Skip to main content

PNNL

  • About
  • News & Media
  • Careers
  • Events
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
      • Biology
        • Chemical Biology
        • Computational Biology
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Human Health
          • Cancer Biology
          • Exposure Science & Pathogen Biology
          • Metabolic Inflammatory Diseases
        • Integrative Omics
          • Advanced Metabolomics
          • Chemical Biology
          • Mass Spectrometry-Based Measurement Technologies
          • Spatial and Single-Cell Proteomics
          • Structural Biology
        • Microbiome Science
          • Biofuels & Bioproducts
          • Human Microbiome
          • Soil Microbiome
          • Synthetic Biology
      • Chemistry
        • Computational Chemistry
        • Chemical Separations
        • Chemical Physics
        • Catalysis
      • Earth & Coastal Sciences
        • Atmospheric Science
          • Atmospheric Aerosols
          • Human-Earth System Interactions
          • Modeling Earth Systems
        • Coastal Science
        • Ecosystem Science
        • Plant Science
        • Subsurface Science
        • Terrestrial Aquatics
      • Materials Sciences
        • Materials in Extreme Environments
        • Precision Materials by Design
        • Science of Interfaces
        • Solid Phase Processing
          • Cold Spray
          • Friction Stir Welding & Processing
          • ShAPE
      • Nuclear & Particle Physics
        • Dark Matter
        • Flavor Physics
        • Fusion Energy Science
        • Neutrino Physics
      • Quantum Information Sciences
    • Sustainable Energy
      • Electric Grid Modernization
        • Emergency Response
        • Grid Analytics
          • AGM Program
          • Tools and Capabilities
        • Grid Architecture
        • Grid Cybersecurity
        • Grid Energy Storage
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
          • Earth System Modeling
          • Energy System Modeling
        • Transmission
        • Distribution
      • Energy Efficiency
        • Appliance and Equipment Standards
        • Building Energy Codes
        • Building Technologies
          • Advanced Building Controls
          • Advanced Lighting
          • Building-Grid Integration
        • Building and Grid Modeling
        • Commercial Buildings
        • Federal Buildings
          • Federal Performance Optimization
          • Resilience and Security
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Residential Buildings
          • Building America Solution Center
          • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
          • Home Energy Score
        • Energy Efficient Technology Integration
      • Energy Storage
        • Electrochemical Energy Storage
        • Flexible Loads and Generation
        • Grid Integration, Controls, and Architecture
        • Regulation, Policy, and Valuation
        • Science Supporting Energy Storage
        • Chemical Energy Storage
      • Environmental Management
        • Waste Processing
        • Radiation Measurement
        • Environmental Remediation
      • Fossil Energy
        • Subsurface Energy Systems
        • Carbon Management
          • Carbon Capture
          • Carbon Storage
          • Carbon Utilization
        • Advanced Hydrocarbon Conversion
      • Nuclear Energy
        • Fuel Cycle Research
        • Advanced Reactors
        • Reactor Operations
        • Reactor Licensing
      • Renewable Energy
        • Solar Energy
        • Wind Energy
          • Distributed Wind
          • Wildlife and Wind
          • Wind Data Management
          • Wind Resource Characterization
        • Energy Equity & Health
        • Marine Energy
          • Environmental Monitoring for Marine Energy
          • Marine Biofouling and Corrosion
          • Marine Energy Resource Characterization
          • Testing for Marine Energy
          • The Blue Economy
        • Hydropower
          • Environmental Performance of Hydropower
          • Hydropower Cybersecurity and Digitalization
          • Hydropower and the Electric Grid
          • Materials Science for Hydropower
          • Pumped Storage Hydropower
          • Water + Hydropower Planning
        • Grid Integration of Renewable Energy
        • Geothermal Energy
      • Transportation
        • Bioenergy Technologies
          • Algal Biofuels
          • Aviation Biofuels
          • Waste-to-Energy and Products
        • Hydrogen & Fuel Cells
        • Vehicle Technologies
          • Emission Control
          • Energy-Efficient Mobility Systems
          • Lightweight Materials
          • Vehicle Electrification
          • Vehicle Grid Integration
    • National Security
      • Cybersecurity
        • Discovery and Insight
        • Proactive Defense
        • Trusted Systems
      • Nuclear Material Science
      • Nuclear Nonproliferation
        • Radiological & Nuclear Detection
        • Nuclear Forensics
        • Ultra-Sensitive Nuclear Measurements
        • Nuclear Explosion Monitoring
        • Global Nuclear & Radiological Security
      • Stakeholder Engagement
        • Disaster Recovery
        • Global Collaborations
        • Legislative and Regulatory Analysis
        • Technical Training
      • Systems Integration & Deployment
        • Additive Manufacturing
        • Deployed Technologies
        • Rapid Prototyping
        • Systems Engineering
      • Threat Analysis
        • Advanced Wireless Security
          • 5G Security
          • RF Signal Detection & Exploitation
        • Climate Security
        • Grid Resilience and Decarbonization
        • Internet of Things
        • Maritime Security
      • Chemical & Biothreat Signatures
        • Contraband Detection
        • Pathogen Science & Detection
        • Explosives Detection
        • Threat-Agnostic Biodefense
    • Data Science & Computing
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Graph and Data Analytics
      • Software Engineering
      • Computational Mathematics & Statistics
      • High-Performance Computing
      • Visual Analytics
    • Lab Objectives
    • Publications & Reports
    • Featured Research
  • People
    • Inventors
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Lab Leadership
    • Lab Fellows
    • Staff Accomplishments
  • Partner with PNNL
    • Academia
      • Distinguished Graduate Research Programs
      • Internships
      • Visiting Faculty Program
      • Joint Appointments
      • Joint Institutes
      • Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship
      • Minority-serving Institutions
    • Community
      • Regional Impact
      • STEM Education
        • Resources
        • Student STEM Ambassadors
        • STEM Ambassadors in the Classroom
      • Philanthropy
      • Volunteering
    • Industry
      • Available Technologies
      • Industry
      • Industry Partnerships
      • Licensing & Technology Transfer
      • Entrepreneurial Leave
  • Facilities & Centers
    • All Facilities
      • Atmospheric Radiation Measurement User Facility
      • Electricity Infrastructure Operations Center
      • Energy Sciences Center
      • Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory
      • Grid Storage Launchpad
      • Institute for Integrated Catalysis
      • Interdiction Technology and Integration Laboratory
      • PNNL Seattle Research Center
      • PNNL-Sequim
      • Radiochemical Processing Laboratory
      • Shallow Underground Laboratory

