Pecan Street Posts
Canary Media: Smart Electric Panels in Homes Could Prevent Overtaxing the Grid
Canary Media – Utilities are worried that homes switching to electric heating, electric cooking and electric-vehicle charging will create major new strains on their power grids. And homeowners looking to go all-electric face steep costs if they need to upgrade their grid connections to handle bigger electrical loads. A new report suggests that both problems could be addressed by the latest smart electric panels.
Pecan Street on KXAN: Why One Austin Neighborhood Tracks Energy Use Down to the Circuit
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Every light bulb, microwave and electric vehicle charger — tracked! That’s what around 300 homes are doing in the Mueller neighborhood in east Austin. They’re doing it as part of a research project called Pecan Street, and the data they’re collecting could reshape energy usage in the years to come.
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.
Pecan Street’s JupyterHub Can Help Rapidly Scale and Iterate Your Research
By Cavan Merski, data analyst, Pecan Street – To allow better access and more sophisticated analysis of this data, we launched our own Jupyterhub, a multi-user server for Jupyter Notebooks designed to support large-scale analysis by using GPU and memory based on a server rather than a local machine. It also allows multiple users – like groups of students or researchers – to share the same document at the same time.
Cooling a Warming Planet: What Homes in Texas and New York Can Teach Us About Cooling Demand Around the Globe
By Cavan Merski, data analyst, Pecan Street – We were interested to see how our homes in these two regions compared now and what will happen in the future as climate change brings warmer summers to most of the country, so we performed a series of regressions to explore differences in the cooling load between homes in Austin, TX homes and Ithaca, NY.
Delaware Voluntary Participation Agreement
Following is a participant agreement for Pecan Street’s current volunteer recruitment in Delaware. By completing and submitting this form, you are agreeing to the terms outlined below. Please read this agreement carefully. It explains all of the roles and responsibilities for Pecan Street Inc. and the research participants. After reading the agreement, you will be […]
A Year After Winter Storm Uri, a Look at Smart Solutions to Strengthen the Grid
By Cavan Merski, data analyst, Pecan Street Inc. – Microgrids get name-dropped a lot. And for good reason. The promise of a smarter, more resilient, and cleaner grid is enough to make any energy geek swoon. But given all the buzz, there’s a short supply of guidance on how we can deploy microgrid technology at scale. Pecan Street’s new analysis puts our energy data expertise to work to answer part of the microgrid riddle – how can big data enable widespread microgrid deployment?
Financing Will Drive Adoption of Regenerative Ag
By Jill Harlow – Data will drive the financial resources that emerge to help farmers and ranchers transition to regenerative agriculture. Our new white paper, Financing the Transition to Regenerative Agriculture and Beyond, examines how traditional agricultural funding resources can adapt to support innovative agricultural practices and inventories key players that are leading the way.
Next Level Energy Research Requires Mountains of Data
By Steve Mock – Beyond any one analysis, there’s a bigger reason why we collect so much data. Emerging tools like artificial intelligence and machine learning have the potential to revolutionize how we generate, move, store and use critical resources like electricity and water. But to reach their potential, these tools require mountains of data.
The Better Your Data, The Better Your Microgrid
By Cavan Merski, data analyst, Pecan Street Inc. – Microgrids get name-dropped a lot. And for good reason. The promise of a smarter, more resilient, and cleaner grid is enough to make any energy geek swoon. But given all the buzz, there’s a short supply of guidance on how we can deploy microgrid technology at scale. Pecan Street’s new analysis puts our energy data expertise to work to answer part of the microgrid riddle – how can big data enable widespread microgrid deployment?
COP Should Embrace Community-based Climate Solutions
An effective way to cut through climate rhetoric and overcome the paralyzing pressure of climate anxiety is to simply get to work on something immediate and tangible.
A Fond Farewell to an Austin Legend
By Suzanne Russo - I’m not the first person to say this, but if you’ve lived in or moved to Austin in the last 30 years, you probably need to thank Pike Powers. More than any singular person, Pike is the symbol of Austin’s transition from a sleepy college town to a global technopolis.
We need energy data to combat climate change, and we need a data utility to make that happen.
Heading into COP26, how can leaders ensure energy data meets its full climate potential? Our experience with energy data has led us to the answer: support the development of a data utility staffed with data scientists, computers scientists, cybersecurity experts and domain experts that would prioritize customer privacy and protection, limit profiteering, require transparency, and advance the integration of data and computer science into our nation’s grid system.
