New methods for analyzing load-shifting measures for the existing housing stock to reduce peak demand, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save money on building energy use

Demand management is a massive and growing challenge in the U.S. Time-of-use (TOU) rates to incentivize load shifting and grid-interactive efficient building (GEB) measures to achieve those shifts in residential buildings are becoming more broadly available, but program managers and people in the field whose job it is to convince homeowners to switch to TOU plans and/or implement GEB measures don’t have the tools necessary to demonstrate site-specific savings. OptiMiser, LLC will develop new methods for analyzing load-shifting measures for the existing housing stock to reduce peak demand, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and save money on building energy use by leveraging its previous work and that of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to connect the widely-adopted home energy audit software, OptiMiser, with the EnergyPlus modeling engine. These grid-interactive efficient building (GEB) measures will focus on shifting load out of the customer’s peak electricity billing period using HVAC scheduling, targeted shell improvements, and smart-home appliance controls. DOE funding would allow OptiMiser, LLC to expand its EnergyPlus integration and model new GEB applications that support load flexibility with new software modules. In particular, improved modeling of building mass would improve analysis of building temperature response to changing thermostat setpoints. With more detailed inputs, OptiMiser, LLC would add additional options to guide auditors in designing packages of targeted building shell measures that enable “pre-cooling” and “maintenance-cooling” HVAC schedules to be implemented, while maintaining comfortable temperatures. Measures will also be implemented to model additional GEB technologies such as smart-home controls, renewables, and battery storage load-shifting strategies. This work will have immediate, significant commercial impact. The methods and technologies developed in this proposal (Phase I) will be field-tested and deployed to active energy efficiency programs in three territories during Phase I. Phase II will include improvements and additional features indicated from this field testing, and additional GEB measures will be added as requested by participating programs. Phase II will allow us to more than double the market for the new tools by adding access through a web-based application programming interface (API) service.