Developing a facility-level energy load shape simulation method for utility planning

Utility planners require an understanding of how and when energy is used among their customers. Hourly “load shapes”, that represent facility electricity of natural gas use for each hour of the year, often disaggregated into individual “end-uses” such as space heating, lighting or water heating are the most detailed information of this type typically available to planners.
These load shapes allow planners to make bottom-up estimates of aggregate loads over their electricity or gas distribution system over various geographies, allowing them to ensure transmission/distribution infrastructure and generation/commodity supply will meet demand, integrate intermittent renewable resources, and estimate the effects of efficiency, demand-response and distributed generation measures.
This research will build on previous work by the partner to estimate annual hourly energy use by facility type and energy end-use in utility service territories. The methodology is expected to be based on energy load research for similar facilities (i.e. office buildings), equipment (i.e. chillers), or actions (i.e. application of energy conservation or demand response measures), and adjusted based on climate data, known annual energy use at the system level, and qualitative/quantitative survey data.

Faculty Supervisor:

Burak Gunay;Liam O'Brien

Student:

Daniel Lowcay

Partner:

Posterity Group Consulting

Discipline:

Engineering - civil

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Carleton University