Dec. 7, 2004: Smart Building Controls May Help Manage Peak Demand
RICHLAND, Wash. - In a demonstration with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is exploring the impacts of reducing electrical demand and on-site energy production at several buildings in Richland, where PNNL performs research for the federal government.
At the Applied Process Engineering Laboratory, PNNL installed a 30-kilowatt microturbine system. The small, natural gas-powered turbine can be started remotely by BPA to produce electricity for the building during times of peak electrical demand. This on-site production, called distributed generation, helps reduce stress on transmission lines by supplying some of the power for the building directly instead of pulling from the regional power grid.