Articles & News

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.

We’re excited to have been selected for a new, fast-tracked Hospitality Tech Accelerator to drive proven sustainability and carbon solutions throughout the hotel industry.

Sponsored by Maryland’s Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, the accelerator includes locally-based Marriott International and Choice Hotels, along with numerous other major hospitality brands.  And with guidance from a great accelerator team, including senior staff from Accenture’s hospitality practice.  More here.

PACE AI has closed an SBA International Trade Loan facility to accelerate our expanding work with our international OEM and distribution partners.  The ITL program is a great, cost-effective path for tech company expansion, and with ESG and carbon goals slipping with each month for large companies around the world, it’s a great time for our carbon and cost-cutting solutions.

We’re extremely pleased to have won an award from the California Energy Commission’s CalTestBed program, to work with the world-class FLEXLAB team at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  We’ll be demonstrating new smart grid features of our next-generation edge AI/ML technology, launching this year.  More to come!

We’ve been proud to have our solutions qualified for electric and gas utility On-Bill Funding and On-Bill Repayment programs (OBF/OBR). These programs are a terrific way to get energy cost savings with $0 upfront costs.

Here’s how they work, see this U.S. Department of Energy description.  In short: OBF/OBR programs pay 100% of the cost of the energy saving project (lighting, building envelope fixes, etc.).  And then, spread out project payments over 3-5 years, as just a single new line item on your monthly utility bill.  They’re structured so that (monthly savings) are > (monthly payment) — so cash flow positive from Day 1, and your savings start immediately!

Electric and gas utilities across the U.S. are expanding OBF/OBR programs, in response to customer demand.  And PACE AI is a qualified solution for all these programs, given our IPMVP-compliant, 24/7/365 savings verification technology and fast payback, even before incentives.  We can now offer OBF/OBR in California, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Texas, and with Constellation Energy customers, anywhere in the U.S.  Contact us for details!

A great project by one of our Energy Service Company (ESCO) partners, for its large real estate client, shows the power of PACE AI to deliver “cut and track” cost and carbon reductions, fast.   And with utility incentives making it easy to say yes.

Phase 1 of the project will retrofit 134 large HVAC units on 12 buildings, in an office/residential planned development in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.  Installation is by local HVAC contractors: PACE’s cell-based edge+cloud solutions can be installed quickly by your regular HVAC firm, with touchscreen-based instructions and savings that start immediately upon cloud connection.

The project will reduce electric cooling consumption by over 2.5 million kWh per year, and lower peak demand from the site by over 1,300 kW.  Utility rebates give the project an excellent ROI.  And after installation, PACE AI’s patented Demand Response options will give the client additional revenue choices, while at the same time helping the Texas grid.