by Brianna Crandall — February 28, 2020 — Global sustainable building technology society ASHRAE recently announced the release of its Smart Grid Application Guide: Integrating Facilities with the Electric Grid.
Created as part of 2018-19 ASHRAE President Sheila J. Hayter’s presidential initiative, the Smart Grid Application Guide provides building owners, managers and designers with guidance on the smart grid, applicable smart grid standards and regulations, as well as the design and operation of systems in this emerging industry.
Hayter stated:
Harnessing the opportunities smart grid systems provide for creating more flexible and dynamic building systems is an integral part of our new energy future. This guide was specifically designed to help building professionals navigate the steps needed to prepare a building for the smart grid.
Both the Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) and the OpenADR Alliance were heavily involved in working with ASHRAE on the development of the guide.
According to Steven Bushby, Fellow ASHRAE, chair of the guide’s ad hoc committee and leader of the Mechanical Systems and Controls Group of the Energy and Environment Division of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory:
The transformation to a smart grid has already begun. The Smart Grid Application Guide is a resource to help building professionals understand what is happening during this transformation and the opportunities they can take advantage of now and in the future.
The guide details the concrete steps needed to prepare a building — whether new construction or renovation — for integration with the smart grid.
It covers a wide variety of topics, including:
- Navigating regulatory environments that affect deployment of the smart grid
- Strategies to accrue benefits
- Utility bill savings and potential revenue streams
- Behind-the-meter distributed energy resources
- Demand-side management
- Customer aggregation for demand response
- Considerations for single- and multiple facility design and operations
- Microgrids
- Meeting building needs during interruptions to grid services
- Constraints on deployment options
The Smart Grid Application Guide is available for purchase online from the ASHRAE Bookstore.
Founded in 1894, ASHRAE is a global professional society committed to serve humanity by advancing the arts and sciences of heating ventilation, air-conditioning, refrigeration and their allied fields.
The Smart Electric Power Alliance (SEPA) is dedicated to helping electric power stakeholders address the most pressing issues they encounter as they pursue the transition to a clean and modern electric future and a carbon-free energy system by 2050. SEPA provides education, research, standards, and collaboration to help utilities, electric customers, and other industry players.
The OpenADR Alliance is a nonprofit corporation created to foster the development, adoption and compliance of the OpenADR standard. It helps utilities manage the growing pool of customer sited DERs, which include renewable energy, energy storage, DSM assets, and EVSEs. The OpenADR standard supports secure communications to certified systems to manage changes in load shape, energy inputs and power characteristics.
