The Electrical Grid And Buildings; What’s Needed For The 21st Century

The new ASHRAE President’s ideas on the grid of the future and its impact on buildings

With the model for our electrical grid about 100 years old, and buildings of today the electricity sector’s top customer it is easy to see that user demands would result in pressures on an aging system. The newly sworn in ASHRAE president Sheila Hayter presented an interesting view of what a 21^st-century grid might look like in her address at the Society’s annual conference in June. The excerpt below was from her remarks  published in Canadian Property Management magazine:

So what will a 21st-century grid look like?

• Technologies will change and we will see distributed energy resources, like solar and wind systems, that are integrated with improved and less-expensive battery storage and microgrids.
• Electricity flow will be bi-directional, not just one way.
• Individual building owners and third-party providers will own generation. Your building-owner client might decide to get into the electricity business.
• The grid will work with the Internet of Things. These are devices in buildings that communicate via the Internet and have an impact on electricity loads.
• To handle all this, buildings and the grid will have to get smarter. We will transition to a future of smart buildings that play a dynamic role on a smart grid. And, we’re going to have to do that without compromising the health and wellness of the built environment.

See the whole article here as published on REMI Network / Canadian Property Management

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