Smart Grid for Buildings
Building operators are becoming traders on the energy market
In the future, intelligent building control is expected to relieve some of the burden from the intelligent energy network – smart grid – and to feed building-generated electricity into the grid.
The intelligent energy network – smart grid – will turn building operators into active agents in the electricity market. For this purpose, solutions for the power supply network must be linked to products and systems for the distribution network level. Each building will be designed to regulate its own electricity needs independently, to store energy, and to feed the energy it generates into the smart grid by means of an automated energy management system.
Today’s building automation systems are the technical foundation for “intelligent” buildings. System expansions combining power networks across voltage levels in the smart grid with two-way data communication will enable consumers in the future to optimize their energy costs based on the rates offered and to feed electricity from environmentally friendly sources into the network. Thus energy providers will be able to respond better to fluctuations in supply with renewable energies.
Smart metering has an important role in the smart grid. Its intelligent counters make electricity costs transparent to customers. Energy suppliers expect precise data that will enable them to improve demand forecasting and offer dynamic price rates.