{"id":2968,"date":"2012-07-26T21:09:13","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T21:09:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/?p=2968"},"modified":"2015-12-21T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T18:46:08","slug":"envision-charlotte-meets-pecan-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/07\/26\/envision-charlotte-meets-pecan-street\/","title":{"rendered":"Envision Charlotte Meets Pecan Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Last week, I, along with several other Envision Charlotte<\/a> Board Members travelled to visit the Pecan Street<\/a> smart grid project in Austin, Texas.\u00a0\u00a0 We hope this will be the start of a recurring \u201cexchange program\u201d between the two cities for sharing of information and best practices related to smart grid deployment.\u00a0 There are significant differences between the two projects.\u00a0 Pecan Street is focused on the residential sector; Envision Charlotte on commercial office buildings.\u00a0 Envision Charlotte is deploying innovative behavior change, social networking and employee training to reduce energy use, while Pecan Street is heavily focused on technology solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, there is also a lot in common.\u00a0 Both organizations desire to reduce energy use and find alternatives to our outdated energy system.\u00a0 Both believe that smart grids and energy efficiency can be cost effective and drive economic development.\u00a0 Finally, both groups are rigorously measuring the impacts of their actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What we saw in Austin was very cool.\u00a0 We started by visiting a home in the Mueller neighborhood<\/a>, a playground for testing the latest in home energy management and appliances.\u00a0 In one house\u2019s garage was a wireless energy monitor<\/a> that connects to the home\u2019s circuit breaker box and allows homeowners to view real time energy use from different appliances and lighting systems in the home.\u00a0 Residents now know exactly how much it is costing them to make coffee each morning \u2013 or power up their flat screen TV.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also in the garage was a Chevy Volt<\/a>, along with four charging stations from different manufacturers (according to Pecan Street staff, they all perform roughly the same).\u00a0 Up on the roof was a series of solar panels, whose every watt is being recorded to learn important things about installation location, potential for offsetting peak generation, and storage solutions.\u00a0 Although each of these technologies are impressive on their own, only when operating together do they represent the next generation of home energy management where consumers have complete knowledge and control over their energy choices.\u00a0 It\u2019s pretty empowering.<\/p>\n

This innovative project didn\u2019t happen accidentally.\u00a0 It came about through lots of perspiration<\/a> from their Executive Director and former Austin Council Member Brewster McCracken; design recommendations from hundreds of folks in the private sector, local community and NGOs (including EDF); prodigious fundraising; and hard work from staff, board members, and participating companies.\u00a0 Some of my key takeaways from the trip are as follows:<\/p>\n

Residential Technology Still a Wild West<\/strong> \u2013 Unlike the commercial building automation universe, where users have more experience integrating energy management and building systems to speak the same code and talk to one another, residential systems are still in their infancy and competing languages make it extremely difficult to get different pieces of hardware to talk to one another.\u00a0 Pecan Street will often need to write new code or develop other workarounds to get vendor equipment to work as described.\u00a0 This is one of the reasons why EDF has joined the OPEN network<\/a>, to help ensure that smart grid investments in different states maximize interoperability.<\/p>\n

The Incredible Power of Data<\/strong> \u2013 Pecan Street collects a data point from each home circuit every 15 seconds.\u00a0 With dozens of circuits per home and hundreds of participating homes in the Mueller development, the Pecan Street project has rapidly approached billions of discrete pieces of data that can be captured, sorted and analyzed.\u00a0 Although a challenge to work with data sets this large, once properly harnessed, they provide incredible insights to consumers, utilities, researchers and policymakers on energy use.\u00a0 Pecan Street can see exactly what happens to the grid when someone opens their refrigerator or micro-waves dinner, and use that information to develop strategies for homeowners that will reduce energy use and improve reliability. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Test Technology, Scale, Inform Policy<\/strong> \u2013 Pecan Street is unique in its approach in several ways, but one of the most significant is that it enables a technology to policy pathway.\u00a0 Pecan Street\u2019s test labs experiment with the latest in home energy management technologies, present those solutions to homeowners in the Mueller neighborhood for adoption and enable EDF to identify regulatory or policy mechanisms that can further accelerate smart grid investment.\u00a0 As an example, last year EDF was able to help secure provisions in a Texas energy bill<\/a> that enable demand response programs and payments for utility customers.\u00a0 This technology to policy approach is something that Envision Charlotte will need to reach our ambitious 5-year, 20% energy reduction goal.<\/p>\n

All in all, it was an incredible trip.\u00a0 Over the coming years, as Envision Charlotte develops more programs and scales its impact, we hope to repay the warm hospitality of Pecan Street by hosting their team in Charlotte and sharing what we have learned.\u00a0 We\u2019ll promise good conversation, great BBQ and a continued devotion to collaboration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, I, along with several other Envision Charlotte Board Members travelled to visit the Pecan Street smart grid project in Austin, Texas.\u00a0\u00a0 We hope this will be the start of a recurring \u201cexchange program\u201d between the two cities for sharing of information and best practices related to smart grid deployment.\u00a0 There are significant differences …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1897,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84830,557,181],"tags":[27618,718],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grid-modernization","category-north-carolina","category-texas","tag-envision-charlotte-2012","tag-pecan-street"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnvision Charlotte Meets Pecan Street - Energy Exchange<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/07\/26\/envision-charlotte-meets-pecan-street\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Envision Charlotte Meets Pecan Street - Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, I, along with several other Envision Charlotte Board Members travelled to visit the Pecan Street smart grid project in Austin, Texas.\u00a0\u00a0 We hope this will be the start of a recurring \u201cexchange program\u201d between the two cities for sharing of information and best practices related to smart grid deployment.\u00a0 There are significant differences ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/2012\/07\/26\/envision-charlotte-meets-pecan-street\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Energy Exchange\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-26T21:09:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-12-21T18:46:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/energyexchange\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/38\/files\/2012\/07\/Andeck-Greg-large1-214x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Greg Andeck\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Greg Andeck\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/26\\\/envision-charlotte-meets-pecan-street\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/26\\\/envision-charlotte-meets-pecan-street\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Greg Andeck\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9a9e33331feaae4646c421fb04c527ec\"},\"headline\":\"Envision Charlotte Meets Pecan Street\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-07-26T21:09:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-12-21T18:46:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/26\\\/envision-charlotte-meets-pecan-street\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":795,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/26\\\/envision-charlotte-meets-pecan-street\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/energyexchange\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/38\\\/files\\\/2012\\\/07\\\/Andeck-Greg-large1-214x300.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Envision Charlotte - 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