ATLANTA — A new ASHRAE Learning Institute (ALI) course, Building Demand Response and the Coming Smart Grid, addresses new technologies and design concepts to help lead the way to how buildings and their systems will interact with the coming smart grid. The course is part of the ALI fall online series.

“Peak demand management and response are becoming more important in building systems and their control,” said Tom Lawrence, course instructor. “While demand management may not have much impact on the individual building total energy use, it may well be an effective tool for cost savings on electric utility bills. It also is vital for overall societal energy and environmental management. Thus, the considerations go beyond just one building’s energy cost and utilization.”

Demand response is the process a building, industry, or residential electric consumer would use to reduce electricity use during peak demand periods on the electric grid. Lawrence pointed out out that examples for demand response measures include changing set points for building air conditioning or chilled water systems, reduction in unnecessary lighting, selectively shutting off plug loads not currently in use, etc.

Lawrence also noted that ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2011, Standard for the Design of High-Performance, Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings, includes a requirement that the building be designed to have the capability of reducing peak electrical demand through active controls or other load-shifting measures by 10 percent of the building’s projected peak demand. Similar requirements or incentives for demand response management are contained in the International Green Construction Code and the latest version of the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) program.

This course takes place Sept. 29.

The full lineup of ALI fall online courses includes:

• High-Performance Building Design: Applications and Future Trends, Sept. 8

• Air-to-Air Energy Recovery Applications: Best Practices, Sept. 10

• Complying with Standard 90.1-2013, Sept. 15

• Evaluation Methods for High-Performance Green Buildings, Sept. 22

• Fundamental Requirements of Standard 62.1-2013, Sept. 24

• Building Demand Response and the Coming Smart Grid, Sept. 29

• District Cooling and Heating Systems: Central Plants, Oct. 6

• Healthcare Facilities: Best Practices for Design and Applications, Oct. 8

• Maximizing Customer Benefits Using Key Electric Utility Products, Oct. 13

• Combined Heat and Power: Creating Efficiency through Design and Operations, Oct. 20

• Design of Commercial Ground Source Heat Pumps, Oct. 22

• Energy Efficiency in Data Centers, Nov. 3

• Commissioning for High-Performance Buildings, Nov. 5

• Exceeding Standard 90.1-2013 to Meet LEED® Requirements, Nov. 12

Details on all the courses can be found at www.ashrae.org/onlinecourses.

Publication date: 8/18/2014

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