Development of a BACnet-ZigBee gateway for demand response in buildings

Smart Grid (SG) is a modernized and a future-oriented electric grid that deals with the whole energy chain from generation to consumer. Among SG applications, demand response (DR) is an important control mechanism to manage the electricity consumption of the customer in response to the supply condition. In buildings, DR is managed through communication networks installed in the buildings. These communication protocols must include DR-supporting applications. BACnet (Building automation and control network) is an international standard communication protocol for building automation and control systems (BACS). BACnet uses ZigBee as a wireless communication protocol for BACS. Both BACnet and ZigBee have their own DR applications. In this study, we developed a BACnet-ZigBee gateway that maps the DR application of BACnet to that of ZigBee. The function of the BACnet-ZigBee gateway was verified through experiment.