Intelligent Outlets, Commercial

Summary

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Intelligent Outlets, Commercial

Outlet: Intelligent vs. Conventional

Modular outlets that plug into existing outlets and are programmable to minimize equipment operation and "vampire loads" when plug load is not in use, and reports energy use to a computer or smartphone.

Synopsis:

Many manufacturers currently offer intelligent outlets. These devices offer a variety of programmable scheduling, measurement, automatic and/or remote device control, and wireless energy use reporting capabilities. These units plug into regular electrical outlets to prevent vampire energy use, reduce the costs to operate electronic equipment, and monitor energy usage. Smart outlets support energy management efforts by measuring energy usage of connected devices and systems in the home or distributed office. They help identify power savings potential based on actual energy demand, not just manufacturers’ nameplate information.

In office settings, plugs loads can account for as much as 20% of energy use with computers, monitors, and laser printers being the biggest energy users other than space heaters, which are generally discouraged but nonetheless ubiquitous in some offices and other commercial buildings.(Horsey, 2012) GSA reports that approximately 21% of the total electricity consumed in their standard office buildings is due to plug loads (excluding data center and telecom equipment). The range varies widely, with plug loads accounting for anywhere between 8% and 35% of total building energy consumption (Metzger, 2012).

Estimates of energy savings from using smart plugs or power strips vary depending upon the type of smart plug used, which devices are connected to the plug, how the user currently operates the devices, availability of sensors and logic that automatically power down equipment when not in use, and the degree that the users operates the remote access and control features built into the smart plug. Savings are also dependent upon the automatic controls built into devices that switch to lower power or sleep modes when not in actual use and even the contrast settings used on monitors. In addition to occupant behavior, savings are heavily dependent upon device procurement practices---they are reduced when efficient devices are purchased and when aggressive power management settings are deployed.
BC Hydro tested ThinkEco Modlet (Modern Outlet) smart plugs at a small cabinet shop and found that they resulted in a 44% annual energy use reduction (about 280 kWh/Modlet). The BC Hydro tests yielded particularly attractive energy savings as portable electric space heaters were plugged into the outlets and historically had been left on all night. Smart plugs are best used with outlets with high plug loads.(Wilcock, 2012)

Energy Savings: 26%

Energy Savings Rating: Approved Measure What's this?

Level	Status	Description
1	Concept not validated	Claims of energy savings may not be credible due to lack of documentation or validation by unbiased experts.
2	Concept validated:	An unbiased expert has validated efficiency concepts through technical review and calculations based on engineering principles.
3	Limited assessment	An unbiased expert has measured technology characteristics and factors of energy use through one or more tests in typical applications with a clear baseline.
4	Extensive assessment	Additional testing in relevant applications and environments has increased knowledge of performance across a broad range of products, applications, and system conditions.
5	Comprehensive analysis	Results of lab and field tests have been used to develop methods for reliable prediction of performance across the range of intended applications.
6	Approved measure	Protocols for technology application are established and approved.

Simple Payback, New Construction (years): 8.4 What's this?

Simple Payback, Retrofit (years): 8.4 What's this?

Simple Payback is one tool used to estimate the cost-effectiveness of a proposed investment, such as the investment in an energy efficient technology. Simple payback indicates how many years it will take for the initial investment to "pay itself back." The basic formula for calculating a simple payback is:

Simple Payback = Incremental First Cost / Annual Savings

The Incremental Cost is determined by subtracting the Baseline First Cost from the Measure First Cost.

For New Construction, the Baseline First Cost is the cost to purchase the standard practice technology. The Measure First Cost is the cost of the alternative, more energy efficienct technology. Installation costs are not included, as it is assumed that installation costs are approximately the same for the Baseline and the Emerging Technology.

For Retrofit scenarios, the Baseline First Cost is $0, since the baseline scenario is to leave the existing equipment in place. The Emerging Technology First Cost is the Measure First Cost plus Installation Cost (the cost of the replacement technology, plus the labor cost to install it). Retrofit scenarios generally have a higher First Cost and longer Simple Paybacks than New Construction scenarios.

