In The News
Data: The Fifth Utility?
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street – The data challenge extends far beyond Amazon, Google and Facebook. Data is everywhere. In our work at Pecan Street, conversations about distributed energy are often conversations about data.
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.
Diving deeper into power factor
By Scott Hinson, chief technology officer, Pecan Street Residential solar inverters typically only provide real power to the electrical grid. When they do that, the reactive power component (either the displacement or distortion current) isn’t affected. It stays on the grid. The real power draw of the house is minimized or even completely canceled. This means that the utility has to deal with the portions of the load – called reactive power – that reduce power factor.
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.
What 1-second data can tell you about voltage and solar
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street One topic we’ve been focusing on recently is voltage stabilization. It’s not sexy, but it’s important. In short, the goal is to keep voltage on the grid as constant as possible. A number of things upset that constancy, and operators have developed a number of responses, from load shifting to capacitor banks, reactors and more.
Annual report and year end review.
By Suzanne Russo, CEO, Pecan Street The past year was one of successes, reflection and transition at Pecan Street, and we’re proud to share with you how we’ve continued — and expanded — the organization’s commitment to world-class energy and water research. You can download the entire Annual Report here.
Finding invisible water (and money) leaks with Pecan Street’s tech
By Rachel Jenkins, director of operations, Pecan Street Most water customers – residents and businesses alike – know how much water they used last month. But they don’t know what used that water, or when. Pecan Street’s equipment lets users see water use minute-by-minute, in near-real time.
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.
A drone (and photographer) visits Pecan Street research families
By Rachel Jenkins, director of operations, Pecan Street Thanks to our friends at Environmental Defense Fund, we spent some time last week shooting new photos of two research families and flying a drone to get some cool footage of all the solar panels around the Mueller neighborhood. Look at all those solar panels!
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 […]
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.
Forbes: Hawaii Sitting On The Lid Of A Solar Explosion
Hawaii’s tremulous effort to embrace solar energy—but not too fast—may be holding at bay an explosion of rooftop solar in the island state, according to experts in data and adoption behavior.
Insights from Pecan Street’s residential water use research
For the past year, Pecan Street has been working with volunteer participants to carry out data-intensive research on how households use water and to better understand the water demands of day-to-day activities. You can download a PDF of a recent presentation of initial findings.
Pecan Street Opens Waitlist for Residential Microgrid System
Pecan Street is conducting screenings with homeowners that would like to acquire the Energy Switch - a microgrid in a box.
Atlantic CityLab: Microgrids Might Be Ready for the Big City
They also took data from a Pecan Street research project, a dataset of homes generating their own solar power. By merging these two samples, the scientists modeled what the city would look like with different levels of rooftop solar production.