ENRG 58: Demand Response for Energy Auditors

Program Description:

The Building Efficiency for a Sustainable Tomorrow (BEST) Center has developed a 4-semester program to prepare students to work as commercial building energy auditors. The Commercial Building Energy Analysis & Audits Program is divided into 15 modular courses designed for a community college level student. Courses are intended to prepare students for energy auditing, analyzing a building envelope and building systems for efficiency, employing appropriate tools for energy modeling and working with data, describing utility rate structures and demand response strategies, estimating energy savings and financial impacts, and integrating business development skills and concepts with energy audit reporting.

Content modules can be selected, recombined, or offered in a more compressed format for existing workers, or those that have some background in construction, architecture, HVAC, building operations or mechanical engineering.

Course Description:

This model course from BEST Center focuses on demand response for energy auditors. The course asks students to consider applicability of various DR strategies including global temperature adjustment, global dimming for lights, pre-cooling and load control devices, DR rates and incentive types, thermal storage and other load shifting systems, AutoDR, persistence and commissioning of these systems. In completing the course, students will be able to: 1) Assess the importance of load management and demand response in limiting peak load across the electrical grid, 2) Calculate and analyze load factor for various facilities as part of an effort to determine the impact of demand response or load shifting strategies, 3) Synthesize information on the variables that inform load management and demand response projects including utility rates, climate, facility type, facility usage patterns and occupant satisfaction, 4) Evaluate specific facilities for the potential application of various load management and demand response measures, 5) Integrate back-up generators and alternative work-force schedules into demand response strategies, and  consider the challenges these measures introduce, and 6) Assess the value of automating demand response strategies to speed up response time and eliminate human errors.

The completion of the lesson in full takes 18 lecture hours. Resources available as part of this course include a course outline, and 6 PowerPoint presentations

For orientation purposes, viewers should begin with ENRG 58_Course Outline.pdf, which offers a description of the course as well as an overview of topics covered through a course outline.

Course Contents:

The 3-page course outline document includes a course description, learning outcomes, and a detailed course topics outline. Topics include: 1) Management and operation of electrical grid, 2) Load factor and billing data analysis for Demand Response and Load Shifting, 3) Implementation issues, benefits and challenges of various demand response strategies, 4) Peak Load shedding or shifting, 5) Back-up generation and co-generation 6) Commissioning of load management systems and, 7) Utility pricing signals and auto demand response. Sections detailing the types of in-class and out-of-class assignments required and other textbooks and resources are also included.

The PowerPoint presentations cover an introduction to the course, an introduction to demand response, demand response and the Smart grid, management and operations of the smart grid, demand response implementation, and demand limit strategy.

Below is a list of the files contained within the .zip attachment. The size of each file is included in parenthesis.

ENRG 58 – Demand Response for Energy Auditors (7 files, 5.1MB)

• Demand Response for Energy Auditors Course Outline (ENRG 58_Course Outline.docx 26KB)
• Presentation 1 (DR1.ppt 609KB)
• Presentation 2 (DR2.ppt 107KB)
• Presentation 3 (DR3.ppt 1.7 MB)
• Presentation 4 (DR4.ppt 660 KB)
• Presentation 5 (DR5.ppt 664 KB)
• Presentation 6 (DR6.ppt 3MB)