Comprehensive energy-saving city government programme

In collaboration with the City of Tallahassee, Florida, and Honeywell, Arup designed and implemented PeakSmart, one of the world’s first and most comprehensive automated demand response programmes. The voluntary programme automates the process of curtailing the energy needs of participating customers during peak events on the electric grid.

When the City of Tallahassee Utility anticipates a PeakSmart event, typically during a time when electricity demand is high due to unusually hot or cold days, “Your Own Utilities” notifies participants a day ahead of the event. However, in rare emergency situations, the notice may only arrive ten minutes ahead. When a PeakSmart event begins, a signal is sent to a participating building's energy management system to carry out predetermined energy saving directives. For commercial customers this may mean that unessential lighting is curtailed or that HVAC settings and other equipment are adjusted to reduce the building's energy demands until the event subsides. For convenience, PeakSmart customers can manually opt out if they are unable to participate in a demand response event. The number of events per year is limited, and each peak event lasts no longer than two to four hours.

Arup provided smart-grid energy consulting, building energy auditing, and the Auto-DR Program design and development. The advanced metering infrastructure installed for the programme offers users and the city more current information about energy use. The traditional power metering was like driving a car with an odometer. The new system gives users and the customer a speedometer as well, thus encouraging and allowing more substantive options for effective energy management in near-real time.