Smart Microgrid
What is a Smart Microgrid ?
Volatile and rising energy prices are forcing organizations to rethink their energy consumption patterns. Sustainability goals, budget pressures, and expanding regulations continue to impose new objectives on facilities management such as reduction of energy use or deployment of renewable energy. There is a common refrain to do more with less and identify ways to cut costs. Facilities and energy managers struggle under the burden of these requirements and need the tools to implement a new energy strategy.
A smart microgrid includes the intelligent management and optimization of production, storage and consumption of energy needed to achieve these objectives. A smart microgrid can reduce costs and help maximize your return on investment from your energy assets while achieving sustainability goals.
Conceptually a microgrid is easy. Local generation (combined heat and power, CHP), distribution and consumption of energy across a campus or commercial facility is a basic microgrid. Rudimentary microgrids are not an unusual part a corporate energy strategy. But, a basic microgrid approach is passive with little-to-no opportunity for:
- Real-time management and optimization of energy usage
- Maximizing cost savings and carbon emissions reductions against priorities of reliability and comfort
- Monitoring and control of disparate building management systems and sources of distributed energy
- Intelligence to identify energy efficiency opportunities
- Forecasting to improve attainment of targets
- Reporting and billing on energy, environmental and financial results
Components of a Smart Microgrid
The key components to a smart microgrid are the integration following four components into a centrally managed, campus-based energy infrastructure:
- Supply: storage and distributed generation (renewable and non-renewable sources)
- Demand: energy consumption devices across entire organization including but not limited to lighting, HVAC, and IT equipment
- IT Management platform: intelligent system to optimize supply and demand based on management objectives and conditioning factors
- Environmental factors: variables external to the management system that will influence energy use such as weather, pricing, and comfort
Intelligent energy and building management software is the brains and nerve system of a campus smart microgrid. The lack of this critical component has kept facilities managers from broadly and efficiently implementing smart microgrids. This software platform must cover four critical management tasks:
- Collect and analyze data
- Identify opportunities for managers and administrators to take action on information, or automatically executes actions
- Provide powerful communication tools on objectives and progress through real-time dashboards
- Provide optimization tools and interface with different automation management systems to increase personnel and asset productivity
Valence Energy
