State of California Buildings Now Connected to Smart Grid

The State of California has partnered with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, or “SMUD,” in Sacramento’s smart grid stimulus federal grant program. The $127.5 million program is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.

 

The Department of General Services, or “DGS,” is the agency that manages the program for state office buildings. The program is about how to design, run and manage an urban “smart grid” utility system with different types, and sizes, of clients. 

“The Department of General Services is pleased to be able to extend the Governor’s Green Building Initiative to Sacramento’s Smart Grid project,” Ron Diedrich, acting director of the Department of General Services, said. “With this project we can show how a group of state buildings, a new and advanced central plant that supplies heating and cooling to all of them, and an innovative utility company, can work together to reduce energy consumption and lower our costs.” 

The Governor’s Green Building Initiative requires the state to reduce grid-based energy usage in its buildings 20 percent by 2015, and, in so doing, reduce associated greenhouse gas emissions. The Department of General Services, as the State's real estate builder, planner, and manager, is leading the partnership with the Green Action Team, an inter-agency group chaired by the Secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency.

As part of Governor’s Green Building Initiative, the state’s portion of the program includes matching funds for building automation systems to energy efficiency and retrofitting projects scheduled for a number of state owned buildings in downtown Sacramento. Smart meters will be installed, as well as software to monitor and manage building energy use. 

The project recently completed Central Plant. The 78,000-square-foot, LEED Gold rated facility is the main conduit for heating, cooling and providing air control to 23 other state buildings including the Capitol. 

The installation of the smart meters allow the Central Plant to communicate with the other state buildings, all linked into the power grid. During peak demand times, the smart meters enable the Plant to respond in real time to energy demands either by shedding or generating appropriate energy load independent of the power grid. The meters in turn provide SMUD with a more accurate gauge of actual energy use. The other partners in the project are California State University, Sacramento, and the Los Rios Community College District.