Transactive Systems Program

  • History
    • Olympic Peninsula Demo
    • GridSMART Demo Project
    • PNW Smart Grid Demo
  • Capabilities and Tools
    • Valuation Analysis
    • Transactive Energy Simulation Platform (TESP)
    • Field Demonstration Tools
  • Research Highlights
    • DSO+T Study
    • Resiliency
    • Blockchain
  • Architecture
  • Clean Energy Campus

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Projects
  3. Transactive Systems Program

GridWise Olympic Peninsula Demonstration

The GridWise project established a first-of-a-kind transactive retail market with real-time prices on five-minute intervals. The market coordinated residential, commercial, and municipal (water pumping) loads, as well as distributed generation, to manage a distribution capacity constraint and to continually respond to fluctuations in regional wholesale prices. The project included an economic experiment. More than 100 residential customers were given a choice of contract agreements, which provided insights into how customers might adjust their energy consumption based on price changes. The options included a transactive real-time price, a time-of-use rate with critical peak pricing, and a traditional flat rate.

The project was conducted by PNNL for the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (now the Office of Electricity [OE]) on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, and also in the cities of Yakima, Washington, and Gresham, Oregon. The Bonneville Power Administration, Pacificorp, and Portland General Electric provided additional support, and the effort involved collaboration with Clallum County Public Utility District #3 and the City of Port Angeles, Washington. IBM and Whirlpool Corporation provided substantial in-kind support to the project for the transactive network and smart appliances, respectively.

The figure below provides an overview of the project. Communicating meters, gateways, thermostats, and load control modules for water heaters and clothes dryers were installed in residential homes. Homeowners used the installed equipment to direct their residences’ automated response to process, based on their relative desires for comfort or cost savings.

DSO+T GridWise
A commercial office building and two municipal water pumping stations responded to price signals through Johnson Controls’ building management and industrial control systems. Backup diesel generators could be activated to take the building completely off-grid. In five-minute intervals, customers seeking energy and distributed generation sources supplying energy could both automatically bid to a real-time energy market via an internet-based communications system, which returned the cleared price signals. Customers paid the lesser of their usual, flat-rate utility bills or their experimental bills, insulating them from risk yet incentivizing their participation. (Graphic by Cortland Johnson | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)

Key findings:

  • Sustained peak load reductions of 15 percent over the course of the year were achieved, and up to 50 percent for periods of up to three days. 
  • For the opportunity to save on bills, significant numbers of residential customers would sign up for a real-time pricing plan that varies on a five-minute interval. The customers would want computer-based technology that preserves their right to choose relative preference for comfort or savings, allows them to change it at any time, and simply and automatically reflects their thermostat and appliance management choices.
  • Rates or incentives that reflect the time-varying cost of electricity and its delivery can be implemented so that no individual customer ever pays more than their customary electric bill, which is based on a constant, flat price for power.
  • Technology that automates customer responses to real-time prices can help manage very short-term power fluctuations introduced by large amounts of clean wind generation and reduce carbon emissions, with little or no impact to comfort.  Because it is not obtrusive, the cost for obtaining this additional response is very low—far cheaper and cleaner than ramping power plants up and down.

Everyday household appliances equipped with Grid Friendly™ sensors can detect imminent stability problems on the grid and delay non-essential consumption for up to three minutes. This helps keep the grid reliable and secure without impacting customer comfort.

PNNL

  • Get in Touch
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Doing Business
    • Environmental Reports
    • Security & Privacy
    • Vulnerability Disclosure Program
  • Research
    • Scientific Discovery
    • Sustainable Energy
    • National Security
Subscribe to PNNL News
Department of Energy Logo Battelle Logo
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is managed and operated by Battelle for the Department of Energy
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn