(AUSTIN, TX — April 26, 2021) Pecan Street launched new cloud computing resources to support researchers in unlocking insights from the world’s largest database on residential energy, water, and transportation use.

Pecan Street’s Dataport is home to the most robust collection of disaggregated residential electricity data on the planet, containing over a petabyte of data. Researchers from more than 60 countries have used Dataport to investigate and analyze technology and policy solutions for rapid decarbonization in the electric and transportation sectors. In 2019, Pecan Street upgraded its data from one-minute to one-second interval measurements and added new data points on power quality, scaling the data to a size many researchers are unable to optimize.

To aid researchers in identifying the opportunities and solutions that can result in leapfrog advances for climate and economic development, Pecan Street received support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to create a JupyterHub and Jupyter Notebooks Library. Jupyter Notebooks are web-based tools that allow users to interactively develop, document, and execute code and share their results, visualizations, and documentation. Users build and execute the Notebooks in a standard web browser, making them portable across different platforms. Jupyter Notebooks encapsulate the data, code, documentation, outputs, and media into a single package that can be easily shared. Dataport’s JupyterHub resides on a dedicated server, enabling researchers to remotely carry out data analysis and research in a rapid computing environment that democratizes access and use of big data.

Dataport JupyterHub is open to all current Dataport license holders. Free and paid license holders can log in at https://jupyterhub.pecanstreet.org using their current Dataport username and password. New Dataport users can register at https://dataport.pecanstreet.org/

The Dataport JupyterHub enhances the power and accessibility of Pecan Street’s unique datasets in three key ways:

• By exploiting Jupyter’s various programming libraries, Dataport users can conduct direct data queries in Python, R or other common languages.
• Persistent cloud computation allows users to run queries and simulations remotely, eliminating data export limitations and significantly reducing each user’s bandwidth and processor requirements.
• Dataport’s JupyterHub allows easy sharing, collaboration and integration of individual users’ data with Pecan Street’s larger datasets.

For Pecan Street’s Dataport datasets, Jupyter allows:

• Fast local access, unfettered by network connectivity issues, effectively moving the computing to where the data lives;
• A library of example Jupyter Notebooks demonstrating how to work with the Dataport datasets;
• A space to upload, manage, and store data, Notebooks, and other files;
• The ability to open a web-based terminal for command line work, still all hosted on the JupyterHub server;
• A persistent computing environment, allowing users to return to other important work on their local computer while the Notebook continues to run.

To learn more about Dataport, visit: https://www.pecanstreet.org/dataport/

To log in or register for a Dataport account, visit: https://dataport.pecanstreet.org/

 

Contact:
Colin Rowan, Pecan Street Inc., media@pecanstreet.og, 512-222-9603