I-Corps: Dynamic Real-Time Energy Management System

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is reducing energy cost in future buildings and communities, and improving grid operations. Specifically, this project can benefit society by providing: 1) a software and hardware packaged solution for future smart buildings and communities; 2) the opportunity to save energy and money by reducing utility bills; 3) enabling technology for the next generation of proactive buildings. With the increasing penetration of distributed energy resources such as photovoltaic systems, electric vehicles, and battery energy storage systems at the individual building level, electrical load patterns becomes uncertain and variable, contributing to grid instability and energy waste. At the grid level, the introduction of renewable energy also makes the power system status more uncertain and variable, which requires more ancillary services to ensure system supply adequacy and reliability. Thus, the need for ancillary service provisions will increase substantially, and utility will require more flexible loads.This I-Corps project will 1) conduct customer and user interviews and investigate the broader needs of the technology to verify product value proposition; 2) conduct analysis based on customer needs through face to face meetings with customers and users in 1); and 3) develop business plan based on customer interviews and value proposition validation. The proposed technology is an innovative hardware and software solution for buildings that includes modeling of occupancy behavior patterns, forecasting solar energy generation and building energy demand, and predictive controlling smart energy devices through the incorporation of dynamic grid signals. These innovative energy-efficient technologies show a clear application to both residential and commercial buildings in the future. Based on previous research outcomes, a software platform has been developed that demonstrated significant energy cost saving capability in both residential and commercial buildings.