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Austin SHINES testing solar + batteries as a clean, dispatchable grid solution
By Andrea Tosi, power systems specialist, Pecan Street Solar energy is ideal as a clean energy resource in places like Texas, where sunshine is abundant. But even in Texas, the sun doesn’t shine 24/7. This variability results in reliability issues for the grid. Energy Storage Systems (ESS) are crucial as solar penetration increases in Austin.
Dataport update brings new URL, new UI and new Data
By Grant Fisher, chief information officer, Pecan Street Thanks to feedback and requests from users like you and a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Dataport is now better than ever. Most importantly, the Dataport website has moved to dataport.pecanstreet.org. In addition, the redesigned site features a more user-friendly interface that makes it easier to find and use the data you need.
Pecan Street at 10: A Decade of Energy Innovation and Invention
By Colin Rowan, director of communication, Pecan Street – 2019 marks Pecan Street’s 10-year anniversary, and we’re thrilled to report that it’s been an incredible decade of innovation, invention, insight, and progress. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing what we think all of our individual accomplishments add up to — Pecan Street’s 10-Year Top 10.
Utility Dive – Utilities have multiple ways to drive lower energy use
The data for Kopalle's research came from Pecan Street, an Austin-based non-profit that manages a neighborhood electricity test bed. Almost 1,000 homes have volunteered to have advanced metering infrastructure installed, capturing circuit-level, minute-by-minute consumption data along with generation data from dozens of homes with solar panels.
Pecan Street and Eaton Testing Demand Response Tech
Energy research organization Pecan Street Inc. and power management company Eaton are partnering to develop and test a next-generation residential demand response solution that will increase overall efficiency of the electric grid and optimize the use of renewable energy generation resources.
Pecan Street Opens Applications for Second Cohort of Testing, Validation and Market Entry Program
Texas-based Pecan Street Inc. is accepting applications from energy technology startups for the second cohort of its PLATFORM for Product Launch program. Start-ups with a clean energy hardware innovation targeted at the residential and/or small commercial sectors and who have a functioning prototype can apply at pecanstreet.org/platformapp.
Pecan Street and Austin Energy Look to Bring V2G Mainstream with Possible Microgrid Applications
“The type and quality of analysis provided by research from Pecan Street will be critical in proving the feasibility of V2G for Austin and similar energy environments,” said Austin Energy's Cameron Freberg.
Greentech Media: Vehicle-to-Grid Testing Comes to Texas
Pecan Street Inc., an Austin-based energy research organization, and the publicly owned electric utility Austin Energy launched what they say is Texas’ first grid-tied vehicle-to-grid (V2G) research and testing center.
Pecan Street to Conduct Field Testing and Data Management for $2.9 Million ARPA-E Study on HVAC Efficiency
Austin-based Pecan Street Inc. will conduct the field testing and data management for a University of Michigan study that will tackle two of the electricity industry’s biggest – management of renewables intermittency and management of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) load growth – the latter of which is projected to be one of the top drivers of global electricity demand and carbon emissions over the next few decades.
Pecan Street Launches Texas’ First Grid-Connected Vehicle-to-Grid Research and Testing Center
Pecan Street Inc. launched Texas’ first grid-tied vehicle-to-grid (V2G) testing center at its lab in Austin, Texas, turning electric vehicles into a dispatchable load shaving tool for municipally-owned electric utility, Austin Energy.
Tendril Acquires EEme to Unlock Appliance-Level Energy Insights
EEMe CEO and founder Enes Hosgor told Greentech Media in 2015 that its Pecan Street tests broke new ground for the energy disaggregation industry in terms of the scale and openness of its testing. “If you don’t have that insight in public, you cannot have a benchmark, a reference point, to move the entire knowledge base forward,” he said.
Live from Texas, it is “Vehicle-to-Grid”!
By Andrea Tosi, power systems specialist, Pecan Street We hit an important energy milestone recently with the installation of an electric vehicle (EV) charger that can charge from and discharge to the grid – a bidirectional flow of energy known as Vehicle-to-Grid, or V2G. For the first time in Austin, and possibly in Texas, energy was transferred from an electric vehicle’s battery pack to the electric grid’s distribution feeder.
Power factor – a little known feature of a reliable grid
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street Power factor is a measurement distribution engineers use to figure out how difficult it is to provide power to whatever we plug in. Every device that pulls electricity from the grid, from a small phone charger to large industrial loads, has a power factor that can be measured. Exactly what is power factor (or PF)? The easiest way to understand it is to see it.
Big data, anyone? Pecan Street hits petabyte territory.
By Grant Fisher, chief information officer, Pecan Street We can say we collect 10 million records per-day, per-house. Or, we can say the database is many terabytes large. Or that we have the world's largest collection of energy, water, and gas data for use by academic researchers. However, it isn't until recently that I think Pecan Street has crossed into the “Big Data” realm.
