Articles & News

We’re thrilled (though not surprised!) at recent results in demonstrations of our new AI/ML at DOE-Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, under our CalTestBed grant from the California Energy Commission.

Our new AI/ML delivers easy, reliable load shed and shift, for fast-scalable grid Demand Response and virtual power plant  ops for buildings of all kinds — commercial, industrial, and soon residential.  And on a SEER 20 heat pump-equipped test building at DOE-LBNL’s great FLEXLAB facility, we did just that, showing 42% average kW demand reduction through the California winter morning peak, with zero comfort (temperature) impact inside the building.

And we can do the same for afternoon peak demand as well, across North America and the world.  More to come!

Thanks much to the Exelon Foundation, for selecting us as a Finalist in Exelon’s Climate Change Investment Initiative (2c2i) competition!

We’re looking forward to working in all of Exelon’s service territories this summer, with our new load shed AI/ML and our proven, rebated (30%-100% of project cost) energy efficiency savings, guaranteed.

Multi-family buildings — apartments, condos, townhouses and the like — house about 1/3 of U.S. households, according to U.S. census data.  That’s a lot of buildings and a lot of carbon footprint, and the same is true around the world.

For a large multi-family owner, we’re kicking off a big 2024 deployment of PACE AI that will help the owner cut and track its carbon footprint via its existing dashboard, while cutting HVAC operating operating costs 20%.  And with electric and gas utility smart building incentives helping to pay for it all, across the country.

We’re excited with our accelerating partnership with Munich Re, the global insurance company.  Munich Re’s Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance division (HSB) has insured buildings and industrial assets around the world for over 150 years, and has a deep commitment to driving new IoT solutions for both carbon/climate and active risk management.

HSB provides a 3 year Savings Warranty on PACE AI savings on heating and cooling equipment, making PACE AI a breakthrough AI/ML solution for carbon and cost: 20%-30%+ electric and gas $$ savings, 30%-100% utility incentives, 3 year Savings Warranty.  Here’s a recent Munich Re article describing our partnership.

Residential Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) tie together homes and sometimes electric vehicles, to shed load and provide power when needed during times of high electric demand.

They have big potential to deliver a smarter, more resilient grid.  But most residential VPP models are now built around single-family homes, and with homeowners being able to modify their houses, something not applicable to single apartments or condos.

For a 70+ unit multi-family building, in a demonstration PACE AI just delivered an estimated 80 kW of load shed, during the local afternoon electric peak demand period (3 pm-6 pm).  And with no changes in resident comfort, “painless VPP”!  We estimate that as much as 100-120 kW of total sheddable load could be enrolled under the local utility’s Demand Response program, for dollar revenues to building owners and residents as well.

As part of our work with DOE-Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s great FLEXLAB/FLEXGRID facility, we’re joining CalFlexHub — a terrific effort to make electric power grids more dynamically responsive.

More renewable energy is being added to electric grids worldwide, cutting carbon emissions and providing jobs, and that’s great.  The challenge is matching electric load (demand) to electric supply through the day, with better load shed/shift and storage, and with real-time price information.

CalFlexHub’s participants, which include electric utilities and nearly every global grid and building system OEM, as well as smart home and cloud players like Google and Amazon and new technology providers like PACE AI, have an ambitious goal: fully decarbonizing California electricity production by 2045.  We can do it!  Learn more about CalFlexHub here.

In Texas last week, at ERCOT’s afternoon peak and with temperatures of 109 degrees, with our HVAC AI/ML we showed a 21 kW HVAC load shed on a client’s office building — with no change in interior temperatures!  Our energy services partner and we will now help the client, and the Texas grid, to benefit from our flexible virtual power plant solution set.

Good news — New Jersey electric and gas commercial accounts can now get PACE AI and PACE Bundle projects paid for under NJ Direct Install electric and gas energy efficiency incentive programs.

NJ Direct Install programs’ excellent terms include ** 100% initial project upfront cost covered by the rebating utility, with ** the 20% customer co-pay via monthly payments over 5 years, via a simple additional line on the electric or gas utility bill, ** at 0% interest.

Want to find out more?  See the New Jersey Office of Clean Energy link here and contact us here, or use our Contact page.  Direct Install funding, like most utility incentive programs, is allocated on a first-come-first-served basis, and we can work with you to apply now.

As part of our work with DOE’s-LBNL’s FLEXLAB and FLEXGRID, on 6/14/23 at 11:00 am PDT/2:00 pm EDT, PACE AI will join a CalTestBed Symposium panel discussing “The Role of Buildings in a Modernized Grid”.  Challenges and new approaches being deployed in California and elsewhere will be covered in this 45-minute session: feel free to join by registering here.

We’re glad that DOE is getting the word out about virtual power plants, via its new blog “VPPieces”.  Just as energy efficiency — the energy that you don’t use — is the “first fuel” and the lowest-cost energy, VPPs provide a way to release kilowatts and megawatts more efficiently and when they’re needed.  That’s a key requirement of a smart grid, and PACE AI can deliver VPP at a very small scale, meaning that we can help with big scaling.  Read the DOE Loan Programs Office’s “VPPieces” here.