Simple Paybacks are called "simple" because they do not include details such as the time value of money or inflation, and often do not include operations and maintenance (O&M) costs or end-of-life disposal costs. However, they can still provide a powerful tool for a quick assessment of a proposed measure. These paybacks are rough estimates based upon best available data, and should be treated with caution. For major financial decisions, it is suggested that a full Lifecycle Cost Analysis be performed which includes the unique details of your situation.

The energy savings estimates are based upon an electric rate of $.09/kWh, and are calculated by comparing the range of estimated energy savings to the baseline energy use. For most technologies, this results in "Typical," "Fast" and "Slow" payback estimates, corresponding with the "Typical," "High" and "Low" estimates of energy savings, respectively.

TAG Technical Score: 3.22

Details

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Intelligent Outlets, Commercial

Outlet: Intelligent vs. Conventional

Item ID: 468

Sector: Commercial

Energy System: Multiple Energy Systems--Energy Management

Technical Advisory Group: 2014 Commercial Building TAG (#9)
Average TAG Rating: 3.06 out of 5
TAG Ranking Date: 03/17/2014

Synopsis:

Baseline Example:

Baseline Description: Standard plug with no appliance control
Baseline Energy Use: 363 kWh per year per unit

Comments:

Smart outlets can be used in the commercial sector. NYSERDA conducted a demonstration project with small businesses that involved sending 25 ThinkEco Modlets to each of 10 offices to use with a representative sample of non-server plug loads. Monitoring occurred for a period of two months each to establish a baseline, and determine savings under a "set it and forget it" and an "active engagement" approach. The potential energy savings at the 10 offices ranged from 675 to about 5,670 kWh year with the average annual potential savings being 2,813 kWh per small business. Potential savings were determined through examination of logged power data for the connected devices and considering power draws during off, hibernate, sleep, idle, and active modes of operation. The potential energy savings amounted to about 31% of the baseline annual energy use for the devices connected to the smart outlets.

The baseline plug load was determined for the outlets equipped with Modlets. It amounted to about 9,091 kWh per year for each small business or 363 kWh per Modlet deployed. (Perry, 2013)

ThinkEco Modlet smart plugs were also tested by BC Hydro at a small cabinet shop resulted in a 44% plug load energy use reduction (about 280 kWh/year per Modlet). The BC Hydro tests yielded particularly attractive energy savings as portable space heaters were plugged into the outlets and historically had been left on at night. Smart outlets are best used with outlets with high sleep mode loads or loads during unoccupied periods. Savings when used on equipment with on/off switches (such as drill presses) was negligible as was savings on music systems where users were in the habit of turning the equipment off at night. The baseline energy use varies tremendously due to what is plugged in to a wall outlet and the reliance on users to turn equipment on and off. Back-calculating from the BC Hydro report, the typical baseline energy use in a light manufacturing outlet is about 600 kWh. If someone was assigned to turn off the space heaters at night, the baseline use would be much lower. (Wilcock, 2012)

Manufacturer's Energy Savings Claims:

"Typical" Savings: 20%
Savings Range: From 20% to 50%

Best Estimate of Energy Savings:

"Typical" Savings: 26%
Low and High Energy Savings: 9% to 44%
Energy Savings Reliability: 6 - Approved Measure

Comments:

NYSERDA conducted a demonstration project with small businesses that involved sending 25 ThinkEco Modlets to each of 10 offices to use with a representative sample of non-server plug loads. Monitoring occurred for a period of two months each to establish a baseline, and determine savings under a "set it and forget it" and an "active engagement" approach. Potential energy savings at the 10 offices ranged from 675 to about 5,670 kWh year with the average annual savings potential being 2,813 kWh per small business (or 112 kWh/year per modlet) valued at about $253 per office given a Northwest electrical rate of about $0.09/kWh. (ThinkEco, 2014), (Perry, 2013) Potential savings were determined through examination of logged power data for the connected devices and considering power draws during off, hibernate, sleep, idle, and active modes of operation.

