Plug & Process Loads

The National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) published a report on their Plug Load Management (PLM) System Field Study. NREL investigated PLM technology in two retail buildings, calculated associated energy and costs savings, and captured qualitative performance outcomes.

To further their commitment to green building and leading by example, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) included an ultra-energy-efficient data center in their new Research Support Facility, resulting in annual cost savings of $200,000 in utility bills and an annual reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of nearly 5,000,000 pounds.

To address the trivial task of monitoring thousands of plug loads in today's large buildings, researchers at NREL proposed a method for combining a limited amount of smart plug metering with a device inventory to develop a disaggregated breakdown of device-level power consumption, revealing energy savings opportunities.

DOE's Integrated Lighting Campaign recognized the Minnesota Department of Transportation for installing integrated controls for plug loads and lighting systems at its Cedar Avenue Truck Station. 

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) successfully renovated the historic Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse, preserving the historic features and achieving Zero Energy Building (ZEB) status. The project earned LEED Platinum certification by reducing the building’s energy consumption, with a significant focus on reducing plug and process load energy use.

Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory conducted a study comparing energy and usability of remote virtual machines (VMs) accessed through zero-client devices with traditional laptop computers to determine if zero-client computing could be a solution to reducing building energy use.

In constructing a new research facility for its campus, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) project team identified the opportunity to design a world-class, energy-efficient data center to support its operations. In the first 11 months, this facility delivered cost savings of approximately $82,000 based on energy use cuts of nearly 1,450,000 kWh.

Each advanced power strip has three outlet types for equipment with various electricity needs. This infographic from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) describes the uses for each outlet type to help determine the smartest way to power office devices and save energy.

GSA’s Green Proving Ground (GPG) program recently assessed the effectiveness of advanced power strips (APS) in managing plugload energy consumption in eight of its buildings. Three types of plug-load reduction strategies were evaluated: schedule timer control, load-sensing control, and a combination of the two. Results underscored the effectiveness of schedule-based functionality, which reduced plug loads at workstations by 26% and by nearly 50% in printer rooms and kitchens.

This fact sheet introduces two emerging technologies that could streamline plug load management (PLM) for increased energy savings for building owners: learning behavior algorithms (LBA) and automatic and dynamic load detection (ADLD). 

This fact sheet provides highlights and key takeaways from the University of California San Diego's (UCSD) 10-page “Best Practices for Plug Load Management Using a Building Energy Management System”, which describes 8 detailed steps to guide a building owner/operator on how to successfully integrate plug load controls with their building energy management system.

Many consumer electronics continue to draw power even when they are switched off. This is known as a "vampire load," and can add up to about $200 in yearly energy costs for an average home. By replacing standard power strips with an Advanced Power Strip (APS), you can significantly cut the amount of electricity used by your home office and entertainment center devices, and save money on your electric bill.

Smart outlets control the flow of power to devices plugged into them and measure their energy use. Use this fact sheet to learn more about what smart outlets are and how to use them, how to procure smart outlets, and how to maintain a smart outlet system for optimal savings.

Prospective building occupants and real estate brokers need accurate references for PPL capacity requirements. This brochure has references that can help reduce the plug load capacities designed into buildings.

This fact sheet summarizes ATLIS, a plug load management system framework that takes advantage of smart, connected devices to identify device locations in a building, meter and control their power, and communicate this information to a central system.

Automatic receptacle controls (ARCs) can help building owners and occupants reduce plug load energy use. Therefore, a growing number of states and local jurisdictions are requiring ARCs as part of their commercial building energy codes. Learn more about what ARCs are and why they should be included in building energy codes. Click here for the Spanish version. 

This resource describes how Medical Imaging Equipment (MIE) energy reduction strategies can reduce the overall energy consumption of healthcare facilities.

This guide describes the process needed to cost-effectively reduce PPL energy impact in retail buildings. It includes general and appliance-specific PPL control strategies.

This guide from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency describes how local governments have planned and implemented energy-efficient product procurement programs to reduce energy costs and create a range of environmental and economic benefits.

This resource is an introductory guide for commercial building process loads and is intended to help commercial building owners and operators reduce process load energy consumption.

The decision guides found in this resource were created to help building owners find the right control strategy for PPLs in their buildings.

This guide will help office building owners and energy managers reduce PPL energy use. It includes a process for developing a PPL control strategy for office buildings.

List of incentives and rebates offered by utilities for plug and process load controls.

This session highlighted innovative approaches to controlling plug loads with other systems, including highlights from a field evaluation of LED systems equipped with advanced lighting controls that interface with the HVAC systems and plug loads.

This presentation was prepared for healthcare sector stakeholders as a resource on Medical Imaging Equipment (MIE) energy use. It provides an overview of existing work, reviews existing literature on MIE energy use and identifies energy efficiency opportunities.

This paper documents the methodology NREL researchers developed to identify and reduce PPLs as part of the RSF’s low energy design process.

This report examines smart, wireless plug and process load (PPL) meter and control technologies and recommends research on integrating PPL data into EMIS platforms, making PPL data interoperable with other building end-use data and, developing and testing automatic PPL controls.

