PNNL and collaborators developed new models—recently approved by the U.S. Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC)—to help utilities understand how new grid-forming inverter technology will enhance grid stability.
Researchers from PNNL have been assessing installation and use of electric heat pumps in an Alaskan community that relies on fuel oil for heat. The resulting information could advance electrification in cold rural areas across the nation.
Mandy Mahoney, director of the DOE Building Technologies Office, visited PNNL in late November. One key agenda item involved meeting with staff for a discussion of effective equity and justice integration in buildings-related research.
Understanding the risk of compound energy droughts—times when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow—will help grid planners understand where energy storage is needed most.
PNNL is at the midpoint of a study focused on the installation of electric heat pump water heaters in New Orleans homes. The efficient water heaters offer a unique capability that could help speed the transition from fossil fuels.
PNNL led one of five Pathway Summer School programs nationwide, with a specific focus on engaging students from Native American or Indigenous backgrounds.
For her most recent efforts, Bruckner-Lea, a senior technical advisor at PNNL, received the Secretary’s Appreciation Award from the U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in July.
PNNL’s extensive portfolio of buildings-grid research included three projects that helped answer some of the technical questions related to leveraging energy consumption in buildings to enhance grid operations.
The Northwest Connected Communities Summit brought together representatives of five Department of Energy-funded Connected Communities Projects to share ideas and discuss potential collaboration opportunities.
Staff at PNNL recently completed a report highlighting commercial products enabled through projects funded by the Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office.
PNNL’s Ján Drgoňa and Draguna Vrabie are part of an international team that authored a most-cited paper on Model Predictive Control, an approach for improving operations, energy efficiency, and comfort in buildings.
PNNL’s Reid Hart and Bing Liu have earned individual Champions of Energy Efficiency in Buildings awards from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
PNNL researchers developed a new model to help power system operators and planners better evaluate how grid-forming, inverter-based resources could affect the system stability.
The first customized resource of its kind, H-BEST analyzes the indoor environmental quality profile for buildings and helps its users identify the costs and benefits of improvements.