The actual or realized savings obtained through deploying and programming the Modlets amounted to an extrapolated value of 1,220 kWh/year per small business ranging from 19% to 68% of the plug load potential savings. The reduction in the baseline total plug load (considering both active and sleep modes) was found to be 13.4% (This is the measured energy savings realized compared to the baseline measurements for all plug loads connected to the Modlets. Note: not all plug loads were connected. Refrigerators, for instance, cannot be turned off during non business hours) (Perry, 2013) This equates to an achieved energy savings of about $109 per year per business (@$0.09/kWh) or about 50 kWh per year per Modlet deployed. Realized savings are about 43% of the potential identified energy savings. (ThinkEco, 2014), (Perry, 2013) The value of these savings is about $4.40 per year per Modlet (@0.09/kWh). Given a first cost of about $71 dollars, the simple payback is about 16.1 years when both Modlet installation costs and debugging time are neglected. Note, however, that many of the Modlets were assigned to devices that did not warrant smart control i.e. phantom or controllable loads were minimal.

Ecos installed upgrades to control 39 devices at a library and a small office. Affected plug load energy consumption was reduced by 17% at the library and 46% at the office (Mercier, 2011). The low and no-cost energy savings strategies could save about 12,270 kWh/year at the library and about 5,180 kWh/year at the small business. (447 kWh/year per controlled device. Note that the Ecos recommendations went beyond smart plug control and included the purchase of more efficient devices and dimming of monitor contrast). A total of 924 plug load devices were in the two buildings so the project manager "cherry picked" the loads to be controlled and extended power management and timer control only to those energy consuming devices (4.2% of the total) with the greatest energy savings potential.

BC Hydro conducted field tests of the ThinkEco Modlet and achieved annual plug load energy savings of 44% during the winter period---equivalent to 280 kWh per smart plug deployed. Savings dropped to 14% in the summer (Wilcock, 2012). These savings might not be typical as, in this cabinet shop environment, portable space heaters were plugged into many of the wall outlets. These units had been historically left on at night, so energy savings from space heater control were unusually high.

Note that the primary target for energy savings for smart outlets is plug loads that occur during night-time and weekend (or non-business) hours. No demand reduction savings or benefits should be attributed to this technology. The value of the energy savings will decrease for utility customers that are under time-of-day rate schedules.

Note: Use of intelligent power strips is a deemed measure under the October 1, 2014 BPA "Energy Efficiency Implementation Manual". The deemed amount is $15 per strip

Energy Use of Emerging Technology:

268.6 kWh per unit per year What's this?

Energy Use of an Emerging Technology is based upon the following algorithm.

Baseline Energy Use - (Baseline Energy Use * Best Estimate of Energy Savings (either Typical savings OR the high range of savings.))

Comments:

The energy use with the emerging technology installed is equal to the baseline plug load of 363 kWh per year (per outlet with Modlet control) less an anticipated 100 kWh per year savings due to use of smart outlets. Note that each Modlet has two sockets and each can be programmed separately. A conventional power strip can be plugged into a Modlet socket and used to control multiple devices with similar schedules. The 100 kWh annual savings assumes that smart plugs are only used with devices with enough potential savings to justify the purchase and installation of the smart plug.

Technical Potential:
Units: unit
Potential number of units replaced by this technology: 3,000,000
Comments:

These outlets can control a number of loads, so it difficult to predict exactly where they will be used in the commercial sector. We use as a proxy for the number of loads that may be controlled in this way the number of desktop computers installed in the commercial sector. According to a Navigant report, in 2011, there were 74,000,000 desktops installed in the commercial sector in the US (Navigant, 2013 Pg 41). Take 4% of that, since the Northwest has a population of 4% of the US, to get 3,000,000 desktops in the region.

Regional Technical Potential:
0.28 TWh per year
32 aMW
What's this?

