Gregory Robart
Ajit Pardasani
SPEAKER:
Gregory Robart, P.Eng. Siemens Canada Ltd, Global Managed Transition Lead, Digital Grid, Smart infrastructure, Fredericton, NB, and Ajit Pardasani, National Research Council (NRC) Canada, Construction Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario
ABSTRACT:
Electric utility companies strive to increase the utilization of their resources, reduce costs and give customers more choices. Smart technologies provide the perfect opportunity for energy utilities to build a closer relationship with their customers in area of energy management. So far smart thermostat incentive programs have provided a conduit for utility companies to learn about their customers energy usage habits, to encourage energy efficient habits, and to control HVAC loads for the benefit of grid operations (for example peak shifting, ancillary services, cold start)
While utility companies aim to improve their bottom lines and meet targets for mandatory demand side management programs, the main drivers for customers in adopting the smart home technologies are safety, comfort, convenience, and energy savings with cost saving being the common driver. These smart technologies generally fall into the following major categories:
- HVAC controls
- Lighting controls
- Smart plugs
- Home security monitoring
- Smart home assistive living for senior monitoring and assistive living
- Smart appliances
Utility companies have to justify their investments in providing incentives for smart energy devices. Factors that influence the economic justifications vary by regions as many parameters, for example generation mix, system load profiles, etc. influence the value of one kWh saved. Preparing economic justification for incentivizing smart building program is a very challenging task as only one value stream of application generally is considered, for example reduction in the peak demand or increasing sales revenue. The value proposition of incentivizing the smart building technologies can become stronger if the rich data set from other smart infrastructure (e.g. smart meters, occupancy sensors, etc.) is leveraged to gain actionable energy insights through data analytics in the energy performance of homes.
The objective of this presentation is to make a case and stimulate discussions that various applications should not be evaluated in isolation but rather the contributions of all connected devices to the energy management should be evaluated holistically to lever their contributions to the consumer and to their potential contribution to grid operations. We will illustrate our case through select examples from a couple of pilot studies that we have partnered with utility companies and service providers.
SPEAKERS’ BIOs:
Gregory Robart, Global Lead, Utility Business Transformation & Lead Managing Consultant, Siemens Power Technologies International, gregory.robart@siemens.com
Siemens’ Global Lead for electrical utility business transformation, Greg supports utilities in realizing their digitalization strategy. As a seasoned Professional Engineer, Greg has wide ranging expertise in engineering principles, both for the electrical grid and building systems. This includes critical customer building distribution and distributed control system design and power backup systems, as well as communication infrastructure solutions. Greg has additional experience in industrial power distribution design and commissioning along with power quality and protection co-ordination studies.
Ajit Pardasani, Senior Research Officer, Building Technologies Optimization Group, National Research Council Canada
Ajit Pardasani earned has B.Eng. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from MNIT, India (1979), and M.Sc. Degree in Information and Systems Science from Carleton University, Canada (1990). For the initial years of his engineering career, he worked in an electric power generation company. In 1991, he joined National Research Council (NRC) Canada, where he has been working as a research engineer. Ajit has expertise in energy demand management, intelligent systems, systems modelling and integration, and evolutionary project management. He has applied his expertise to develop and de-risk near market ready technologies for increasing the efficiency of systems and processes in energy, construction, manufacturing, and information technology sectors.