The Value Proposition for Cost-Effective, DR-Enabling, Nonresidential Lighting System Retrofits in California Buildings
The Value Proposition for Demand Response Enabled Lighting Systems in Non Commercial Buildings
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Recipient
Berkeley, CA
Recipient Location
9th
Senate District
14th
Assembly District
$500,000
Amount Spent
Completed
Project Status
Project Result
The project is complete. Research results indicate that networked lighting control systems will become an important distributed energy resource (DER) because it increases lighting system efficiency, flexible control and rapid-response capabilities, and eases load aggregation. As more facilities recognize the non-energy benefits of net worked lighting control systems, these systems are expected to see increased market adoption along with decreased prices. Additionally, as the electricity market becomes more volatile, these systems could help with grid balancing and stabilization. The final report will be published in January 2019.
The Issue
Advanced lighting controls are among the rapidly evolving technologies that utilize wireless communications, sensors, data analytics and controls to optimize building systems in real time. Energy benefits due to lighting controls are becoming a smaller piece of the value proposition because the cost savings are smaller due to the higher efficiency of LED lighting. Though lighting represents a significant potential demand response (DR) resource, the value and benefits it can offer to the electric grid and to customers is not well understood.
Project Innovation
This project identifies, quantifies and evaluates the incremental costs and benefits of demand responsive (DR) lighting controls system requirements in the California Energy Code across existing, non-residential building stock. The project focuses on the incremental costs and benefits associated with adding the DR functionality to enhance general lighting upgrades in existing, non-residential buildings to enable them to act as DR resources.
Project Benefits
This project will advance intelligent, network controls to become dynamically controlled, dispatchable grid resources. The advanced controls developed will ease building participation in Auto-Demand Response (DR) programs and improve grid reliability and resiliency, improve user interfaces for lighting systems to reduce energy waste and cost, and enable IOUs and others to geographically target DR deployments as a cost effective means to transmission and distribution infrastructure upgrades.
Affordability
Demand response enabled, advanced lighting controls can significantly reduce customer energy consumption (50% - 70% in offices) and costs by optimizing light output when and where it is needed, and by minimizing its use when not needed through the deployment of highly granular networked sensors and efficient light sources.
Reliability
Increased customer participation in demand response programs especially for lighting resources, can increase grid reliability by five percent and reduce utilities' need for purchasing expensive electricity during periods of high demand.
Key Project Members
Peter Schwartz
Subrecipients
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Energy Solutions International
NEXT Associates Inc.
Match Partners
Energy Solutions International