Puerto Rico Voluntary Participation Agreement
Following is a participant agreement for Pecan Street’s current volunteer recruitment in Puerto Rico. By completing and submitting this form, you are agreeing to the terms outlined below. Please read this agreement carefully. It explains all of the roles and responsibilities for Pecan Street Inc. and the research participants. After reading the agreement, you will […]
Digital Dirt: A toolkit to advance soil carbon measurement and verification solutions
Over the last year, Pecan Street has been working with some remarkable partners to apply our research and data expertise to some vexing challenges around carbon sequestration. Today, we posted some fruit of our labor, a Digital Dirt Toolkit that takes us several steps toward a data-driven solution
Introducing Over Our Heads – The Pecan Street Podcast
On Over Our Heads, we introduce you to several of the topics we work on and the experts we meet along the way and dive into some energy and tech issues that are sometimes over our heads… often more complicated or nuanced than what you’ll find in most press coverage about clean energy.
EVs and the Texas Grid (KXAN)
Pecan Street's Colin Rowan spoke with Eric Henrikson (KXAN-Austin) about whether the Texas grid can handle an influx of electric vehicles (yes!) and how these "rolling batteries" could (and should) be a solution for Texas leaders trying to increase the grid's resilience.
We support full residential electrification – addressing electric panel capacity is critical to that goal
Earlier this week, we released a new analysis on electric panel capacity and residential electrification. Our goal was to draw attention to the opportunities to clear the path for electrification by introducing policies and incentives for electric panel upgrades.
Course Correction: Residential Power Factor
To demonstrate the challenges and opportunities associated with total power factor, we used Pecan Street’s home energy use and PV data to explore the grid impacts of poor residential power factor and the system benefits of power factor correction. The analysis showed that by improving power factor of the homes in our sample, an additional current capacity of 12-16% to the distribution system can be achieved.
National Science Foundation Awards Grant to Pecan Street for First-of-its-Kind Research on Regenerative Farming and Farming Communities
The National Science Foundation awarded its Smart and Connected Communities grant to Austin-based research organization Pecan Street Inc. The project team will explore opportunities and barriers for the adoption of regenerative farming practices, and seeks to better understand collective decision-making about land use management by regional farming communities.
Pecan Street’s V2G University Challenge is Underway!
In October, Pecan Street launched a global competition for university students to develop a robust Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) control algorithm that optimizes residential fleets of electric vehicles for grid decarbonization and increased resiliency.
Pecan Street Convenes Artificial Intelligence Working Group to Advance Soil Carbon Sequestration on Farms
Pecan Street Inc. and The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) have launched a globally unique AI for Soil Carbon Sequestration Working Group to explore new methods for using artificial intelligence (AI) to overcome the barriers to widespread adoption of climate- beneficial farming practices.
Pecan Street Joins Eaton Team to Improve Grid Reliability with Renewables
(October 2, 2020 — AUSTIN, TX) Eaton Corporation has convened a team of researchers, including Pecan Street Inc., to develop a next-generation grid services solution to improve the overall efficiency of the electric grid and to optimize renewable energy generation.
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.
Your Data in Action
Over the past several weeks, our work has been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and the momentum behind the racial justice and equity movement. As always, our home energy database has been central to the work we've accomplished.
Pecan Street Launches First-of-its-Kind Soil Carbon Sequestration Research Project
Austin-based research organization, Pecan Street Inc. is drawing on its past success in advancing climate and conservation solutions to explore new methods to accelerate market development of carbon sequestration on farms.
Pecan Street Featured on CNN’s “The Global Energy Challenge”
Pecan Street's Chief Technology Officer, Scott Hinson, was interviewed for CNN's "The Global Energy Challenge" about shifting energy usage due to COVID-19.
Pecan Street CTO Speaks with The Weather Channel About Summer Peak Energy Use and COVID Pandemic
Pecan Street's Chief Technology Officer, Scott Hinson, was interviewed by the Weather Channel's Jim Cantore today about the coincidence of summer peak energy usage and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pecan Street Deepens COVID-19 Home Energy Analysis with Survey of Volunteer Network
We surveyed participants to learn what behavioral changes might be affecting their energy profile under shelter-in-place. Learn more here.
Austin Energy Leads Nation in Municipal Solar Capacity
Congratulations to Austin Energy for being named first in the nation for per capita municipal utility solar capacity. On Wednesday, Environment Texas released their Shining Cities 2020 report that names the top U.S. cities for solar energy.