510-486-7089 BNordman@LBL.gov

90-2000 1 Cyclotron Road Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Berkeley, CA 94720-8130 USA  Building Technology and Urban Systems Division

Current Major Research Topics

Local Power Distribution - "Nanogrids".	Energy Star program support
Lighting Control User Interface Standards.	Energy Reporting

Local Power Distribution - Nanogrids

Today, most electricity use occurs within a single "pool" of power provided by the utility grid, much like the U.S. phone system was a single managed entity. An alternative is to move to a networked model of electricity distribution, particularly within buildings. We call this "Local Power Distribution", with the smallest unit within this the "Nanogrid".

• Reinventing Power Distribution in Buildings, poster for Solar Power International, September, 2017.
• A Simulation of Local Power Distribution Control Strategies, Second International Conference on DC Microgrids, Nurnburg, Germany, June 2017.  Slides.
  

• Think Globally, Distribute Power Locally: The Promise of Nanogrids, IEEE Computer "Green IT" Column, September 2012.
• DC Local Power Distribution with Microgrids and Nanogrids, First International Conference on DC Microgrids, Atlanta, GA, June 2015. Slides
• The Need for Communications to Enable DC Power to be Successful, First International Conference on DC Microgrids, Atlanta, GA, June 2015. Slides


• DC Local Power Distribution: Technology, deployment, and pathways to success IEEE Electrification Magazine, June 2016.
• Optimizing Device Operation with a Local Electricity Price, Micro-Energy International: Innovating Energy Access for Remote Areas: Discovering Untapped Resources, Berkeley, CA, April 2014. Slides
• Local Power Distribution with Nanogrids, International Green Computing Conference, Arlington, VA, June 2013.
• Electricity Technology Needs for Energy Access, prepared for the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference, San Jose, CA, October 2017.
  


• Rethinking Grids with Local Power Distribution, Keynote address to ACM e-Energy, Bangalore, India, July 2015.
• "The Fit Grid"-Principles for a better electric future, submission for the SEPA 51st State Process, Phase 2, March 2016.
• Grid Architecture for Buildings, prepared for GMLC Grid Architecture project, December 2019.


• Local Grid Definitions, developed by the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel, Home, Building and Industrial Working Group, February 25, 2016.
• Networked Local Power Distribution with Nanogrids from the 2nd Military and Commercial Microgrids workshop, May 2013. These update the presentation slides on Dynamic Nanogrid Concepts from the DOD Advanced Microgrid Concepts and Technologies Workshop, June 7-8, 2012. (a version of this also presented at the ACEEE 2012 Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August 15, 2012

Older Material

• Paper on Nanogrids: Evolving our electricity systems from the bottom up (May, 2010). Darnell Green Building Power Forum. Also, slides for the presentation.

Other Current Projects / Interests

• Energy Reporting over Internet Protocol networks. 2016 Report. 2013 Report. Energy Reporting Framework and IETF Energy Management Working Group (concluded)
• Device Classification. Report on Simple Universal Device Classification (2014), Internet Draft and Presentation from IETF 82. Taxonomy of electronic and miscellaneous products (2006)
• Occupancy Detection with Wi-Fi and more, 2017 Paper 2017 Report, 2015 Report, 2-page discussion paper.
• Low-power mode residential energy consumption (almost 15% of California residential electricity is products in some low-power mode; about 2/3 electronics).
  • First estimate (2004): Developing and Testing Low Power Mode Measurement Methods
  • Updated estimate (2008): L ow-Power Mode Energy Consumption in California Homes
• Low-power mode policy and regulation.
  • Terminology and Definitions Needs for Low Power Mode Energy Use with Network Connectivity, prepared for CLASP, March 27, 2013
  • European Union EuP Lot 26 'Network Standby': Comments prepared for CLASP on Tasks 1-7 (Jan 2011) and Comments prepared for CLASP on Tasks 8 (May 2011)
  • Policy needs and approaches for Network Standby (report for IEA-4E): Standby Power and Low Energy Networks - issues and directions
  • EEDAL paper on Network connectivity and low-power mode energy consumption (2009)
  • Slides presented at EEDAL 2011 on the Network Standby
• Service Provider Pays - how to save more set-top box energy use more easily.
• Network equipment energy use - U.S. total estimate for 2008