This project demonstrated the performance of commercially available advanced power strips (APSs) for plug load energy reductions in building A4 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), Hawaii.

This report documents the methodology used to procure, construct, and operate an energy-efficient data center suitable for a net-zero-energy-use building - NREL's Research Support Facility.
 

This study from GSA aims to provide insight on how to effectively manage plug load energy consumption and attain higher energy and cost savings for plug loads.

This paper documents the process (and results) of applying advanced power strips with various control approaches, including manual control, automatic low-power state, schedule timers, load-sensing, occupancy, and vacancy.

NREL has developed guidance for evaluating and selecting a range of technologies to control plug and process loads.

Learning behavior algorithms and automatic and dynamic load detection are technology areas that could accelerate plug load management system adoption by reducing installation demands and providing additional energy efficiency and nonenergy benefits. This paper includes findings on the current state of these technologies.

This report investigates why Plug and Process Load (PPL) technologies and strategies have not seen widespread adoption and identify behavior and technology pathways to increase PPL reduction in U.S. commercial buildings.

This report addresses gaps in actionable knowledge that would help reduce the plug load capacities designed into buildings.

The Automatic Type and Location Identification System (or ATLIS, for short) is a plug load management system framework that takes advantage of smart, connected devices to identify device locations in a building, meter and control their power, and communicate this information to a central system. This paper describes ATLIS and details some of its many applications beyond plug load management.

This report investigated why plug and process load (PPL) technologies and strategies have not seen widespread adoption and identified five behavior and technology pathways to increase PPL reduction in commercial buildings. The team expanded beyond identifying the pathways and discussed approaches for achieving them.

DOE commissioned NREL to partner with two hospitals (MGH and SUNY UMU) to collect data on the energy used for multiple thermal and electrical end-use categories.

This specification provides a description of required and recommended performance characteristics resulting in increased energy savings for Dry-LVDTs in commercial buildings.

This specification provides detailed selection criteria for five major APSs, and sets standards for modeling APSs. It is intended to help those who procure APSs select the most effective models for their commercial buildings.

This toolkit provides guidance on understanding the numerous strategies for reducing plug and process load (PPL) energy consumption in your buildings, including how to select the right strategy for devices, building types, and occupant needs to maximize energy savings.

This toolkit is designed to support owners and operators of existing buildings in planning retrofit and operational strategies to achieve emissions reductions. Low Carbon Technology Strategies are currently available for 10 building types. Recommendations are grouped by technology, with actions categorized as either simple, intermediate, or advanced.

This webinar included a discussion by NREL on simple low-cost and portable plug and process loads interventions.

Subject matter experts walk through the details of the APS specification and provide examples of how stakeholders can apply the specification (e.g., tenants in leased spaces, building owners and managers across their portfolios, utilities for energy incentive programs).

Members of the California Plug Load Research Center (CalPlug) provide insights on their plug and process loads research focus areas that affect commercial building efficiency: plug load appliances and devices in use, consumer behavior studies, energy conservation in server rooms, and benchmarking energy efficiency prototypes and products.

Experts from NREL discuss the implications of navigating cybersecurity with smart outlets.

Watch this webinar to learn about how Better Buildings healthcare partners deploy submetering strategies to identify energy-savings opportunities.

A researcher from NREL summarizes a recent field study that assessed a wireless meter and control system (a.k.a. "smart outlets") for plug loads in two retail environments.

Researchers from University of Michigan and ACEEE present their respective work on zero-client computing in office settings and energy savings from set top box and small-network voluntary agreements. 

Researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) present recently published studies that describe novel approaches for better understanding device-level energy consumption in buildings.

This webinar focuses on automatic receptacle controls – a method for reducing plug load energy consumption – and their inclusion in the 2021 IECC code cycle, as well as a study of how the code requirements are affecting various stakeholders.

On this webinar, presenters discussed Oregon’s Statewide Plug Load Strategy, the state’s adoption of ASHRAE 90.1-2016 energy codes, and Oregon’s recently adopted Energy and Resource Conservation Policy, which includes several components of the Plug Load Strategy.

How people use plug load devices can strongly affect their energy consumption. This webinar highlighted what factors are most important for certain types of devices, and how to reduce inefficiencies.

Properly managing plug loads was a key reason the Houston Advanced Research Center was able to make its headquarters the first Net Zero Energy certified office building in Texas in early 2020. This webinar explored the different stages of plug load consumption and the strategies used to manage and reduce plug loads and overall building energy consumption.

Properly managing plug loads in a building can lead to substantial energy savings and other non-energy benefits, and many of these management strategies require little to no upfront cost! Hear from building managers about their experiences and successes in managing their building’s plug loads.

Learn how the Minnesota Department of Transportation Cedar Avenue Truck Station accomplished plug load controls integration with lighting occupancy sensors and how the University of California San Diego is integrating plug load controls with their building management system, facilities information management system, and occupancy data system.

Watch this webinar to learn about how Better Buildings healthcare partners deploy submetering strategies to identify energy-savings opportunities.

Properly managing larger plug and process loads, often referred to as process loads, can lead to substantial energy savings. Watch to hear from two organizations about their experiences and successes in managing process loads.