Field Experiment of Demand Responsive Load Control in Office Buildings in Summer and Winter: Analysis of Load Reduction Impact and Customers' Acceptance

Abstract

To explore the possibility of implementation of demand response (DR) program for Japanese commercial buildings, we studied the load impact and customers' acceptance of demand responsive air-conditioning and lighting load control through a field test at two office buildings located in southern Tokyo Metropolitan area, which was conducted in summer and winter of FY2012. The summer experiment results show that, automated DR (ADR) control can shed the load demand during DR hours with some certainty but very likely decreases the subjective working efficiency of workers in the controlled floors. This implies that advanced ADR control techniques having little effect on working efficiency are needed to gain the customers' acceptance and improve the DR value. Pre-cooling might be a promising summer DR technique. The winter experiment results show that, ADR control sheds load with high uncertainty and further research is needed to develop winter DR techniques.