Regional Technical Potential of an Emerging Technology is calculated as follows:

Baseline Energy Use * Estimate of Energy Savings (either Typical savings OR the high range of savings) * Technical Potential (potential number of units replaced by the Emerging Technology)

First Cost:

Installed first cost per: unit
Emerging Technology Unit Cost (Equipment Only): $71.00
Emerging Technology Installation Cost (Labor, Disposal, Etc.): $0.00
Baseline Technology Unit Cost (Equipment Only): $0.00

Comments:

BC Hydro conducted a study under which 10 ThinkEco Modlets were installed for plug load management. Purchase and shipping costs were $709.99 for the ten units. Actual installation was easy (taking one hour for the ten Modlets) as the devices plug into standard wall outlets but have circuitry that monitors power consumption as well as executes schedules for turning each socket on and off. The Modlets connected with a local computer via a USB Key and a Zigbee mesh-network. For each Modlet, the user must enter the name of the connected appliances with the type of appliance selected from a drop down list. Modlets had to be activated one by one and connection via the Zigbee network became more problematic as the number of Modlets increased. After initiation, the Modlets didn't "stay connected" all of the time. Modlets were "lost" on the web-interface when they were moved to new locations in the building. About 14 hours of time was required to debug and connect the ten Modlets (Wilcock, 2012). BC Hydro concluded that opportunities for Modlet use are not prevalent (and they spent some time looking for opportunities) and the savings are small for the trouble involved.Once the system was up and running, the Modlet scheduling worked as advertised. BC Hydro concluded that it takes a devoted energy-saver to persever with this product.

Note: No installation costs are incurred as it is expected that the building operator would install the units thermselves.

Cost Effectiveness:

Simple payback, new construction (years): 8.4

Simple payback, retrofit (years): 8.4

What's this?

Cost Effectiveness is calculated using baseline energy use, best estimate of typical energy savings, and first cost. It does not account for factors such as impacts on O&M costs (which could be significant if product life is greatly extended) or savings of non-electric fuels such as natural gas. Actual overall cost effectiveness could be significantly different based on these other factors.

Reference and Citations:

Duncan Wilcock, 05/31/2012. Technical Trials of Ecobee and Modlet at Gillingham Cabinets
BC Hydro

ECOVA, 2013. Efficient Products
EfficientProducts.org

Scott Pigg, 08/23/2010. Energy Savings Opportunities with Home Electronics and Other Plug-Load Devices: Results from a Minnesota Field Study
Energy Center of Wisconsin

Navigant, 12/01/2013. Analysis and Representation of Miscellaneous Electric Loads in NEMS
U.S. Energy Information Administration

Jeff McDermott, 05/01/2011. Managing Plug Load is the Next Challenge for Energy Efficient Buildings
AutomatedBuildings.com

New Buildings Institute, 04/15/2014. Managing your Office Equipment Plug Load
New Buildings Institute

ThinkEco, 04/15/2014. Pilot Study: Plug Load Energy Management in Commercial Offices
ThinkEco

Mary Horsey, 08/01/2012. Commercial Plug Loads
edc magazine

Spencer Sator, 01/01/2008. Managing Office Plug Loads
E-Source Customer Direct

Heidi Perry, 02/21/2013. Plug Load Energy Management for Smaller Businesses
ThinkEco , Funded by NYSERDA

Catherine Mercier, 12/01/2011. Commercial Office Plug Load Savings Assessment
ECOS , Public Interest Energy Research Program (PIER)

Ian Metzger, 06/18/2012. Plug-Load Control and Behavioral Change Research in GAO Office Buildings
National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Rank & Scores

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Intelligent Outlets, Commercial

2014 Commercial Building TAG (#9)

Technical Advisory Group: 2014 Commercial Building TAG (#9)
TAG Ranking: 11 out of 44 Technologies (2014 Commercial TAG strategies ranked separately)
Average TAG Rating: 3.06 out of 5
TAG Ranking Date: 03/17/2014
TAG Rating Commentary:

Technical Score Details

TAG Technical Score: 3.2 out of 5

How significant and reliable are the energy savings?
Energy Savings Score: 3.2 Comments:

