Energy Management System – OpenDEM

Raymond M Kaiser, Amzur Technologies 

OpenDEM is a modular suite of open source applications that can monitor, manage and control Distributed Energy Resources locally and remotely – from a single building to a campus, to a diverse portfolio of buildings and large service territory.

The DC net in GEC

Energy Dashboard:

The OpenDEM Dashboard is an easy to read, real-time user interface, showing a graphical presentation of the current and historical energy demand, solar PV production and benchmarking by building a group of buildings. We provide a set of analytic tools developed by the US Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. If necessary, the system can provide circuit level monitoring so that actual demand can be broken down by load type – Heating and Cooling, Ventilation, Lighting and specific equipment.

Dynamic Demand Management:

For a customer seeking to reduce utility demand charges, OpenDEM can reduce the coincident peak demand of multiple AC units running simultaneously by staging when specific equipment turns on and off based on a set of user-defined rules.For a utility seeking to flatten their load profile, OpenDEM supports automated Demand Response. Based on customer permissions, specific load types can be reduced to ensure grid reliability.

Distributed Energy Resource Management:

OpenDEM is designed to support Distributed Energy Resources, like solar PV and energy (battery) storage. Energy variability is one of the most significant challenges to transitioning to renewable energy. Cost-effectively managing demand and supply to address variability is a complex challenge. Utilities can deploy OpenDEM to provide voltage and frequency support rather than rely primarily on capacitor banks and load tap changes to modulate the large fluctuations that occur when a feeder has a high degree of solar PV penetration.

For building owners, the system can forecast how much energy is consumed, from the next few hours to the next few days, how much solar power is being generated, and how much energy your batteries are currently storing. And based on a set of rules, if the solar power is insufficient to meet your current electric demand, the controller determines when it is best to buy power from the utility or to use battery power.

Source: www.amzur.com