Panelist: Thomas Lawrence, Ph.D., P.E., Fellow ASHRAE, LEED® AP Chair: Tony O’Keeffe, ASHRAE Ireland Vice-Chair CTTC 2021-2022 Date/Time: Friday, October 15th 2021 (1:00 – 2:00 PM BST)
The smart grid is developing and moving forward, buildings and the built environment will be interacting more closely with the electric utilities. The communication will be in both directions, with the utility working to balance the grid supply and demand through methods such as signalling requests for demand response measures, real-time price adjustments, etc. This is an evolving field and, while there are some differences in the need for and how a smart grid might function in the various regions of the world, there are some common factors as well. This seminar provides an overview of the smart grid particularly as it relates to buildings and their systems, and includes material and topics outlined in ASHRAE’s Smart Grid Application Guide.
About the Speaker: Dr. Lawrence is the Mechanical Engineering program lead with the University of Georgia, and has nearly 40 years of professional experience. He spent the first 18 years in industry and after going back for his PhD at Purdue he has been at UGA since January 2004. He is the past chair of ASHRAE Technical Committee 2.8 and is a member of the committee that wrote and maintains ASHRAE Standard 189.1 for High Performance Green Buildings. As an ASHRAE Distinguished Lecturer, he gives seminars related to high-performance buildings at venues around the world. Dr. Lawrence was named an ASHRAE Fellow in 2017 and was a Director-at-Large on the Board of Directors for ASHRAE from 2016-2019. Dr. Lawrence has a B.S. with Highest Distinction in Environmental Science from Purdue University (1978), a M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University (1982) and a second M.S. degree in Engineering Management from Washington University in 1989. He received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University in the spring of 2004.