Depends mostly on how plug loads are currently managed (e.g. if users are already turning monitors off at night and unplugging equipment over breaks). Because of the granularity in reporting, the ability to do detailed M&V is embedded in the technology, making it a great option for guaranteed savings models.
Depends on baseline efficiency of current building operations.
Could be as high as 40% of some (60%?) of the plug load (night time and un-occupied times) for major equipment but not all. Unclear from the presentation what the unit savings (per square foot of floor area) or percent of load, or regional savings could be. I'd say they could result in 20-30% of the total plug load which can be as high as 40% of total building load, but is more like 20% in conventional buildings. So rough squishy math gives us a low of 4% to a high of 12% of total electrical energy.
Dependent on what is plugged into the outlets.
It sounds like from the discussion that the savings can vary depending on what they are plugged into and that the savings can be quite large if applied correctly.
"Savings are highly dependant on the type of business and type of plug loads. The trial that BC Hydro conducted saw impressive savings but not all offices or small businesses will have space heaters pulgged in. I also agree that businesses may want to buy a few smart strips or intelligent outlets and see how it can benefit their business before expanding the deployment.There is also a growing school of thought that real-time monitoring of plug loads for a couple of months will identify waste and a steady state will be achieved. On that basis I would rate the service fee models at a '1' ."

How great are the non-energy advantages for adopting this technology?
Non-Energy Benefits Score: 2.2
Comments:

Possible increase in equipment life.
Minimal. Mostly an energy play.
Lots of new controllability options for plug loads.
The monitoring of usage is a key and the remote operatability is a key feature; but this value deminishes after a few months.
I would prefer to say "neutral" on this point - I don't believe there are ill effects or positive effects aside from energy efficiency.

How ready are product and provider to scale up for widespread use in the Pacific Northwest?
Technology Readiness Score: 3.9
Comments:

These products are readily available.
Should be a quick scale up if there was a regional campaign.
It appears that there are plenty of manufacturers with these product available but they are changing quickly as far as capability.
Seems like there's enough manufacturers to handle demand.

How easy is it to change to the proposed technology?
Ease of Adoption Score: 3.8
Comments:

Little behavioral change required; though if something goes awry and gets turned off when it was not supposed to, could see pushback/frustration from non-engaged occupants.
This should be a simple installation.
Super easy, as long as instructions go out about where to use them (older, higher load equipment, non-critical equipment (i.e. quick off or overnight off is OK).
The answer is very good for one product and OK for the other product.
This really is a plug and play technology.
It seems as though it would be more difficult to implement the programmable outlets, in that there needs to be an informed individual making the programming decisions and paying attention to how the system is functioning over time in order for best efficiencies to be gained. Also, the user needs to be cautious about selecting which outlets to change to this technology. Ultimately, though, it's a matter of plugging something in, and that's about as easy as it gets.

Considering all costs and all benefits, how good a purchase is this technology for the owner?
Value Score: 3.0
Comments:

As with all technologies, it is highly dependent on the base case operating conditions and thus the potential savings available. Given the quantity of products in this field, it seems likely that first cost will continue to decrease over time so it is a good technology to subsidize now.
The limitation seems to be the low savings and high cost but this should come down with increased sales. Unknown how it ties in with EMS or other control approaches.
Very good for the right applications.
Payback is lengthy and cost is high for relatively low annual savings.
Here again, one is Very Good and the other is OK or poor. Sounds like more expensive system also requires a lot of time to set up which is fine for companies with nerds so Microsoft and Intel should definitely deploy.
Looks like economics could use more investigation.
Needs to be marketed carefully to ensure the ideal conditions for implementation are understood (i.e. where appliances do not already have smart electronics embedded, and where occupancy hours are predictable).
The smart plug load controls are particularly useful to meeting ZNE goals and for commercial and institutional applications. The simpler versions with only local occupancy controls ( not wireless communication) are more cost effective for the residential and small commercial use

Completed:
5/2/2014 8:39:43 AM
Last Edited:
5/2/2014 8:39:43 AM

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