Technology Roadmap towards 2030 and Beyond

This project will provide a better understanding of emerging technologies and their energy related performances, helping us to achieve greater efficiency. loT technology and other advanced energy management systems potentially offer both advantages and challenges. A more thorough review of plug load devices is needed to develop a better measure of savings via loT and "smart" devices. CalPlug will consider the mechanisms behind smart and especially interconnected appliances and identify ways to achieve additional savings at a lower cost overall.

Both ZNE and near-ZNE structures provide major benefits to California’s energy future. Cost-effective success for ZNE implementation requires conservation efforts primarily followed by energy offset and use/generation alignment, secondarily. Current efforts to drive efficiency in MELs are effective, and sustained focus will continue to reduce many categories of miscellaneous loads, including plug loads. Currently, underestimated and/or overlooked MELs can lead to ZNE development challenges via increased building loads or unplanned misalignment between onsite generation and energy requirements. Equity in the opportunities is also a concern. Split incentives and turnover make implementing measures for low income housing challenging. Most established plug-load categories show a projected net energy use decline, considering continued efficiency efforts, yet new concerns are on the horizon. Growth of the IoT, as commonly seen in home automation, has a potentially complex and largely unanalyzed impact on residential and commercial energy use. Cloud computing to enable IoT control can lead to shifts in data center energy use that may not be fully offset in some implementations. Residential IoT implementations have largely focused on user satisfaction versus energy savings; reconsideration of design may be necessary to improve intelligent control while Technology Roadmap towards 2030 and Beyond ET14SCE1160 California Plug Load Research Center Page iv December 2017 reducing overhead costs for providing connectivity. Energy models for IoT device savings must factor in energy offset for cloud computing-based control features. The increase in electric vehicle use has major impacts for residential energy requirements. Home healthcare devices are on the rise, due to an aging population and trends toward increasing outpatient care. Respiratory support devices are a major high-energy usage subset within the larger class of home healthcare devices. The rise of indoor agriculture due to the legalization of recreational cannabis could lead to substantial average energy increase for residences in popular growing regions – both legal and illegal growth operations have already caused substantial increases in energy consumption in growing regions in California, Colorado, and Oregon.