Home energy research opportunity for Ithaca area residents
Thanks to a consortium of funders led by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Pecan Street is expanding its home energy research network to California’s Bay Area and the Ithaca area in upstate New York.
GCN.com – Can electricity use predict a bad morning commute?
Why are some morning commutes so much worse than others? New research shows that nighttime and early-morning energy use can be a good predictor of morning traffic congestion. Sean Qian, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, and Ph.D. student Pinchao Zhang created a model that mined data on electricity consumption from 322 homes in Austin, Texas, and used artificial intelligence to predict what traffic would look like the next morning.
Pecan Street Inc. Brings Energy Research to Upstate New York and California’s Bay Area
(AUSTIN, TX – August 1, 2018) – A $1.1 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation will allow Pecan Street Inc. to expand its groundbreaking home energy research network into New York and California. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Cornell University’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, Precourt Institute for Energy at Stanford University, and […]
Restarting Homeplug
Your eGauge energy data collection system reports data back to Pecan Street’s servers using Power Line Communication (PLC), where the data collected by the eGauge is transmitted through your power lines to a device called the Homeplug. The Homeplug retrieves that data from the wall outlet and sends it to your router/modem via ethernet cable, […]
Installing and Connecting BluCube
Follow the directions below to install and connect a new BluCube. This also may be necessary if you change your home WiFi equipment, network name or password. You will need to have your home’s WiFi password handy before beginning this process. Please contact us at participate@pecanstreet.org if you have questions about the setup or troubleshooting […]
New York and California Participation Agreement
Following is a participant agreement for Pecan Street’s current volunteer recruitment in New York and California. By completing and submitting this form, you are agreeing to the terms outlined below. If you would like to learn more about participating in our research, please visit our Resources page. To begin, please provide the contact information and […]
Pecan Street Releases Powerful Residential Electricity Dataset with Potential to Revolutionize Electricity Management
(AUSTIN, TX – March 29, 2018) — Pecan Street Inc. has released a groundbreaking dataset containing one year of one-second interval consumer electricity data collected through its volunteer residential research network. The dataset includes measurements from 40 homes for whole home electricity use, solar generation, electric vehicle charging, HVAC, major appliances and other in-home circuits. […]
Pecan Street Inc. Names Suzanne Russo CEO
The board of directors of Austin-based research organization Pecan Street Inc. has named Suzanne Russo chief executive officer effective March 1. Russo joined Pecan Street in 2010 and has served in several roles, including chief of staff and chief operating officer.
Press Release: Pecan Street PLATFORM Provides Testing, Validation and Market Entry Support for Energy Tech Startups
Texas-based Pecan Street Inc. is now accepting applications from energy technology startups for its new PLATFORM program. Designed to leverage Pecan Street’s groundbreaking research on residential and small business electricity and water use, PLATFORM integrates data-driven market intelligence, product development and validation, rapid prototyping, and collaboration with venture funding and energy industry executives.
Attention startups! Apply to be part of Pecan Street’s PLATFORM for Product Launch
Start-ups with a clean energy hardware innovation targeted at the residential or small commercial sectors and who have a functioning prototype can learn more and apply here.
EDF Uses Pecan Street Data to Show Solar and EVs Cut Emissions and Water Use
Research conducted by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) found that homes with residential solar and electric vehicles generate fewer greenhouse gas emissions and use less water than homes powered solely by the grid. The research used data from homes in Austin participating in Pecan Street's energy research.
Pecan Street Opens Student Research Competition
Pecan Street is hosting its second student research competition. Awards totaling $10,000 will be made to students that develop the most impactful research using Pecan Street's unique dataset to answer a question of critical importance to industry.
Energy Research Organization Testing New Waters
Pecan Street uses a smart-grid system, an electricity supply network that uses newly developed technologies, to detect and communicate changes in the use of electricity, gas and, most recently, water. Pecan Street provides researchers and organizations energy use data to manage electricity demand and encourage sustainable practices.
UT Inventor John Goodenough on Verge of Another Revolution in Battery Tech
More generally, the new battery could also help on the business side, for instance by enhancing the range of trucks. “It’s a plus across the board,” said Scott Hinson, the director of engineering for Pecan Street Inc., an Austin-based consortium trying to introduce new water-and-energy-use technologies into everyday life.
Home Is Where the Smart Is: First-of-its-Kind Study Reveals Importance of Smart Technology and Low-Water Clean Energy
November 1, 2016 by Kate Zerrenner, EDF, and Dustin McCartney, Senior Data Analyst, Pecan Street Originally published on EDF’s Texas Clean Air Matters blog. Have you ever thought about how much water your dryer needs to dry your clothes? (And no, I don’t mean your washing machine.) Every appliance in your home has a water intensity, or the amount […]
Solar Power On Brink Of Huge Boom, Social Research Indicates
Solar power stands at the precipice of explosive growth, according to Brewster McCracken, CEO of Pecan Street, a research institute located in Austin, Texas, that focuses on the utility industry.