Johnson Controls (JCI) HVACR Trends - GineersNow Engineering Magazine Key Trends Making Our Cities Greener & Smarter | Page 17

TRANSACTIVE energy systems are another
industry trend in which software applications
allow energy producers and consumers (aka
prosumers) to use distributed energy resources
to bid the generation or reduction of power
into the electricity market. This provides a
market-based approach for capturing the
time-based and location-specific value of
distributed generation, energy storage and
demand response technologies. An early 2006
pilot project in Washington State involved 100
home owners and a few commercial/industrial
facilities who were given detailed information
on real-time and historical appliance energy
use and the opportunity to preprogram
specific actions in response to real-time
pricing information. A more recent pilot project
connected 11 utilities and 60,000 electricity
cu stomers to specific nodes of the Pacific
Northwest’s power grid. Every five minutes,
the nodes communicated the delivered cost
of electricity, plus a prediction of how much
electricity would be needed over the coming
minutes, hours and days.
One growing concern of highly interconnected
systems, such as the electric power grid, is the
risk of cybersecurity breaches. While individuals
have always been at financial and privacy risk
from their use of the Internet, interconnected
devices and systems communicating and
operating autonomously over networks raise
significant safety and security concerns. The
cybersecurity of critical infrastructure and the
IoT is currently being addressed by a number of
government bodies and business alliances.
Improving EFFICIENCY continues to be an
important driver for smart city investment.
These drivers include operational, resource
and economic efficiency improvements across
a variety of urban systems and infrastructure.
Efficiency improvements convert wasted money
and resources into infrastructure investments,
while creating well-paying local jobs and
economic development in the community. In
2016, Johnson Controls completed its tenth
Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI) survey of more
than 1200 organizations with commercial,
institutional and industrial facilities in Brazil,
China, Germany, India and the United States. In
the study, 72 percent of organizations said they
were planning to increase energy efficiency and
renewable energy investments in the next year.
RESILIENCE is also a key driver, with 82
percent of organizations reporting that the
ability to maintain critical operations during
severe weather events or extended power
outages is very or extremely important when
considering future infrastructure investments.
Many of the technologies which make our built
environment more efficient and sustainable also
make it more resilient. Building owners were
surprised after Superstorm Sandy when their
solar panels did not generate power due to a
safety disconnect from the electrical grid. In
response to this and other drivers, 62 percent
of surveyed organizations said they are very or
extremely likely to have one or more facilities
able to operate off the grid in the next ten years.
HVACR Leaders • May 2017
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