Let’s Ensure the Next Generation of the Power Grid Leverages Open-Source Technologies

During the next two decades, trillions of dollars will be spent on a new, more connected, and interactive power grid. Projects selected for funding via GRIP (DoE’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Program) will help define how renewables and microgrids will be integrated into the larger power grid. To facilitate these key integrations, GRIP project leaders are encouraged to carefully examine the value of adopting open-source technologies designed to enhance system interoperability and support project replicability and scalability.

This article delves into the role open-source solutions can play within the U.S. Department of Energy’s $10.5 billion GRIP initiative. In this “open letter,” ACE IoT invites project leaders to consider how and why open-source technology will enhance the resilience, adaptability, and ultimate success of their GRIP projects. As a potential implementation partner, ACE IoT seeks introductions to GRIP project leaders and opportunities to introduce and demonstrate the proven capabilities of open-source technologies, including VOLTTRON.

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Q: What does a “Connected Communities” project in Murfreesboro, TN have in common with NYSERDA’s new “Intelligent Buildings” funding opportunity and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s Open Building Operating System?

A: They all seek to leverage interoperable and open-source technologies to enable and support advanced demand management by cost-effective orchestration of diverse energy assets in buildings.

In this post, ACE IoT highlights three seemingly disparate announcements and a notable common thread that connects them. We also consider whether 2023 might be the start of a new era of demand flexibility (DF) in buildings.

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As #smartbuilding buzzwords go, Monitoring-Based Commissioning or “MBCx” has a more robust history than some. As a concept, MBCx or Constant-Commissioning has been around for more than 2 decades, with its origins in the research work conducted at Texas A&M University and at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab as far as back as the 1990s. The first commercial implementations of MBCx started more than a decade ago. Since MBCx is a not a buzzword du jour, what explains the reason why ACE IoT has seen a rather dramatic increase in the number of customers and potential customers exploring MBCx?

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