A three-year $2.5 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to Pecan Street and university and local community partners are going to expand Pecan Street’s household energy research network to four new regions focused on equitable energy: Oklahoma City, central Pennsylvania, Atlanta, and Portland, Oregon. And over 200 homes in traditionally underserved communities will be equipped with Pecan Street’s energy research equipment, addressing a critical data gap for low-income communities and households of color.
The key to the expansion will be the local community organizations and university researchers in each region. And along with contributing to Pecan Street’s ongoing energy data monitoring research, participants will work with local researchers to address specific local needs and benefits.
1.) Atlanta – Georgia Tech and the Grove Park Foundation will conduct surveys, interviews and workshops with residents of the Grove Park neighborhood and collect energy use data using advanced sensing. And the goals are to calibrate inclusive Urban Building Energy Modeling (UBEM) that informs design decisions on electrification to eliminate energy cost burdens, to increase regional energy resiliency, and to inform local developing innovations intended to counter the disproportionately adverse impact of climate change on urban communities.
2.) Central Pennsylvania – Temple University and Central Susquehanna Opportunities are going to investigate energy use and energy transition perspectives and the implications of various energy transition policies and technologies on underserved communities.
3.) Oklahoma City – The University of Oklahoma’s Data Institute for Societal Challenges (DISC), Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (IPPRA), and the community-based organization RestoreOKC are going to work with low- to moderate-income households to quantify the financial and energy use impacts of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures and the impacts of shade tree cover on household energy burdens. The team will engage with RestoreOKC’s community advisory teams throughout the process to ensure that research findings will be of immediate and long-term use and benefit to the community.
4.) Portland, Oregon – Reed College, Community Energy Project, and CAPA Strategies, LLC will explore residents’ responses to the installation of HVAC systems and increased electrification, grid impacts of increased electrification and HVAC installations, and the extent to which the energy transition is likely to prevent heat-related deaths.
The Sloan Foundation previously supported Pecan Street’s research expansion in Puerto Rico, Detroit, New York, and California and the development of advanced cloud-based data analysis tools for researchers.
Launched in Austin in 2009, Pecan Street established the first energy research network of real customers by equipping participants’ homes with sensors that measure electricity from multiple circuits 24 hours a day. And it has evolved into a world-class research organization, helping accelerate the transition to clean energy and expanding its expertise into other data-focused climate needs, including water and soil carbon.
Plus Pecan Street’s database of customer energy generation and use data is the most robust on the planet. More than 500 peer-reviewed papers that used Pecan Street data have been published on issues including climate change, electric system reliability, transportation electrification, and urban resilience. Pecan Street’s Center for Race, Energy, and Climate Justice focuses on advancing a just climate transition.
KEY QUOTES
“We have been laser-focused on expanding our network in two key areas: new climate regions and better representation of low-income households and households of color who are woefully underrepresented in energy research. The Sloan Foundation’s continued support addresses both. Our local community and university partners in each region will ensure the information generated by these new research networks advances local energy justice efforts.”
— Pecan Street interim CEO Bart Bohn
“To decarbonize the energy system, we need to better understand how people and households use electricity. This means working together with academic experts, non-profit organizations, and communities to measure electricity use more accurately. That is why we are so excited about the new community partnerships established in this Energy Equity Research Network, which will combine local insights with broader knowledge about how to transform the energy system. Adding the voices, perspectives and energy use choices of lower-income households and communities of color will provide the critical data needed to inform how to decarbonize the U.S. economy more equitably.”
— Evan Michelson, program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
