Imagine a time in the near future when building owners manage electric demand by participating in a more efficient and environmentally friendly operation of the electric power grid. This will require technology acting on their behalf, in response to information from other components of the electric system. The technology will recognize operator preferences to parameters such as comfort and the price of energy, to form responses that optimize the local need with a signal that satisfies a higher-level need in the grid.
Interconnected electric power systems are composed of many businesses cooperating to deliver electricity to the consumer. Today’s technology offers the ability to exchange information to enhance operational and financial effectiveness. Incentives to exchange information electronically are the result of system and business processes that span organizations such as scheduling and coordinating electric supply and demand-side resources.