Data-Driven Electrical Systems Research

Two men work in a ceiling grid, left; two hands hold an electronic device, center; three people work at laptop computers, right.

Connected lighting system research conducted by PNNL is transitioning from its original focus on lighting systems to a broader view of data-driven building electric systems – including lighting, information technology, battery energy storage, and electric vehicle charging. PNNL’s focus also is shifting from characterization of the capabilities and performance of market-available products to the demonstration of new approaches for designing, configuring, and operating systems that provide significant benefits over traditional approaches. Current projects are highlighted here.

Video Url

A video poster presentation from the 2021 DOE Lighting R&D Workshop.

U.S. Department of Energy

Design of building electric systems that meet energy performance expectations and improve future design practices and decisions. This research develops and demonstrates digital tools and workflows for designing building electric systems that a) produce energy performance expectations that can be validated using operational data, b) can be used to improve design practices and decisions, and c) leverage emerging semantic interoperability standards. Findings to date have been presented at both the 2021 and 2022 IES Annual Conference, the 2021 and 2022 DOE Lighting R&D Workshop, and the 2021 IES-PNNL Webinar Series.

Design of building electric systems that support electrification and grid reliability. This research evaluates the utility of a Modelica-based toolkit for the design of building electrical systems that support electrification and grid reliability by incorporating hybrid AC/DC distribution, photovoltaic (PV) integration, battery energy storage systems, and electric vehicle (EV) chargers.

Automated configuration of building electric systems. This research develops and demonstrates digital tools and workflows for (semi) automatically configuring and commissioning market-available building electric (e.g., lighting) systems that reduce time, errors, and cost while leveraging emerging semantic interoperability standards. The project is exploring feasibility, specifically a) if and when emerging semantic interoperability standards might support this use case, b) whether any commercial lighting system manufacturers might be willing to support research in this area, and c) whether research demonstrations with commercially available lighting systems could be performed in a laboratory environment.

Management of distributed building system compute resources to reduce their standby energy use. This research assesses the potential of market-available cloud technologies (e.g., Kubernetes, Keda) to manage the deployment and operation of building system applications on distributed compute resources in order to reduce their standby energy use. This project is exploring feasibility – specifically whether targeted industry standard technologies (e.g., Kubernetes, Keda) are compatible with compute resources intended for local/edge applications (e.g., Raspberry Pi, Intel NUC) without significant modification.

Automated fault detection, diagnostics, and prediction for lighting systems. This research characterizes common lighting system faults, and develops and demonstrates methods for automated detection, diagnostics, and prediction.

Automated coordination of building electric systems to increase PV hosting capacity. This research evaluates the potential of building electric systems (e.g., lighting, electric heating/cooling, emergency power, uninterruptable power supply, EV charging) to be configured as flexible distributed energy resources (DERs) and facilitate increased PV hosting capacity of distribution feeders by leveraging coordinated operation and autonomous sensing of grid conditions (i.e., in lieu of a grid signal). Initial efforts focus on evaluating existing modeling and simulation tools, comparing their capabilities and limitations, and recruiting internal and external researchers and industry practitioners to form an advisory group to support this research effort.

Integration of electric systems with modular building technologies. This research assesses the potential of market-available modular technologies to be designed and deployed with integrated lighting and other building electric systems (e.g., information technology, plug-loads) using digital tools and workflows. Initial efforts involve characterizing market-available modular technologies using an internally developed template. The team has also developed a survey to address information gaps and a plan to identify technology and field deployment partners to support detailed characterization of identified technical and market potential.

Semantic interoperability standards for building electric systems. In coordination with a DOE multi-laboratory team, this research supports the development and adoption of the ASHRAE 223P semantic interoperability standard, with a focus on lighting, sensors, compute resources, and other building electric systems. Prior work supported the development and publication of ANSI C137.6–Data Tagging Vocabulary (Semantic Model Elements) for Interoperability.

Video Url

A video poster presentation from the 2021 DOE Lighting R&D Workshop.

U.S. Department of Energy

Flexible and grid-responsive lighting for residential buildings. This research demonstrates the ability of market-available lighting systems intended for use in residential buildings to be configured as flexible DERs, respond to OpenADR grid signals, and potentially provide grid services that support grid reliability. Findings have been presented at the 2021 LF Energy Spring Summit and 2022 ASHRAE Building Performance Analysis Conference.