Using renewables to reduce peak demand: Lessons from an Australian experience

With the energy consumption of buildings trending upwards and energy prices rising, several commercial establishments are finding that their energy bills are fast becoming a significant part of their operational budget. In this paper, we describe the practical lessons learnt when the facility manager of a large office building in Australia was considering the of use of renewables to reduce the building´s peak demand. We first illustrate how analytics can use used on data gathered by a building management system (BMS) to yield rich insights into the factors affecting the building´s peak demand. We then describe the efficacy of solar PV and battery storage systems in alleviating the peak demand. We believe that the lessons learnt from our experience: (i) are generic as it informs facility managers of key factors to consider when incorporating renewables, and (ii) provides holistic guidelines when integrating solar PV and battery storage for reducing a building´s peak demand and operating energy costs.