Peak load characteristics of Sydney office buildings and policy recommendations for peak load reduction

Steinfeld, Jesse; Bruce, Anna; Watt, Muriel

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2011.04.022

Cited by 46 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…This option incorporates passive solar design, cross ventilation, shading and building orientation, and also appropriate building materials, facades and colours. Steinfeld et al (2011) analysed peak load characteristics of Sydney office buildings and found that peak loads for office buildings with best practice energy performance were 26 % lower than for buildings with average energy performance, while the total annual energy consumption was 57 % lower.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A less direct approach to shaping customer usage patterns is through education and feedback (Vine 2012), though no research has evaluated the impact on peak demand. Building energy efficiency has received widespread attention as a cost-effective strategy for energy (and emissions) reduction (Miller et al 2012) that can also reduce demand peaks (Steinfeld et al 2011). This option incorporates passive solar design, cross ventilation, shading and building orientation, and also appropriate building materials, facades and colours.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The challenge of adapting centralised electricity systems: peak demand and maladaptation in South East Queensland, Australia

et al. 2013

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South East Queensland's (SEQ's) centralised electricity system is under great pressure to adapt. Climate change is converging with socio-economic, demographic and technological changes to create a 'perfect storm' for the region's electricity system. Distribution networks are particularly affected, with these factors contributing to tremendous peak demand growth, about double the rate of growth in average demand in recent years. This paper reviews how Australia's electricity system is adapting to multiple drivers of peak electricity demand. We use sociotechnical transitions theory to understand the temporal interconnected social and technical dimensions of adaptation in this setting. Specifically, we present an historical narrative of the emergence of centralisation in Australia and outline the peak demand problem in SEQ and review adaptation options from the international literature. We also analyse the interactions between key social groups and their adaptation responses over the past decade. Our analysis shows that adaptation has become a contested process between supply-chain actors and end-users, each with different economic objectives, adaptation needs and capacities. The resulting adaptation dynamic that is emerging shows worrying signs of maladaptation. Implications for market governance and urban policy and research are discussed.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The challenge of adapting centralised electricity systems: peak demand and maladaptation in South East Queensland, Australia

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For cooling loads the study by [24] showed that the more efficient buildings have a "peakier" load profile, although the absolute peak loads were clearly lower compared to standard buildings. This "peakiness" may be a result of the design of the energy efficient buildings, which utilise passive measures to maintain comfort, but as the temperature rises significantly, proportionally higher air-conditioning loads are needed to meet the increased cooling requirements.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heating Energy and Peak-Power Demand in a Standard and Low Energy Building

Airaksinen

Vuolle²

2013

Energies

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Building energy efficiency legislation has traditionally focused on space heating energy consumption. This has led to a decrease in energy consumption, especially in space heating. However, in the future when more renewable energy is used both on site and in energy systems, the peak energy demand becomes more important with respect to CO 2 emissions and energy security. In this study it was found out the difference between space heating energy consumption was 55%-62% when a low energy and standard building were compared. However, the difference in peak energy demands was only 28%-34%, showing the importance of paying attention to the peak demands as well.

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“…Thus, more practical case studies are needed to demonstrate significant energy saving potential of building retrofits undertaken by building owners and managers to increase the level of confidence in potential retrofit benefits (Ma et al 2012;Ardente et al 2011). There are numerous theoretical studies focused on the energy analysis of public buildings (Ardente et al 2011;Fiaschi et al 2012;Steinfeld et al 2011) and models to predict energy savings for buildings (Aljami 2012;Rysanek and Choudhary 2013;Woo and Menassa 2014) including those in tropical Australian climates (Rahman et al 2010). Few studies currently report on other commercial and industrial buildings (Markis and Paravantis 2007), and formal targets, guidelines, tools and government regulation are still lacking for a large bulk of building stock (Australian Government, Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency 2012; New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage 2016;Saddler 2015).…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimising energy use in an existing commercial building: a case study of Australia’s Reef HQ Aquarium

Thyer

Thomas

McClintock³

et al. 2017

Energy Efficiency

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Reef HQ Aquarium is a major tourism attraction in tropical North Queensland, Australia. In 8 years, a 50% reduction in grid electricity was achieved through targeted infrastructure investment, whilst growing the business. Initially, grid energy consumption was 2438 MWh per annum, with 490-kW peak demand and energy intensity of 1625 MJ m −2 year −1 used on typical equipment such as HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), machinery, lighting and catering equipment. Savings of 13% were achieved in the first year by increasing indoor air temperature set-points by 1.5°C with no significant costs or impacts on occupant thermal comfort or worker productivity. Peak demand was decreased by 46% by upgrading the computerised building management system (BMS), HVAC, machinery and lighting; and by installing a 206-kW photovoltaic (PV) solar power system. This case study illustrates that (a) significant energy use reductions are possible at low cost; (b) capital investment in energy-efficient infrastructure can have short payback times and high direct and indirect benefits, particularly where equipment is ending its life. This study is unique as it examines how a commercial building with integrated chilled water thermal energy storage (TES) and a 3.2-ML chilled seawater aquarium system can be controlled by a BMS to optimise solar power to manage peak energy demand and also increase the utilisation of generated PV power in the absence of electrical battery storage. An interesting building is used to demonstrate efficiency methods with elements such as HVAC and lighting which usually consume over half commercial buildings' energy use.

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Peak load characteristics of Sydney office buildings and policy recommendations for peak load reduction

Cited by 46 publications

References 4 publications

The challenge of adapting centralised electricity systems: peak demand and maladaptation in South East Queensland, Australia

The challenge of adapting centralised electricity systems: peak demand and maladaptation in South East Queensland, Australia

Heating Energy and Peak-Power Demand in a Standard and Low Energy Building

Optimising energy use in an existing commercial building: a case study of Australia’s Reef HQ Aquarium

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