Knowledge-Based System to Support Plug Load Management

Electrical plug loads comprise an increasingly larger share of building energy consumption as improvements have been made to Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems. It is anticipated that plug loads will account for a significant portion of the energy consumption of Sustainability Base, a recently constructed high-performance office building at NASA Ames Research Center. Consequently, monitoring plug loads will be critical to achieve energy efficient operations. In this paper we describe the development of a knowledge-based system to analyze data collected from a plug load management system that allows for metering and control of individual loads. Since Sustainability Base was not yet occupied at the time of this investigation, the study was conducted in another building on the Ames campus to prototype the system. The paper focuses on the knowledge engineering and verification of a modular software system that promotes efficient use of office building plug loads. The knowledge-based system generates summary usage reports and alerts building personnel of malfunctioning equipment and unexpected plug load consumption. The system is planned to be applied to Sustainability Base and is expected to identify malfunctioning loads and reduce building energy consumption.