University of British Columbia – Demand Response Technical Assessment & Test

UBC has steadily grown for decades. The potential for capacity constraints on the T&D system serving the campus is imminent. Planning models illustrate peak loads exceeding N-1 contract capacity in the near future.

Energy 350 provided a technical assessment of campus demand response potential which included an audit of sample building stock and extrapolation over the 400 building campus. The goal of the work was to determine if demand response potential is great enough to defer upgrades to the transmission lines serving the campus. Multiple sources of DR were evaluated including, BMS, energy storage, Voltage and Var Optimization (VVO), residential heating and hot water, other sources of on-site energy generation.

After the building audits, a series of DR tests were conducted to simulate event calls. The tests were successful in identifying both what worked well and systems that did not respond as expected. Many of the DR measures performed exceptionally well with substantial peak load reductions. Energy 350 provided M&V and a final report documenting the impacts. UBC has since implemented many of the low cost/no cost recommendations from our work.