Eaton Corporation manufactures a smart circuit breaker (referred to in this report as Energy Management Circuit Breaker [EMCB]) with the ability to remotely switch its connected branch circuit load while producing five-minute interval measurements of voltage, current, complex power, energy, frequency, and others. The thesis for the project is that this technology offers opportunities for improving resiliency and providing effective demand reduction (for capacity savings or bill savings) by remotely switching branch circuits serving non-mission-critical loads on or off. Further, cost-effective data monitoring is achieved that informs decision makers with energy usage information. The project team identified 25 existing circuits on the Naval Air Station Whiting Field base for which standard circuit breakers were swapped with EMCBs. Example circuits included loads comprised of lighting, a water heater, and refrigerators.

Eaton has miniaturized and packaged the monitoring and control electronics inside their EMCB so that it mounts in a standard 1” pitch breaker panel, consuming one additional slot for the electronics. Eaton exposes its Application Programming Interface (API) for third party software developers. A company called Virtual Peaker (VP) provides a cloud-based end-to-end management platform for multiple types of end-use monitoring and control technologies as well as Distributed Energy Resources. For this project, the EMCB has been integrated with the VP platform. In the current research, Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. demonstrates a functional “EMCB System” composed of Eaton’s hardware, communications via cell modem, and VP’s cloud-based user interface.

The project team demonstrated three use cases aimed at showcasing the combination of technologies comprising the EMCB System. For use cases involving load curtailment, success was measured qualitatively by assessing the facility with which an operator can shed load according to a multi-tiered and prioritized table, either on demand or according to a schedule. Success was also measured quantitatively by monitoring important metrics such as the number of switching actuations and response times. For use cases involving measurement and verification, success was measured in terms such as data availability and the facility to discern a change in energy consumption as a result of an energy efficiency measure.

Issues that are most likely to impact adoption of the EMCB System involve cyber security and cost rather than technical performance. For the short-term demonstration, permission was granted to deploy cell modems in order to isolate the project from information technology infrastructure on the base. At scale, this could be costly and perhaps, an unnecessary and burdensome solution. Regarding installation cost, Eaton’s EMCB is currently Underwriter’s Laboratory certified only with Eaton’s panels. The result is potentially an additional cost to replace an existing panel or to install a new subpanel.

The Department of War benefit demonstrated by the project team was the ability for installation energy managers to: be able to have greater control over the energy management systems that they govern, be able to save money through load curtailment among other efficiency strategies, and give the ability to easily reduce non-critical building energy use that may interfere with mission-critical energy use cases at times when this distinction is of importance. 

The team noted that their outdoor installation exposed the EMCBs to temperatures outside their operating limits. No loss of functionality was attributed to these conditions, however.

Regarding availability, EMCBs are in commercial production but are currently obtainable only through Eaton. Additionally, each device requires knowledgeable staff to connect it to the Wi-Fi network and then to configure it in the cloud service.

Because multiple vendors are involved, functionality can be interrupted, for example, during a firmware update, API key expiration, or server maintenance. Lastly, third party software may limit the user’s access to the full functionality of the EMCB hardware. (Project Completion - 2023)