The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020 - 20

Feature

THE FUTURE OF RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSUMPTION: Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings

Transforming Vision into Reality
The GEB vision heavily depends on various aspects
of innovative control and automation technology.
The development of interoperability standards for
buildings and their systems is key to achieving the
transformation of the vision into reality. One higherlevel interoperability gap that has received recent
attention is the need for standard semantic models of
buildings and their systems. A semantic model is an
overarching description of entities in a building, their
capabilities, and their relationships to one another. With
better interoperability, control systems can use smart
sensors and actuators capable of self-documenting
for communication with other building systems with
minimal intervention. It would enable a control system
to adapt from building to building and achieve expertfree commissioning, lowering installation costs. Standard
semantic models allow applications such as advanced
control, monitoring, and maintenance to automatically
configure themselves to different buildings, allowing
them to scale. Ideally, semantic models would also
support interoperability between applications across
different stages in the building life cycle from planning,
design, and architecture, engineering, and construction
to commissioning, maintenance, and operations.
GEB design depends on innovative predictive control
algorithms for buildings. The algorithms should adapt to
occupant/operator preferences, grid needs, changing
weather conditions, and operational uncertainties. They
should also proactively manage energy use ahead
of time to accomplish the energy efficiency, demand
flexibility, and occupant comfort goals of the buildings
and DERs. They should be robust to uncertainties rising
from sensing limitations, sensor measurement error,
modeling errors, and weather and occupancy forecasts.
These needs call for disruptive innovation in control
technology that encapsulates the features mentioned
above and is interpretable, scalable, and low-cost.
When buildings become critical grid assets, cybersecurity
will become paramount. No longer will the security of
building automation systems impact only the building
and its occupants, but will also be a critical part of
the electric grid. Recent investigations suggest that
malware, phishing scams, or ransomware have targeted
nearly 40% of building management system servers

THE BRIDGE

[16]. Even without malicious attacks, the increasing
complexity of smart building integrations increases the
likelihood of disruptions and system failures due to
faulty patches, user errors, and poor maintenance. If not
adequately addressed, these threats could significantly
slow the deployment of high-value connected
technologies and future energy efficiency gains. As we
realize the benefits of the GEB vision, we must also be
cognizant of the risks and actively mitigate them.
BTO's GEB strategy aims to optimize energy use across
DERs to advance the role of buildings in energy system
operations and planning. The GEB strategy supports
broader goals, including greater affordability, resilience,
sustainability, and reliability; however, the concept of
GEBs is nascent, and the research needs are quickly
evolving. While many benefits and impacts have been
defined, the full impact on the grid, buildings, and
building occupants is still unknown. The central research
needs include technologies and strategies, such as
those described above, that allow for enhancing energy
efficiency and demand flexibility and can ultimately
lead to a fully optimized and integrated approach to
demand-side management in buildings.
References
[1] EIA (U.S. Energy Information Administration). 2019. Annual
Energy Outlook 2019. "Reference Case Simulations."
Washington, D.C.: EIA. https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/
[2] Nadel, S. 2017. Electricity Consumption and Peak Demand
Scenarios for the Southeastern United States. Washington D.C.:
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. Report
U1704. https://www.aceee.org/sites/default/files/publications/
researchreports/u1704.pdf
[3] Neukomm, Monica, Nubbe, Valerie, and Fares, Robert. 2019.
Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings Technical Report Series:
Overview of Research Challenges and Gaps. Washington, D.C.:
DOE. DOE/GO-102019-5227. https://www.nrel.gov/docs/
fy20osti/75470.pdf
[4] Fernandez, N. E., Katipamula, S., Wang, W., Xie, Y., Zhao, M., and
Corbin, C. D. 2017. Impacts of commercial building controls
on energy savings and peak load reduction. Richland, WA:
Pacific Northwest National Lab. No. PNNL-25985. https://
buildingretuning.pnnl.gov/publications/PNNL-25985.pdf
[5] Kiliccote, S., Olsen, D., Sohn, M. D., and Piette, M. A. 2016.
"Characterization of demand response in the commercial,
industrial, and residential sectors in the United States." Wiley
Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, 5, no. 3:
288-304.
[6] Roth, Amir, and Reyna, Janet. 2019. Grid-Interactive Efficient
Buildings Technical Report Series: Whole-Building Controls,
Sensors, Modeling, and Analytics. Washington, D.C.: DOE. DOE/
GO-102019-5230. https://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/
pdfs/75478.pdf

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/ihpbc/153/ https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/ https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/05/f74/bto-pnnl-29813-securing-buildings-cyber-threats-051420.pdf https://www.aceee.org/sites/default/files/publications/researchreports/u1704.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/05/f74/bto-pnnl-29813-securing-buildings-cyber-threats-051420.pdf https://www.aceee.org/sites/default/files/publications/researchreports/u1704.pdf https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2020/05/f74/bto-pnnl-29813-securing-buildings-cyber-threats-051420.pdf https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy20osti/75470.pdf https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy20osti/75470.pdf https://buildingretuning.pnnl.gov/publications/PNNL-25985.pdf https://buildingretuning.pnnl.gov/publications/PNNL-25985.pdf https://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/pdfs/75478.pdf https://www1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/pdfs/75478.pdf https://hkn.ieee.org/ https://hkn.ieee.org/

The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020