Micro-Grids - an emerging technology...

Typical multiple load and source micro-grid with Internet connection

Micro-grid Opportunities

Today's buildings operate as islands of consumption on the electricity grid. There are few restraints on when and how much energy is consumed. The most common restraint is in the form of published utility tariffs, which provide a combination of price adjustments based on consumption (kWh) and demand (kW). Very few buildings are managed to respond to their respective tariff. Demand limiting (kW) is seldom implemented. Energy conservation (kWh) is usually weakly implemented as part of general conservation program. As alternative energy sources have moved up the priority list very few building owners are prepared to deal with these energy alternatives. Simply put they have neither the technical expertise nor the budget to manage this type of initiative.

The problem is even more complicated where a single building doesn't offer an opportunity to effectively leverage a solar installation or sizable generation capacity, regardless that it uses natural gas, landfill gas, or even pyrolysis gas. Clearly multiple buildings need to be linked into a cohesive operating arrangement with an electrical connection capable of sharing distributed renewable resources.

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Leveraging XMPP Short Messaging

Micro-grids are in the early stages of being introduced to building energy management applications. The opportunity to combine different energy sources, such as combined heat and power (CHP) generators, solar cells, batteries, and even supercaps, is the first step to a successful alternative energy source for building power. Micro-grid management networks are designed to synchronize multiple energy sources with the Grid, and with building loads. Tying building loads to the micro-grid is a separate challenge, one that can double the effectiveness of a micro-grids during peak energy usage periods. This paper describes a methodology to connect multiple sources to the Grid, and buildings to the sources using XMPP short messaging protocol. It resolves both source and load management issues using widely applied Open Source software.

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