Scott Hinson
A Surprise R&D 100 Award for Pecan Street and Our Partners
Are we excited about winning an R&D 100 Award? Absolutely. Are we trying to humble brag? Maybe a little. In reality, this award is a recognition of a fantastic start. We’re excited to continue our research and to dive even deeper into the changing and challenging energy system research that we’ve done for 12 years.
Your EV Webinar Questions Answered
By Scott Hinson – Thank you for joining Cavan Merski and me for our recent webinar about EV charging trends. We’re following up with answers to some great participant questions.
Digital Dirt Update: Using AI/ML to Advance Soil Carbon Sequestration
By Scott Hinson– Pecan Street’s Digital Dirt initiative was designed to accelerate the development of cost-effective ways to predict how land management practices can increase soil organic carbon, a promising climate solution. The next generation of high-tech sensors will surely be part of the solution, but they a still far from being something most producers can use to obtain accurate results. We see significant near-term potential for simulation models to fill this gap.
During Texas’ Heatwave, Every Degree Matters. And so Do Conservation and Efficiency.
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street – For the second time in a week, Texas’ grid operator (ERCOT) and local utilities yesterday issued “calls for conservation” as the state bakes under a prolonged heatwave. Among the requests: increase your thermostat setpoint to 78 degrees to reduce state-wide air conditioner load. It’s unsurprising that air conditioning increases electricity demand during a heatwave. But it may surprise you to know just how powerful a driver it is and how close it can push the state toward a real problem.
A Tale of Two February Freezes – Can Last Year’s Grid Failure and This Month’s Storm be Compared?
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street – The recent freeze gave us an opportunity to compare electricity use in our research network before and during the event to how people used power during last year’s crisis. Did they learn any tips or tricks? Did they panic heat their homes to prepare for power outages? Did they charge their cars any differently? Here's what we saw.
Behind the Meter Storage and 4CP in Texas
A new case study from Pecan Street summarizes the benefits of behind-the-meter (BTM) assets that can decrease a utility’s net transmission cost through 4 Coincident Peaks (4CP) reduction.
How Did Texas Solar Perform in a Snowstorm?
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street – Last year, we looked at how Austin’s stay-at-home orders affected energy use. This week, we dove into the winter storm data to see how solar panels performed and how they may have eased overall demand on the grid.
COVID Five Months in: A Sustained Increase in Residential Electricity
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street - Pecan Street has been monitoring electricity use and generation from hundreds of homes in our research network for nearly a decade. Many of these homes have rooftop solar and electric vehicles, and we’ve been measuring each home’s total energy use as well as use from individual circuits, like heating/cooling, EV charging, refrigerator, etc. With all this data at our fingertips, we decided to take a look at how our participants’ energy profiles have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 is Changing Residential Electricity Demand
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street - As the patterns of our lives shift in response to COVID-19, we decided to take a look at how our research participants’ energy profiles have changed. Not surprisingly, they’re using more energy. But how much, and for what?
Pecan Street @ 10: An Innovation Lab in the Heart of Texas’ Innovation Capital
By Scott Hinson, CTO, Pecan Street – We need our electricity generation, use, and storage to be smarter, better connected, and more efficient. Thanks to what we’ve built over the last 10 years, these are the kinds of advances we are able to accelerate at Pecan Street’s lab.