CISTER/INESC-TEC Seminar on Appliance’s Energy Efficiency under Peak Power Constraints

Last January 21st, 2014 CISTER hosted another of its seminars, this time dedicated to energy efficiency. The seminar titled “Coordinated Scheduling of TCEDs under Peak Power Constraint” was given by Gopinath Karmakar from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India, and addressed the problem of maintaining thermal comfort-bands associated with background loads under Peak energy consumption constraint.

Peak energy consumption has impact on upfront capital costs and hence on energy tariffs. Reducing the size of the peaks has been recognized as an important consideration in the design of efficient demand-response systems. A substantial fraction of the energy demand of buildings comes from the Thermostatically Controlled Electrical Devices (TCED) viz., air-conditioners (ACs), refrigerators and room-heaters, which do not need human interaction for their continuous operations. So long as desirable temperature levels, referred to as thermal comfort-bands, are maintained by such background loads, users will not be concerned about when they perform their assigned functions. i.e., when they consume the energy required to function. Thermal Comfort Band Maintenance (TCBM), a new algorithm for scheduling such background loads under peak power constraint was presented as well as a discussion on how TCBM can adapt to changes in ambient parameters and provide the basis for efficient demand-response systems.

Gopinath Karmakar is a scientist from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, India, which has been involved in the design and development of embedded software for safety-related systems of the Indian nuclear plants for more than two decades. His current research interest is smart grid with a focus on smart home.

More information at: http://www.cister.isep.ipp.pt/events/+talks/