Smart operation of air-conditioning (A/C) and lighting systems for national load management

In the countries of Arabian Peninsula, demand for electric power, primarily controlled by the air-conditioning (A/C) and generally peaking at 15:00 h, is currently growing well over 5% annually. Adaptations of smart operation of A/C and lighting systems in government and institutional buildings that commonly function between 07:00 h and 14:00 h has been evaluated as a technique for national load management in this paper. Time-of-day control for lighting and A/C systems in line with the building occupancy and pre-closing treatment for the A/C system were implemented in a major government building in Kuwait. Reduction of well over 38% in the peak power demand of 5,250 kW was achieved after 14:00 h, the official closing hour for the building. Also, the pre-closing treatment effectively achieved a reduction of over 5% after 13:00 h. Implementation of these measures in many similar buildings in Kuwait can reduce the national peak power demand by 4%, thereby reducing the need of new power plants by nearly 400 MW; besides achieving considerable reduction in electricity consumption. More importantly, the major savings in electric power and energy can be realised without any expenditure or compromise in comfort quality.