Select Talks

• Electronics, Networks, and Energy, IEEE Conference on Consumer Electronics (ICCE), January 10, 2011
• Proxying: Reducing PC energy use with network technology - EEDN Seminar , September 10, 2010. 1 slide/page PDF or 6 slides/page PDF
• What the Real World Tells Us about Saving Energy in Electronics - Symposium on Energy Efficient Electronic Systems (E3S) — CITRIS / UCB , June 11, 2009
• Linux, Energy, and Networks: "Saving Large Amounts of Energy With Network Connectivity Proxying" - Linux Collaborative Summit, April 9, 2009
• ICT, Networks, and Energy: The Energy Perspective - OFC / NFOEC conference, March 22, 2009
• Digital Networks: Energy and Beyond - LBNL/EETD noon Seminar, January 9, 2009 (at actual seminar, only electronics slides shown)

Buildings as Networks

A large amount of future energy savings in buildings is only possible through closely matching the energy services delivered to occupants to what they need and desire at each particular point in time (and as informed by prices). This is only possible by highly dynamic, effective, functional, and robust future building networks, which are in turn only possible through adopting the goal of Universal Interoperability.

This needs to be the basis of a globally standard network architecture for future building networks. Just as the Internet was not an evolutionary step from existing common information networks, but rather introduced many new concepts, future building networks need to be designed from the ground up, not by adapting existing controls technologies. As with the Internet, we should expect this to enable future functionalities for buildings that we have not even imagined today.

• Beyond the Smart Grid: Building Networks - (paper May, 2010)
• Networks in Buildings: Which Path Forward?. ACEEE Summer Study Paper Paper. See also the slide presentation for this listed below. This incorporates most of the content of the draft discussion paper Necessary design infrastructure for energy-efficient networked buildings (February 12, 2008).
• Buildings as Networks: Danger, Opportunity, and Guiding Principles for Energy Efficiency. From a workshop on "Digital Networks", held at the International Energy Agency on July 6, 2007.
• Future Networking of Displays - speculation on where technology and energy use is headed (excerpted from EPA / Energy Star slides for Displays Stakeholder Meeting Sept. 25, 2008).

Presentations

• House of the Further Future: the 'Networked' House - LBNL Science at the Theater, May 10, 2010. Video available on YouTube
• The Case "Against" the Smart Grid - at I4energy Seminar Series - CITRIS — CITRIS / UCB , October 2, 2009. Video available on YouTube
• Networks, Standards, and Energy: The Energy Perspective - IEA/IEC/ISO Workshop on Standards and Climate Change, March 16-17, 2009
• Building Networks for the 22nd Century - EPRI AMI/HAN work group, February 13, 2009
• Networks in Buildings: Which Path Forward? - 2008 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings, August, 2008
• Thermostats. See a recent talk on Climate control for 2020 - T-stats as a digital network presented October 15, 2007 to a workshop on thermostats at LBNL

Past Projects

Power Management Controls - standards for terms, symbols, indicators, etc. to increase power management savings.

Audio/Video Inter-Device Power Control - Proposed standard mechanism for managing audio/video content streams to enable automatic power management of A/V devices.

Materials Use / Consumption This is no longer an active research area of mine.

Paper End-Use Efficiency - practical information on reducing paper use. This web site dates from Fall, 1998, but much of the information is still applicable. Web site currently off-line

Consumption Efficiency in general - improving materials consumption to reduce industrial production and increase quality of life.

Last Modified: June 11, 2020.