of how to develop and implement demand-response control strategies in their facilities. Second, there is a shortage of available systems designed to automate the short-term modifications or strategies that are required during formal demand-response events. California is on a mission to tackle these challenges. In 2004, the California Energy Commission provided $8 million of funding for three years for the creation and operation of the Demand Response Research Center at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “Our center was created by the state to help conduct research that would help to move demand-response into the market,” said Piette. The commission’s goal is to encourage utilities to develop programs to involve customers in demand-response. Since 2003, the Demand Response Research Center has been involved in a number of fully automated demand-re- sponse projects. One of the most successful of these focuses on automating the response in commercial buildings. To date, the requisite technology has been implemented in 60 buildings over the last four summers. The first phase of the project involved 18 sites encompassing 36 buildings. Results were encouraging. The individual buildings reduced demand for electricity by between 5 and 30 percent, with average demand reductions of 11, 24 and 16 percent, respectively, during the three hours of the test. Similar projects continue to occur, Piette said. Demand-response is not intended to be a stand-alone solution to energy challenges. Rather it should be part of an overall energy efficiency strategy that includes conservation and efficient technologies. Piette sees two issues on the horizon, which can be viewed both as challenges and opportunities. The first: “These days, to introduce automated demand-response technology, we have to retrofit buildings with communications devices,” she said. The Demand Response Research Center wants to incorporate automation technology into the state’s building code, so every new commercial building and every new home will have control systems that can listen to these Internet signals. Then, on hot summer days, the demand-response will occur without human intervention, she said. “The cost will definitely go down when we can embed this technology into the controls in the future.” The second issue, now under review, is whether the prices will vary. Right now, according to Piette, most customers play flat prices. A kilowatt-hour of electricity costs the same on a very hot summer day as on a mild summer day. “This will likely change in the future,” she said. Dynamic pricing will result in greater price response, she said. ❚ William Atkinson is a writer in Carterville, Ill., and a regular contributor to Public Power. For more information on California‘s Demand Response Research Center, go to: http://drrc.lbl.gov. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2007 37 http://drrc.lbl.gov http://www.APPAnet.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Public Power - November/December 2007

Public Power - November/December 2007 Contents Washington Focus 10 Questions Connecting with the Customer Through Automation AMR or AMI? The High Court’s Antitrust Thunderbolts California’s Push for Demand-Response Plug-In Partners Get Plugged In Wiring Up for Double-Digit Growth For Engineers Safety Community Broadband For Governing Boards DEED Customer Service Hometown Connections Index to Advertisers Parting shot

Public Power - November/December 2007

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