A Demand Response Implementation with Building Energy Management System

Abstract

The demand response (DR) program is one of the most promising components in the development of the Smart Grid. However, there are many challenges in practical operation to improve the existing and outdated system to comply with the DR programs. In Thailand, the major pain point of the office building owner in the DR program is the additional equipment, modification and operation cost of the existing equipment. Moreover, the sophisticated solution and control are other obstacles that need more measurements and data, and they make the operation difficult to work with. In this paper, we implemented a simple yet cost-effective hardware and software solution targeting an outdated air-conditioning system without voiding the warranty of the outdated equipment and without installing any additional measurements. In addition, the proposed operation is designed to be easy to operate under the equipment limitation and unskilled labor. More importantly, indoor temperature setpoint schedules during the DR event are forecasted with some public datasets to determine the capacity of the energy management system that can reduce the power consumption in the office building without an effect on the occupants’ comfort. To confirm the practicality of the proposed solution, the actual operation of the proposed solution can achieve the maximum power reduction at 19.80 kW (43.79% of the maximum power consumption) while keeping only 1 °C of difference from the typical room temperature (26–28 °C).