Smart building demand response with battery storage and curtailment

DESCRIPTION: A building automation system (BAS) coupled with an electricity storage unit that can be charged at night with low-carbon electricity would be an ideal dispatchable resource, enabling buildings to optimize comfort and energy efficiency (EE), provide demand response (DR), reduce peak demand charges, and supply emergency power. This product has immediate commercial potential: the BAS market is estimated to be $50 billion.

NYC start-up Urban Electric Power (UEP) seeks to integrate their advanced zinc-nickel batteries with market leader Siemens’ intelligent building energy management and control platform—Smart Energy Box (SEB). The batteries and SEB are commercial prototypes that can be seamlessly combined to further improve building energy management and demand reduction. NYC’s Columbia University will perform lifecycle cost analysis and determine the economic and environmental impact of this product given current tariff structures. The CUNY Buildings Performance Laboratory will assess the applicability of the product in a building at John Jay College that is already equipped with a Siemens BAS to reduce upfront capital costs.

After this initial product development activity, the proponents plan to conduct a 2-step demonstration with independent performance and reliability testing in the NY-BEST Rochester facility and deployment in 1 or more NYC buildings with Siemens BAS. Detailing testing and commercialization plans are integral to the work proposed for the current project.