The SunDial system provides a holistic and highly scalable framework that coordinates and optimizes the performance of the larger system to address the high-penetration PV challenges of intermittency (cloud transient) and temporal mismatch between PV production and building/grid loads (solar surplus). Innovative engineering development efforts of the project include the development of a centralized Distributed Energy Resource (DER) control platform, called the Global Scheduler, The Global Scheduler optimally dispatches resources within a distribution feeder, and the Facility Load Aggregation and Management Engine (FLAME), which forecasts and aggregates individual facility load shifting potentials and offers the resulting aggregated load shapes to the Global Scheduler as a dispatchable resource.

IPKeys is using its OpenADR 2.0b-certified Energy Interop™ Server & System (EISS®) virtual end node (VEN) and virtual top node (VTN) server as the FLAME. The FLAME development requires several enhancements to the OpenADR 2.0b standard to enable DER-related services and reports. By combining DR and DER into a single system, this state-of-the-art approach will helps National Grid to mitigate the common problems associated with the high penetration of solar PV in buildings.

The new DER reports are generic enough to represent any distributed energy resource (DER) or load asset that can participate in solar balancing actions. Wind, customer site battery, EV fleets, etc., can advertise their capabilities along with their costs to participate in a generic manner to facilitate rapid adoption.

“We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with Fraunhofer-CSE while integrating our best in class OpenADR 2.0b-certified EISS® technology into SunDial,” said Robert Nawy, CEO, IPKeys and board member of the OpenADR Alliance. “Deploying our secure Auto-DR technology in a broad range of facilities, from schools and office buildings to industrial plants, will present many new use cases to the SunDial model and help assure the model’s performance when the demand management is most needed.”

“The SunDial project aligns nicely with the efforts currently underway in the OpenADR Alliance to expand the OpenADR 2.0b standard to include new services and reports to support DER-related applications,” said Barry Haaser, managing director of the OpenADR Alliance. “This project provides an opportunity to test the DER services and reports being developed by IPKeys in real-time,” continued Haaser. For more information on the OPenADR Alliance please visit http://www.openadr.org.

More About FLAME:

The proposed EiEvent web service signals used in the FLAME are currently in the OpenADR 2.0b specification and use the simple level payload for single level response and the set-point payload for variable response. FLAME will also leverage the EiReport web service: in addition to the standard meter report at a one minute granularity with five minutes between uploads, the following draft reports are envisioned to support the FLAME’s interface with a DER management platform:

  • Report Baseline Load Projection – Time Interval selected projected consumption that are sourced from the VEN. For this project, a combination of load projection algorithm and daily operational schedules will be used to produce a load projection for the next 24 hours. An error factor will be used to measure error and trigger recalculations.
  • Report Load Management Projection – Like the load projection report, this report also contains additional factors such as duration, recharge, cost, times of use per day, and up and down kW. It is anticipated that many facilities will generate many of these reports and load management calls for facility will generate adjusted new reports during the day.

About the Project Team

The Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE)

The Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE is an applied research and development laboratory dedicated to building tomorrow’s energy future today. Our staff’s expertise in solar photovoltaics, smart energy-efficient buildings, and grid technologies provides a platform for deeply integrating distributed energy resources through collaborative R&D with private companies, government entities, and academic institutions. Fraunhofer CSE is one of seven centers of Fraunhofer USA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit contract R&D organization, a subsidiary of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, Europe's largest contract R&D organization.

About IPKeys Technologies

IPKeys Technologies, LLC, is a strategic partner in the DoD Energy, Federal, and Commercial sectors, delivering expertise in the development, integration, and deployment of Internet Protocol (“IP”) technology and communications systems. IPKeys’ expertise includes Network and Telecommunications Engineering; Energy/Smart Grid Engineering Services, Systems Engineering and Integration; Cyber Security; Systems Acquisition, Production and Fielding; and Modeling and Simulation. IPKeys is headquartered at Eatontown, New Jersey and has offices in California, Illinois, Maryland, and Virginia.

Contacts

Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE

Kurt Roth, PhD, +1-617-575-7256

[email protected]

IPKeys Technologies, LLC

Robert Nawy, +1-732-982-3117

[email protected]