Mntsnow
02-04-2004, 7:17 AM
Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have completed the first successful test to evaluate automated demand response at five large building facilities. Demand-response technology manages electrical use in the buildings over the internet, whenever high prices, blackouts, or overloaded electrical demand threaten the power grid.
"This is the first test of fully automated demand response in multiple large buildings to reduce electricity consumption with two-way internet-based communications," said principal investigator Mary Ann Piette of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.
"We used a fictitious electricity price to trigger the demand-response event over the internet, which is an example of what might be used in the future; no one touched any control systems during our test," said Piette. "When an XML signal broadcast over the internet indicated that the price of electricity hit 30 cents per hour, the buildings automatically began to lower demand by reducing lights, air conditioning, and other activities. Two-way communications were used to observe that each site was listening to the price signal. When the internet indicated that the price had reached 75 cents an hour, the buildings automatically took additional preplanned actions to further reduce electrical demand."
Read more (http://www.ccnmag.com/index.php?nav=headlines&id=2269)
"This is the first test of fully automated demand response in multiple large buildings to reduce electricity consumption with two-way internet-based communications," said principal investigator Mary Ann Piette of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division.
"We used a fictitious electricity price to trigger the demand-response event over the internet, which is an example of what might be used in the future; no one touched any control systems during our test," said Piette. "When an XML signal broadcast over the internet indicated that the price of electricity hit 30 cents per hour, the buildings automatically began to lower demand by reducing lights, air conditioning, and other activities. Two-way communications were used to observe that each site was listening to the price signal. When the internet indicated that the price had reached 75 cents an hour, the buildings automatically took additional preplanned actions to further reduce electrical demand."
Read more (http://www.ccnmag.com/index.php?nav=headlines&id=2269)