ASHRAE Journal - February 2020 - 6

INDUSTRY NEWS

Making the Most of Smart Meters
WASHINGTON, D.C.- Advanced metering

infrastructure (AMI) networks better link customers to the true cost
of electricity and encourage them
to save it. These networks collect
masses of interval data that help
optimize energy-efficiency spending and other benefits. AMI is a key
element to grid modernization.
A new report from the American
Council for an Energy-Efficient
Economy says few U.S. utilities are
capturing the meters' full range of
capabilities, and some are hardly
capturing any at all. Utilities are
largely missing the opportunity to
use the AMI data to improve their
energy efficiency and demandresponse offerings in part because
of regulatory, administrative and
technological barriers, accord-

ing to the "Leveraging Advanced
Metering Infrastructure To Save
Energy" report.
The report offers solutions to
better leverage AMI data including
using time-varying pricing, more
energy use feedback and programs
that align payment with metered
performance. Another solution is
giving customers more actionable
insights from evaluation, measurement and verification.
Providing only AMI data to
customers rarely results in energy
savings. Instead, customers need
to have other tools, pricing strategies, incentives and services for
them to change their energy use,
the report says.
To incentivize the utilities to
better use AMI, regulators can

Super-Cool
Materials Send
Heat To Space

ashrae.org

create energy-saving benefits,
adjust stakeholder compensator
based on performance and set
performance standards for metered energy savings.
To read the report, visit https://
aceee.org/leveraging-advancedmetering-infrastructure-save.

JYOTIRMOY MANDAL

DOE Ramps Up Energy Storage
Development

can be engineered to stay cool in direct sunlight. Academic researchers
(from Stanford University, University
of Colorado, Boulder and others) are
analyzing materials that rely on passive radiative cooling, which might
save on electricity bills and reduce
a surge in demand for refrigeration
and air-conditioning systems.
The materials reflect light, like
mirrors or white paint. They absorb
and emit radiation. The infrared

ASHRAE JOURNAL

ACEE surveyed 52 large utilities and found most of them
were underutilizing AMI. The report discusses use cases
and barriers that prevent effective practices.

INDUSTRY ROUNDUP

NATICK, MASS.-Paints, plastics and wood

6

GREENTECH MEDIA

A new report found many U.S. utilties are wasting
their ratepayer-funded meters.

A surface coated with a super-cooling paint can
stay cooler than its surroundings.

rays pass through the atmosphere
and into space when the materials point at the sky. This links the
materials to an inexhaustible heat
sink, a researcher said. These materials can radiate away heat away
to stay a few degrees cooler than
surrounding air.

FEBRUARY 2020

WASHINGTON D.C.-Increased funding and

research for energy storage could
create a roadmap to produce a range
of storage and flexibility technologies over the next decade. The U.S.
Department of Energy launched the
Energy Storage Grand Challenge to
speed up the development, commercialization and use of energy
storage technologies.
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https://aceee.org/leveraging-advanced-metering-infrastructure-save https://aceee.org/leveraging-advanced-metering-infrastructure-save https://aceee.org/leveraging-advanced-metering-infrastructure-save https://ashrae.realmagnet.land/hvacr-newsletter-signup https://ashrae.realmagnet.land/hvacr-newsletter-signup https://www.ashrae.org/

ASHRAE Journal - February 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - February 2020