Electrical Distribution Systems for Commercial Reference Building Models

Abstract

Commercial and residential buildings consume approximately 40% of the total energy in the United States and use approximately 70% of the electricity. The electrical energy efficiency of the buildings sector thus plays a vital role in reducing energy use, peak demand, and greenhouse gas emissions. Maximizing the efficiency of electricity use is a key priority for high-performance buildings; however, to date, electrical distribution systems have received little attention. Rather, the focus has been on broad categories of end-use devices. As a result, a relatively small body of literature relates to the energy efficiency of electrical distribution in commercial buildings. Understanding this system and its components will help us examine its efficiency in significantly more detail. This paper describes the determination of an electrical distribution system for a commercial reference building model (CRBM). The purpose of the CRBM project was to develop standard or reference building energy models for the most common commercial buildings to serve as starting points for analysis related to energy efficiency research. Although these models represent realistic building characteristics and construction practices associated with energy consumption, they do not define a building electrical distribution system. Consequently, an electrical distribution system needed to be defined to study the energy loss in the electrical distribution system. Defining a standard electrical distribution system associated with each CRBM provides a common starting point for future efficiency analysis of commercial buildings. The creation of this electrical distribution system was part of a larger project exploring the energy efficiency of a concept for the incorporation of direct current distribution over existing alternating current distribution systems.