The Utilization of Advanced Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR) for Energy Reduction on Department of Defense (DoD) Installations successfully demonstrated how Conservation Voltage Reduction (CVR), applied on the installation site's (Fort Myer) distribution system and combined with MicroCVR in buildings, could save between 3% and 6% in installation electricity consumption. In fact, the project demonstrated 8% to 10% savings based on the combined technology. Under this project, energy savings occurred passively without requiring changes in human behavior. The project exploited infrastructure investments that the Defense Department had already made without requiring nonstandard modifications to the system.

The objective of this project was to demonstrate how Fort Myer site can achieve 3-6% savings annually in both building and system electricity use through an automated system, without having to change human behavior. Dominion’s solution was to ensure that reductions in voltage were unnoticed by, and have no impact on end users. This project was built upon Dominion’s proven CVR use at the utility level. Applied at the installation level on the electrical distribution system, Dominion projected it would result in a 2-4% automated energy reduction based on its experience at the utility level. Adding Micro Conservation Voltage Reduction (MicroCVR), which implements this solution at building-level, will create an additional 1-2 % automated reduction, for a total range of 3-6% overall.

CVR is an automated system-level voltage reduction technology that optimizes voltage to continuously reduce energy consumption. MicroCVR builds off the same electrical principles and effectively performs this same function at the building-level but improving performance by using high-speed voltage regulation and appliance level monitoring. Combining these two technologies was an innovative, state-of-the-art approach which has not yet been made commercially available. Dominion Virginia Power (DVP) showed that the installation’s electrical distribution systems can work with high variation loads caused by renewable generation, improve reliability, and enhance and secure critical facility loads.

The project performance results exceeded the demonstration’s stated objectives and expectations. The installation site wide CVR resulted in a 3.7% reduction of energy (kWh), while the building level micro CVR resulted in 5% reduction. There was also 50% reduction in variation of voltages relative to non-MicroCVR case and maintained secure voltages within 1.5% of the expected voltage set point.

High availability of the combined solutions yielded 3.7% in annual energy savings for the twelve months of operations. This equated to over $91,500 of annual bill relief for the Fort and 654 metric tons of avoided carbon dioxide (CO2) for the environment.

During the course of this demonstration, no operational issues were experienced. On July 17, 2017, the Rader Clinic (Building 525) located on the 568 circuit raised a concern that the medical equipment was set to operate between 119-121 volts and that the lower voltage being served under the CVR control was affecting the equipment’s performance. Dominion’s review of Energy Distribution & Grid Efficiency (EDGE) performance during the excursion event indicated that the voltage control solution responded appropriately to the event moving the circuit to higher voltage delivery levels in response to the excursion. At the time of this publication, the customer’s internal investigation of the affected equipment had not been completed. Dominion took no further action.