Patented power-saving technology reduces energy demand in buildings using the building’s thermal energy storage capability
Clean Peak Energy, LLC has acquired the patent rights on the methodology enabling its thermal energy storage and power-saving technology for use in commercial buildings. The Clean Peak Energy technology provides for reduced power consumption in commercial buildings through optimum cooling procedures and the patented precooling methodology using existing air conditioning systems and the unaltered building’s thermal energy storage capability.
United States Patent No. 6860431, “Strategic-Response Control System for Regulating Air Conditioners for Economic Operation,” was awarded for the methodology of combining the precision management of commercial building cooling systems with the building’s own internal thermal storage capability. Clean Peak Energy now offers building owners and building management firms a process for the ability to reduce their peak demand and energy consumption while reducing carbon emissions without capital, construction cost or building alteration.
“These efficiencies are achieved through precisely maximizing cooling operation with lower cost off-peak power, and by using the building’s thermal-storage capacity to store and release energy, maintain comfort and reduce a building’s contribution to CO2 emissions,” said Clean Peak Energy, LLC Chief Executive Officer Edward Levene, describing the patented technology.
Addressing Peak Demand
The patented technology derives substantial energy savings in large commercial buildings by slashing a building’s demand for power during periods of the peak demand. Energy costs for large commercial buildings can vary widely based on when the energy is consumed. Due to the complexity in energy pricing, operators of two identical buildings in the same city can consume the same amount of energy, yet pay substantially different amounts for that energy.
This is due to variable pricing applied to commercial electrical supply. On a per-kWh basis, commercial electric supply costs more during peak hours than during off-peak hours. By shifting a building’s demand from peak hours to off-peak hours, the cost of powering the building is reduced.
A second factor is the cost of ensuring a building’s anticipated electricity demand will be met with adequate capacity. Each year, many regions of the U.S. identify an electric customer’s capacity requirement based on the preceding year’s peak one hour of usage. At year end, Independent System Operators (ISOs) identify retrospectively the day and hour during which peak demand occurred. Customers are then allocated capacity for the upcoming year based on their peak-hour demand during the previous year. This allocation can comprise up to 50 percent of a large commercial-building operator’s monthly supply cost. That can equate to up to 30 percent of total monthly electric cost. Most buildings do not manage their consumption to reduce or eliminate air conditioning use during the one hour of peak annual demand.
Clean Peak Energy’s patented strategic-response control system predicts the hour during which demand will reach its peak. The system then works to reduce the building’s demand load during that peak hour while maintaining building comfort. When the building’s peak-hour demand load is reduced, the installed capacity cost allocated to the building is also reduced. This lowers electricity costs for the building for the next 12 months.
Reducing Carbon Emissions
In addition to reducing energy costs in large commercial buildings, Clean Peak Energy’s patented technology also reduces carbon emissions by directing a building’s energy demand to the cleanest-burning, most efficient sources.
How? During periods of lower demand, such as at night, energy producers scale back their least-efficient power sources, and rely largely on their cleanest-burning, most-efficient plants. During periods of high-demand for electricity, producers are forced to augment their supply with less-efficient sources, which lead to increased CO2 emissions. By reducing a building’s demand for electricity during peak-demand daytime hours and instead increasing use of electricity to lower the building’s internal temperature at night, the building is bypassing higher polluting energy sources and drawing electric supply from more of the cleanest-burning sources.
Clean Peak Energy is in the process of identifying commercial buildings to be outfitted with its patented Peak Demand Reduction and Power-Saving Strategic-Response System. The system requires no construction, space or alteration to the building.
For more information, contact Edward Levene at Clean Peak Energy, LLC at 203-614-1485 or visit www.cleanpeakenergy.us