AC3 Connected Communities approach.
Lead Performer: IBACOS – Pittsburgh, PA
Partners:
-- Tierra Resource Consultants – Walnut Creek, CA
-- NREL – Golden, CO
-- Energy and Environmental Economics – San Francisco, CA
-- Duke Energy - Charlotte, NC
-- Meritage Homes – Phoenix, AZ
-- Elevation – Phoenix, AZ
-- Energy Hub - Brooklyn, NY
DOE Total Funding: $6,649,966
Cost Share: $3,438,122
Project Term: October 1, 2022 – September 30, 2026
Funding Type: Connected Communities FOA Award
Project Objective
In support of Duke Energy’s 100% clean energy commitment to decarbonize the electric grid by 2050, a mix of new homes and existing single-family and multifamily owner-occupied and rental properties will be upgraded and connected through the EnergyHub DERMS platform. The project will provide up to 3.8 MWs of aggregated dispatchable load to serve grid flexibility needs in Duke Energy’s North Carolina service area. Data on the aggregated grid impacts of various end uses and technologies, including a range of heat pump applications, will be collected across a variety of residential buildings to help identify best approaches to delivering flexible, distributed capacity to help address Duke’s winter and summer peak capacity needs.
To help understand how the solutions being implemented will respond at scale, NREL’s Object-Oriented Controllable High-Resolution Residential Energy (OCHRE) model will be used to simulate new control opportunities and identify potential grid benefits and impacts. The project will also help DOE’s Connected Communities initiative scale across various industries by informing new business models for the home construction industry and advising utilities on new strategies for programs that are operating at the grid edge.
Project Impact
- All new homes meet or exceed DOE’s Zero Energy Ready Home criteria.
- All existing homes receive energy audits to determine baseline efficiency levels, and approximately 100 of the existing homes receive energy-efficiency upgrades including duct repair, insulation and air-sealing with expected improvement of 10-15%.
- Scalable and low risk model for aggregating commercial, off-the-shelf technologies.
- Multi-pronged control and integration strategy including rate-optimized DERs with price-responsive automated demand response.
- Pilot emerging winter peak DER management to defer utility capital investments.
- Assess occupant experience using device data and participant surveys.
- Apply NREL’s Object-Oriented Controllable High-Resolution Residential Energy (OCHRE) model to demonstrate scaling of demand response strategies.
- Help the Connected Communities initiative achieve greater scale by informing new business models for the home construction and retrofit industries and advising utilities on new customer program strategies.
Contacts
DOE Technology Manager: Brian Walker
Lead Performer: Ari Rapport, IBACOS