Leveraging smart building technology for lower energy costs at Jay Peak Resort
How Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) collaborated with Efficiency Vermont (EVT) and Dynamic Organics (DO) to develop a smart buildings pilot at Jay Peak Ski Resort (JPR).
Project overview
In 2023, Vermont Electric Cooperative (VEC) collaborated with Efficiency Vermont (EVT) and Dynamic Organics (DO) to develop a smart buildings pilot at Jay Peak Ski Resort (JPR). The project leverages JPR’s existing building management system and on average reduces load between 200-300 kW during the 13 peaks that VEC targets through its VPP programs. Using existing resources, VEC was able to gain the equivalent peak shaving capability of around 60 Tesla PowerWall units for the cost of less than six.
What challenge existed that the utility wanted to address?
VEC’s goal is to manage a majority of behind the meter resources to reduce transmission peaks and eventually use these resources for T&D asset deferral to affordably transition to electric heating and transportation. Many of the traditional approaches involve significant investments in behind the meter storage or onsite generation. By leveraging integrating building management systems and VEC data we hope that the Pilot will reduce the need for manual intervention as is typical in traditional demand response (DR) programs.
What did the utility do to address the challenge?
Were alternatives considered? If so, what were they and why was the chosen project preferred?
VEC considered shifting the load via the installation of a large battery however this option is very costly and without grant funding would have been difficult to support. The preferred solution involved no infrastructure upgrades on VEC’s distribution system.
How does the project advance decarbonization?
VEC’s Flexible Load program offers a variety of options to participate in VEC’s VPP allowing members to save money and reduce costs for the whole membership.
How were communities involved in planning and/or implementation of the project?
In this case the pilot was focused at the JPR hotel, waterpark and ice rink which does not have any full-time residents. As a result, any engagement was directly with operations staff.
- Incentives and Rewards: JPR receives compensation for participating in the event through a bill credit that offsets other business costs.
- Feedback and Continuous Improvement: Throughout the planning and implementation process, VEC and its partners sought feedback from JPR to ensure that the peak load actions did not impact the comfort of JRP employees and guests.
- Education and Awareness Campaigns: Before starting the project VEC and its partners provided JPR with information on the benefits of the project and how they can participate.
What has the utility learned through the project?
VEC and the team have had several lessons learned so far.
- Cost Effective VPPs: By utilizing existing resources rather than investing in costly behind-the-meter storage or generation infrastructure, VEC has built a cost-effective approach to peak load management.
- Regulatory Framework: The State of Vermont has enabled utilities to engage in small pilots to learn and innovate. 30 V.S.A. § 218d(o) and the Vermont Public Utility Commission’s (“Commission”) Standards and Procedures for Innovative Rates and Services Offered by Municipal and Cooperative Electric Utilities.
- Member Engagement: VEC was able to utilize marketing material from other statewide pilots. Since the pilot is complex it was important to develop easy to understand material to share with members before going through the integration and commissioning process.
- Flexibility and Scalability: We learned that there was a lot of flexibility at JPR without impacting the member’s experience. This opens the opportunity to do this with other projects throughout VEC’s territory.
- Modern Building Management System: With a modern building management system (BMS) the controls integration is low cost and can happen quickly. VEC found a couple of prospective sites with legacy building management systems that would have needed to be replaced before the project could continue. This is often at a large cost and can make the pilot uneconomic. Robust BMS controls can support both energy efficiency and demand flexibility sequences of operation, and VEC will work with EVT to support more BMS upgrade projects in the future to enable other commercial buildings with behind-the-meter load flexibility.
- Baselining challenges: Due to the unique metering setup and large amount of diverse loads and weekly/seasonal changing patterns of demand behind the point of common coupling at JPR, baseline analysis has proven more difficult compared to other commercial buildings. Instead of one building with a more standard usage pattern or loadshape, JPR has a hotel, indoor water park, conference center, hockey rink, and a ski area (i.e. lodges, chairlifts, etc.) all behind the same meter, which creates some “noisy” data and impacts the accuracy of standard statistical baselines.
How was this project funded?
The project controls implementation was funded by JPR and EVT. VEC funds the annual DO software platform fee. Additionally, VEC provides a monthly bill credit incentive to JPR for performance during the annual ISO-NE Forward Capacity Market (FCM) peak and monthly Regional Network Service (RNS) bill credits. This bill credit incentive is based on the total kW reduction during the event. Participation in the program could cause JPR to set a new non-coincident peak demand, e.g., snap-back load after a peak event is over. For this reason, VEC has included a demand forgiveness component designed to eliminate additional charges resulting from a new coincident peak set by responding successfully to event signals. The snap-back load can also be mitigated by intelligent design control schemes for JPR as part of the enrollment process. A “staggered” approach would prevent a load spike.
Interested in demonstrating a new technology like this?
Resources for Demonstrating a New Technology
