Performance Assessment of HVAC Control Strategies with Application to DR Atefe Makhmalbaf, Georgia Institute of Technology and Pacific Northwest National Lab Godfried Augenbroe, Georgia Institute of Technology ABSTRACT Demand response (DR) programs have been growing in number and magnitude in the past decade to reduce load during the peak hours. Despite efforts to automate DR, we lack methods and tools to support facility/building managers with ‘how to respond’ decisions at building-scale. This is because there are multiple control strategies available at commercial buildings as response to a DR signal and quantifying the trade-off of these mechanisms for power management has remained a challenge. Hence, it is important to rigorously evaluate power performance of different heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) control strategies under different scenarios. This cannot be achieved without quantifying performance. The authors have developed a set of quantifiable performance indicators (PIs) in their previous work by applying an engineering perspective on performance-based building design and operation. These PIs include the ratio of maximum to average power consumption, deviation of demand from nominal power use, energy consumption, and two measures of thermal comfort. This paper examines these PIs by systematically quantifying them under different scenarios of use to show how they can be used for power and energy assessment and management with application to DR. Scenarios defined were modeled and simulated in a controlled environment as a set of experiments. The platform used to model and simulate these experiments is EnergyPlus. Each PI was calculated in the post-processing stage to assess and compare performance of different control strategies. Quantification and assessment of power performance of HVAC control strategies enable development of decision support tools to facilitate building managers’ decisions in the context of DR. Introduction Historically, the goal of the electric power grid has been to balance the supply and demand and deliver electricity to consumers in a cost-effective and reliable way. The energy crisis of the 1970’s raised the need for energy efficiency; hence, sustainability became a new objective for the electricity system. Today, the increasing diversity and variability of loads and the growing penetration of intermittent renewable generation sources have introduced more volatility to the power system requiring new components and methods to sustain its stability and reliability. This includes deployment of new mechanisms and techniques at building level commonly known as ancillary services and demand side management (DSM) techniques. DSM techniques include energy efficiency and conservation, peak load management, and DR. Furthermore, “while energy efficiency measures have been widely understood by many audiences including facility managers, building owners, utility program managers, auditors, and policy makers, there are not many documents introducing frameworks or guidelines for measures and strategies to participate in demand response programs. Commercial buildings have been only 12-1 ©2016 ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings