Integrated Control for Building Energy Management
EW-201255
Objective
This project will demonstrate the functionality of an intelligent Building Energy Management System (iBEMS) for providing advanced, integrated control of cooling/heating, lighting, ventilation, and plug loads in four buildings at Naval Base Ventura County, California. The approach will lead to substantial savings for the Department of Defense (DoD) by eliminating energy waste from unoccupied spaces and from uncoordinated control among different loads (HVAC, lighting), energy storage, and on-site generation resources. Moreover, the team will demonstrate dynamic demand response (DR). The iBEMS achieves savings by responding to microgrid central energy management requests, which are implemented via Boeing's Secure Distributed Operations Service Bus (OSB).
Technology Description
iBEMS is designed to enable seamless and integrated operation of individually controlled building subsystems. In addition, iBEMS implements an optimization algorithm that makes intelligent decisions for building energy management by responding to changes in weather, occupancy, and grid (or microgrid) needs. The optimization algorithm maximizes an energy objective function while taking into account system physical constraints and occupant requirements. The objective function provides for the seamless integration of energy efficiency and demand response functionality. iBEMS will be deployed on a stand-alone platform called the Siemens Smart Energy Box (SEB). The SEB can interoperate with existing building automation systems that utilize open communication protocols (BACNet, OPC, etc.) and provides an open platform for customization, thereby achieving maximal energy efficiency and dynamic demand management.
The SEB will work with the Boeing OSB to integrate central microgrid energy management, which provides common energy domain services, such as weather forecasting services and the ability to communicate/receive signals from a DR server. The SEB utilizes weather forecasts and embedded energy simulation to proactively manage energy through such strategies as natural cooling/ventilation scheduling. The DR client is implemented inside the SEB to receive DR signals from the control center. To enhance the optimization algorithms of the SEB, a dynamic building model will be developed to characterize energy use and DR potential. This model will be calibrated to specific building and occupancy conditions and, using historic and future climate data, will be able to predict DR potential at the building level on a current and day-ahead basis.
Benefits
Implementation of iBEMS at the four selected buildings at Port Hueneme is anticipated to save up to 40% of annual kilowatt-hours usage. For a typical office building, this would equate to about 5 kWh/SF annual reduction. The overall energy saving potential of DoD facilities using this building system is between 40% and 50%, with an estimated 2-5-year payback. Furthermore, the Boeing OSB is able to integrate new and legacy data systems into an iBEMS through the application of translation services to a common data model. OSB, with its multitiered, distributed architecture provides scalability, interoperability, and high availability by pushing intelligence to the periphery of the network. Once the OSB is deployed, nodes can be added incrementally with configuration and other operational changes propagating automatically across the system. Consequently, communications, data flow, and decision-making bottlenecks are minimized resulting in a highly scalable and manageable system. Addressing DoD's security protocols in this demonstration project will help reduce barriers to iBEMS implementation at other DoD installations. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2014)
Points of Contact
Principal Investigator
Dr. Yan Lu
Siemens Corporate Research
Phone: 609-734-3549
Fax: 609-734-6565
Document Types
- Fact Sheet - Brief project summary with links to related documents and points of contact.
- Final Report - Comprehensive report for every completed SERDP and ESTCP project that contains all technical results.
- Cost & Performance Report - Overview of ESTCP demonstration activities, results, and conclusions, standardized to facilitate implementation decisions.
- Technical Report - Additional interim reports, laboratory reports, demonstration reports, and technology survey reports.
- Guidance - Instructional information on technical topics such as protocols and user’s guides.
- Workshop Report - Summary of workshop discussion and findings.
- Multimedia - On demand videos, animations, and webcasts highlighting featured initiatives or technologies.
- Model/Software - Computer programs and applications available for download.
- Database - Digitally organized collection of data available to search and access.