What Trends will stick for Buildings and AHR attendees with Smart Grid?

Electricity is the single largest energy issue for Buildings and Refrigeration, and very likely the purchased commodity with the most price volatility. So what should AHR attendees be concerned about? At the national level, a new Congress is rumored to be entertaining energy policy again and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is flexing its muscles in the Retail Energy Markets, while State Houses and Regulatory Commissions are considering wide ranging policy that will impact electricity. What is truly exciting is that electricity is the only line item on the building budget that can also be a profit center! If you are concerned about your budget, your building environmental quality, the planet or just wanting to catch up on the latest energy trends, these sessions are not to be missed.

The GridWise Architecture Council has been an Endorsing Organization at AHR for six years, and in that role is offering two sessions as part of the AHR Educational panels. Visit the AHR Website at http://www.ahrexpo.com/forexhibitors/2013ed-free.php to learn more about these free sessions that are open for anyone who wants to learn more. The sessions are:

Smart Buildings Meet Smart Grid Meet Smart Money
Monday, January 28, 10:30am - 12:30pm Room D174, Dallas Convention Center

This session will include a panel of seasoned experts covering changes related to SmartGrid technology that have been occurring in our industry for the past decade, and it’s not just about the bits and bytes. These experts will discuss business models and electricity capital topics including on-bill financing, DR developments, energy-targeted venture capital and other related topics. More importantly they will focus on why the AHR community should learn about these topics, and how they can bring value in a variety of ways.

Next Generation BAS and Integration with the SmartGrid
Tuesday, January 29, 10:30am - 12:30pm Room D174 Dallas Convention Center

This session will include a panel of seasoned experts covering Automated Demand Response, Demand Bidding, and Meter Interfaces. These are all terms we hear in the buildings industry more and more these days, but struggle to put in context when evaluating building improvements. This session will present the state of the industry along with best practices in analytics and dashboards from some of the leaders in this growing segment of the building controls market. Next generation products including software are rapidly hitting the market, while Demand Response is nearly a decade in application. What should AHR know about the current state of the art and upcoming energy/electricity developments that will reshape the industry.

These topics are particularly important for readers of www.automatedbuildings.com because the enabling technology for all of these developments is automation. The definition of “Integration” for building systems continues to morph and expand to include a wide range of technologies, as well as meters, etc. Equally important the most exciting trends underway today all involve information and analytics. Whether the automation industry will embrace the term “Big Data” remains to be seen. Whatever the term, the source for much of this data will be integrated systems, and more than ever these systems will be controlling an enterprise made up of multiple buildings. Few arenas have seen more change of this type than energy and electricity, and Smart Grid is at the epicenter of much of this change. Come and learn more in Dallas.

Jack Mc Gowan, CEM

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