By Staudt and Glesmann
ABSTRACT – This paper explores the use of smart building technology to provide lower building operating costs as well as increased revenue opportunities with improved safety, security and resilience. When the term “smart” technology for buildings is used in the context of this paper, it refers to integrated sensors and systems that enable monitoring and control across a range of functions to include comfort, safety, security, functionality, utility (especially energy and water management), transactions (such as transactions with the electric utility or other business partners), and other functions.
These systems can communicate with other devices and the “cloud” to permit analysis of data and decisions based upon needs and preferences. These technologies can reduce costs for operations and for maintenance, even generating revenue or accomplishing lower-carbon or zero-carbon goals. Another significant benefit of these technologies is an improvement in self-sufficiency or resiliency, that can range from improved redundancy to full microgrid capability.
Smart building technology has evolved as information technology advances have provided more means to collect, analyze and control building systems. Buildings have long utilized control systems for HVAC or lighting, but these were not designed for optimization. The initial smart systems that were deployed were based upon proprietary (specific to one supplier) platforms that typically offered the potential to improve the efficiency of the building’s functions as well as energy usage, offering substantial energy cost reductions. These systems were expensive and limited to large facilities or large collections of buildings. They were justified on the basis of energy savings alone, not the more comprehensive value potential of smart building management that will be described in this paper.
Going forward, the evolution of secure, open-source platforms (especially Volttron, which is explored here) allows a wider array of functions to be interconnected, analyzed, and even offers transactional capability with the electric grid, opening the door for Demand Response (DR) and Distributed Energy Resources (DER) as sources of revenue. Lower cost and smart sensors and communication technology offer the ability to monitor more activities than before. Also, buildings may be the power plants of the future as renewable generation and energy storage are more routinely deployed at buildings. They may even be the gas stations of the future as companies increasingly incorporate electric vehicles into their operations.
State-of-the-art and future building systems offer advanced analytics to identify and even control for far more effective building operation. This is facilitated by cloud storage and the advanced analytics that are being offered by cloud storage providers.